As Pacific Quay rapidly transforms
itself into Scotland's Digital Media Quarter the Evening Times
celebrates the efforts that went into bringing the Garden Festival
to Glasgow in 1988, an event that set the tone for Clyde
Waterfront regeneration.
by Russell Leadbetter, Evening Times
So there was Billy Connolly, Selina Scott and Scots
Secretary George Younger in a hot air balloon ...
The unlikely trio found themselves in London in September 1985,
to launch the Glasgow Garden Festival to an audience of business
executives, tourist agencies and horticulturists.
There were some complaints that a flagship Glasgow event was
being launched, not up here but five hours away in London. And the
balloon had to be tethered at 30ft because air traffic controllers
would not allow it to go higher.
But all of that would swiftly be forgotten as work continued on
preparing the 114-acre festival site.
Glasgow had been chosen by the Government in November 1984,
ahead of rival bids by Gateshead and Swansea.
Like others who led the city at the time, Mr Gray is full of
praise for the festival.
"It brought people together. For years we had been saying
Glasgow was miles better, that it was the Dear Green Place. This
proved it.
"Eddie Friel, who was our tourism director, used to say Glasgow
was the best-kept secret in the world. That gave us a chance to
boost it."
A Glasgow delegation had visited Liverpool in 1984 to see what a
garden festival entailed and to see if Glasgow could follow its
successful example, "We approached Environment Secretary Michael
Heseltine and he said Why not?' "We took it from there, and
everybody rolled up their sleeves and worked together - the
Scottish Development Agency, the councils, tourist board, Chamber
of Commerce. We all knew Glasgow was the important thing."
He believes the success of the 1988 festival highlighted the
potential of the riverside and helped pave the way for the
facilities that now dominate the site.
"It proved to the world Glasgow was worth developing, worth
investing in.
And the people of Glasgow started to believe it too."
To win, the Scottish Development Agency had, after tortuous
negotiations, delivered the derelict Princes Dock site, which had
previously been owned by Laing Homes.
For their part, Glasgow District Council and Strathclyde
Regional Council had provided 100 acres across seven sites in the
city so Laing could continue its house-building programme.
There was no doubt the festival was a coup for a city more used
to financial crisis at that time. The festival, and the
about-to-open Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre on the
opposite bank of the Clyde, promised lasting benefits for
Glasgow.
Dr Michael Kelly, a high-profile former Lord Provost who is
forever associated with the successful Glasgow's Miles Better
campaign, recalls: "The festival was a tremendous follow-up to that
campaign.
"That had launched in 1983, so we needed a whole series of
things running on to sustain the momentum that had got people
interested in Glasgow, "Visitors had been surprised to see
Glasgow's buildings being cleaned up. There was a motorway out to
the airport, there was the Burrell, but we needed to demonstrate we
could pull a really big project off.
"The festival gave people a perfect excuse to come here and see
our beautiful city and drew their attention to the attractive
potential of the riverbank.
"The festival was the first major national event the city had
hosted after Glasgow's Miles Better. It was important it was pulled
off properly - having built up all this expectation with the
campaign, we had to make sure the festival worked.
"If it had flopped, it would have set Glasgow back 20
years."
He recalls the "enormous" amount of work that went on in the
mid-80s to create the festival site at Princes Dock.
"For a start you had the sheer physical work of removing all the
earth, then you had to create all the gardens and the various
concepts, and even putting the tram line in.
"But there is no doubt the festival was an enormous success,
first of all within the city, because people enjoyed having it, and
coming to it."
He adds: "It impressed upon people Glasgow had changed;
they were not looking at an old, decaying industrial city, but at a
vibrant, new one looking forward to the future.
"The only disappointment was we were not able to retain at least
some of it as a permanent garden. The council was very keen to do
that, but I think the SDA dragged its feet on it.
"The economics were difficult, because it is a very expensive
thing to keep up, and you can never guarantee visitor numbers. But
I feel we could have retained maybe a quarter of it as a permanent
feature that people would have used, given the growth of interest
in gardening, and gardening programmes on television.
"You only have to look at the tremendous commercial success of
the garden centre in Rouken Glen, an old Glasgow park. If the
council had been left to do that at the festival site, we could
have made it work.
"But as a promotional vehicle for Glasgow, as a landmark
attraction, the festival did work very well."
Dr Kelly believes there is a direct link between Glasgow's Miles
Better and the current facilities on the riverside, including
luxury flats, the media village and the Science Centre.
"We might have been able to build another chain, but that was
the chain, and the garden festival was a vital link in it. The
festival was a test of Glasgow's mettle."
At the end of the festival, when its items were being sold off,
Dr Kelly bought a Bonsai tree, and his brother-in-law bought a
seat.
"I thought the seat wasn't a garden thing, but he was right," he
says with a laugh. "My tree died, but he's still sitting in that
seat ..."
Bailie Jean McFadden, leader of the council 1980-1986, was
heavily involved in the plans to bring the festival to Glasgow.
"There was a great deal of negotiations to secure the land for
the festival, and of course we didn't know we were going to win,
because there were other cities involved.
"When it was announced we had won, I nearly kissed the main man
from the SDA - I think he was shocked!"
Councillors visited Liverpool when it hosted the 1984 festival
to see what the event entailed.
"Our festival had a great impact," Mrs McFadden added. "Lots of
people bought season tickets for it. I had one, and I think I
visited 25 times.
"My husband was in a wheelchair at the time and I was trying to
take him as well. But a lot of the paths were gravel and to be
pushed in a wheelchair over it was not very pleasant for him.
"Also, it was very hard for me - I ended up with sores in the
palm of my hand."
Mrs McFadden also had the honour of taking Princess Anne round
the site when she visited.
Today, 20 years after the event, she is still proud to be
associated with the festival.
"It was the first of the big events Glasgow set out to get, to
establish itself on the map," she says.
"Michael had started things off with the Glasgow's Miles Better
campaign, and then we went for the Garden Festival. When I was
still leader, we made the application to be City of Culture. Things
have gone on from then.
"Labour had lost control of the council in 1977 and although we
were the largest party, we went into opposition to regroup. I think
that period in opposition was good for us.
"We took control in 1980, and we had a great team of councillors
and officials. We all gelled and set ourselves various goals,
including changing the city's image. And we succeeded.
"People today think Glasgow began re-inventing itself in the
1990s. That is not the case - it went back to the early 1980s."
Reproduced with the permission of The Evening Times (Glasgow) ©
Newsquest (Herald & Times) Ltd.