Cycling the South West City Way (SWCW) and Pollok Country Park // Glasgow // July 2025

The South West City Way (SWCW) is one of 4 largely segregated arterial cycle routes running out from Glasgow City Centre. It was completed in October 2015 (extended early 2023) and takes you from the south bank of the River Clyde at the Tradeston Bridge through Tradeston, Kingston and Pollokshields to Pollok Country Park in just 15-16 minutes.

Recorded on Monday 14th July 2025 between 1858-1946 hours
Length: 3,907 metres (3.9 km / 2.4 miles)
Route: Clyde Place Quay – West Street – Scotland Street – Shields Road – St. Andrew’s Drive – Pollok Country Park

This is the first of four videos in which I intend to chronicle the City Ways as they are now, in July 2025. They will show how quick and easy it is to get around by bike in the city environment, as well as reaching the major city parks for fresh air and a splash of green.

Thank you for watching.

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.”

Psalm 23:1-3a

Chapters:
00:00 South West City Way Southbound
18:27 North Forest, Pollok Country Park
29:42 South West City Way Northbound
44:33 Clyde Place / Buchanan Wharf

Hi there folks. I am in Glasgow City Center and today I’m planning to cycle the Southwest City Way which is one of Glasgow’s core cycle routes that radiate in different directions out from the city center. The Southwest City Way starts just in the other side of this bridge on the south side of the river Clyde and runs southwest through the areas of Tradeston and Kingston to Pollock Shields. That was the original section and that was completed in October 2015. And then there was an extension added through Pollock Shields to Pollock Country Park opened early 2023. So if you join me, let’s go this bridge. Tradeston Bridge or the Squiggly Bridge as its nickname goes was opened in 2009 to link the South Side with the financial district and the Southwest City Okay, begins here. I’ll time it to see how long it takes us to get to the other end. lucky with the lights there. And I’ll do a loop of a short loop of Pocket Country Park and then we’ll come back. I did have a look on the mapping just to learn a wee bit about the history of some of the buildings. Historically, it appears to have been quite a industrial area. No doubt there would have been uh housing and utilities to go along with that for the workers, but that’s all gone. The total length of the cycle route is 3.9 km or 3.4 miles. And I just wanted to filming the route as it exists. Now, this is the Monday the 14th of July, 2025. Just on the left here, we have the former St. John’s Roman Catholic School. It’s now an addiction service, but seems pretty big. And it was variously described as a primary and secondary. So, it possibly did both in that time. It’s on the mapping from the 30s. 1934 at least. Now, as I say, many of these buildings were engineering works and other industrial premises originally. The one straight ahead, the Ashler, sandstone brick building there was built around 1855, the original part. And then you’ve got extensions. That was the England engineering works, now converted into housing. We’re just passing under the M74 extension. motorway built to take pressure off the M8 motorway through the city center. And you’ve got West Street subway station. As we just turn off West Street onto Scotland Street, the building on the right there. I’m not sure he saw me. Was a copper works, the largest in Scotland at one stage, but uh mostly demolished. This is a shared pedestrian crossing, so as long as traffic’s clear, I’m happy to go. However, I do tend to do my best to abide with the cycle specific ones. This building on the left um was originally the subway power station, opened in 1895. It was it powered the subway network um with steam turbines um and it was closed in 1935 when this system was electrified and the site was taken over by the next door Howen’s works engineering works here that was owned by James Hen who had an interest in marine engineering and invented um more efficient types of ship spoilers. Uh the system was used on many of the ocean liners of the day including the Lucatania and Moritania. And we just passed Shields Road subway station. So you’ve got the two subway stations in that stretch there along with the power station. Now in Shields Road and just about to cross the railway. There’s been a bridge here since at least 1860. And this particular one was a complete renewal and it only opened last year, August 2024. We’re just approaching the end of the original section of the Southwest City Way at St. Andrews Road and St. Andrew’s Drive. You can see the signage up there. City center to pull up Shields in 12 minutes. It’s actually taken us 7 minutes 28 seconds. Although I suppose we’ll lose some of that time waiting at the lights. We’ll just be taking a right here onto St. Andrew’s Drive for the remainder of the route. Hey, hey, hey, hey. There we are. Was reluctant