October 2 2024

Glasgow City Council has shared the first images of a proposed 'River Park' extending along both banks of the River Clyde through the city centre in a bid to renew its waterfront.

Encompassing Custom House Quay and Carlton Place the double-barrelled project aims to establish a new central promenade while protecting existing heritage and infrastructure in a phased programme of works to increase amenity space.

Key goals for the design team headed by Hawkins-Brown include addressing the structural integrity of the quay walls and renewing existing open space in a phased delivery programme.  

Councillor Susan Aitken commented: "These are very exciting proposals for a new and unique city destination, and the consultation sessions will give those taking part the chance to both learn much more about them and give their views on what they would like from the final design and masterplan."

The consultation will be held in the City Chambers on Wednesday 9 October between 11:