to go not knowing the phasing myself. What I forgot to say about Hen’s works, James Hen, uh they also built some of the TBMs, tunnel boring machines that were used to dig the channel tunnel. Get on them. Still they keep coming. Must be a running club. The could do with maintaining this section. It’s slightly better. Considering it is the newest section and you’ve got growth like this blocking half the route. along with some damaged ballards. So, it’s a I see it as a positive that they’re investing in cycling infrastructure, but they really should be taking into account the maintenance and upkeep costs cuz they seem to struggle. to do so with all the currents infrastructure. Never mind all the new ones that are planned. Here we go. We’re just coming up on Maxwell Park on the left. It was opened in 1890 and wow. It was land gifted to the city by the local land owner, Mr. Maxwell. his family having owned this whole area and the country estate that contained Pollock Country Park too along with its mansion house for 700 odd years and our destination Pollock Country Park lies in land. It was gifted in 1966 by the arrest of the family. We just head down to the junction and enter the park. It can take a while to get across here. Each phase seems to cycle around. So, it just depends what stage it’s at when you arrive. If it’s clockwise, we might be uh one from next. We’re just at the end of an unseasonably hot period in Scotland. Temperatures certainly getting up to 28° C here in the city. A bit cooler today. I think about 18. Looks like it must be anticlockwise or not even that cuz that should have been us. There we are finally. And as we enter the park, we’re looking at 16 minutes 41 seconds. But I would say a good two minutes of that was sitting at those lights. So, we’ll just go a quick circuit as we enter the gates at the lodge. Avoid overhanging branches. As I say, I don’t know this park terribly well, but I did plan a route roughly, assuming I remember it. This is Glasgow’s largest city park and its only country park. It has Pollock House which you can normally visit although I believe it’s currently closed for refurbishment. Um there’s also the burrow collection which is a museum that’s free to enter I believe with a collection of exhibits donated presumably Mr. Burrow. But to my shame, I’ve never actually been. It has been raining heavily this morning. That’s why the the ground’s wet and perhaps the park’s less busy than it would have been. Now, I know this camera is not the best in poor lights. Apologies if the footage is grainy, but it’s just beautiful. One of the reasons I wanted to do this video as well was to show how easy it is to get out of the city and into a beautiful environment. This is actually rated as one of the underused parks. So, it’ be great to see more people making use of it. It’s just beautiful. Yeah. Uh-huh. Just uh briefly show you this pond area. Ducks enjoying some peace and quiet. It’s a nice lovely I know this is man-made, but the beauty still speaks to me of God’s creation. the variety of trees and plants. And even the ourselves are are like him in in designing beautiful things. I think I went the wrong way last time. So, let’s go this way. Yeah, we’re fine. So, hope you enjoyed that short circuit of Pollock Country Park. If you’re in the area, well worth a visit. Oh yeah. I know. Turn. You’ve been filming it. Yeah, I was filming around the park and along the cycle. So, you can speak and talk. Yeah, I’ve got the microphone there. So, what do you explain what you see? Yeah, about the history of the buildings and things. She’s really good. She Where? It’s a good camera. Where are you from yourself? France. France. Nice. So you and it vibrate like a Sounds like a good setup. I need something like that. Yeah. When did you bought that? Uh not long ago, but it’s an old model. Um cuz it’s the first time I’ve done it. Oh, you you you haven’t you haven’t seen the results yet? Uh not this specific video. No. Uh it’s DJI Osmo. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, you can you can either get that one or there’s the the GoPros or the other ones you can get. Yeah. GoPros are It’s good for uh if you’re moving about it steadies the footage. Yes. I I like to get one DJI DJI. Yeah. See you. See you later. Have a nice day. You too. Nice Frenchman there. Oh, I forgot to start my clock, but doesn’t matter. did it. Just briefly coming off the cycle route there to see if I can get an image of this building which may be the oldest on our rout today. Very possible. Yes. So there we have Hags Castle which is dated 1585. So we’re talking about 440 years. It’s uh it was the seat of the Maxwell family uh until they moved out and had Pollock house built. Um, now it’s in the private hands, private residence, but it’s good that it’s been kept wellkept cuz some of the buildings we’ve been passing that are a quarter of that length. is a much worse neck. It’s 440 years. I did my family tree a few years back and really only got back to the the 1700s, which is still seven or eight generations, but Wonder if they any of them visited that castle. Probably not. They were mostly poor miners and coffters. Wasn’t really till my grandparents’ generation that everything seemed to change and they became middle class briefly. We have had a lot of rain today, but here’s an example of a lack of drainage. The annoying thing is that the drainage infrastructure exists. It’s just not been maintained. And of course it’s cuz of money, but what does kind of annoy me a bit is that there’s a section of my local cycle lane that floods every time it rains. And now that they’ve upgraded the traffic signals so that pedestrians there’s sensors there to show if pedestrians walk away that it will cancel the call button. So pedestrians have to stand right in the splash zone or else the signal will cancel and they can’t cross the road but then they’ll get splashed. So reported it multiple times, but that’s a that’s several years. And um we’ve not seen any resolution, but you wonder if it was on the roadway affecting motor vehicles would would uh commit more resources then. Of course, drivers would say no because they’re spending it all on the cycle. No perfect solution, I suppose. Right. So on the left here we’ve got Shields electric traction depot looks after the trains Scott Rail. I wanted to say that right. electric traction depot. Uh 1967 that was opened. And we’ve got a seek temple there. The Gerard Lovely. Not a big fan of spitting, I have to admit. It’s just not It’s just not civilized. You can understand if you get a fly in your mouth or something in the countryside. Fair enough. But let’s carry it. Oh, it was green. It was green. Now, another of my pet hates is graffiti, But I don’t want this to become a a morning video. So there’s one I do actually appreciate if you can see it. I think it’s supposed to be a raccoon or something. roads too busy to cross. If it’s too small, I’ll put a picture up. But no, I am enjoying this cycle. And if you live in hot shields, as I say, you’re in and out of the city really quickly. much quicker than if you’re driving, I think. So, just on the right here, we have Scotland Street Public School, opened in 1906. Its claim to fame is that it was designed by Charles Renie Macintosh. Now, it’s obviously under renovation with scaffolding, but you can certainly see the design of the gates even and the f the font of that schoolboard sign. It was converted into a museum in 1990. And I think I was there as a youngster on a school trip. Give young give children an idea of school life back then. Much stricter. This building here, Mataroid House. Had a look into the Margaret company. So they’re a a law firm specializing in intellectual property. They started in Glasgow in 1975 and seem to have offices all over the world now. But I just love that surname, Margaret. You would have thought it would be foreign, but uh Wikipedia says it’s uh originates from I think the old English some place names in Yorkshire. Yeah. West Brbridge Gardens. That’s the old engineering works residential conversion. Looks well done. And not only did I appreciate the Star Wars Lego in the Oh, but also the chiseled street signs, West Street and Cook Street. That being an old paint works. Can’t remember the date. And you’ve got also an old grain mill, the Victoria grain mill here with the tower. We got another green light. Come on. So, I think we can safely say that you’re talking about 15 minutes to the end of the route. Um, it took me less than 10 to get to the Oh, no. I do it. stick to what you’re doing yourself. Yeah. So, just on the right here at the end of the route, we have Bikanan Warf, which is a set of buildings that were completed between 2021 and 2023. five buildings, some new builds and some conversions. And I do like the architecture. There’s a lot of new builds that I don’t appreciate the style or I like the colors. I think it blends in well. I think that might be the old Clyde Place Assessment Center was a homeless unit once upon a time. The gardens look great and 850. That’s to celebrate Glasgow’s I think 850 years since it got its city charter from the crown. So, you’ve got a couple of residential blocks, I think, for for workers. Um, you’ve got the student loans company here. It always seems quiet when I’m here, even in a a weekday. Um, and I do love how they’ve included the street signs. Traded in street, Clyde Place lane. Look at that. So, the Barclay’s headquarters is the main building. I imagine there’ll be a lot of working from home still. So whether or not it’s at capacity, I do not know. But you get some nice views while doing the banking. So folks, just like to thank you for watching the video. Hope you found it interesting. As I say, I’ll plan to do a couple more of the different cityways and hopefully I’ll get some good weather this month to do that. So, thanks very much. Take care everyone. Bye.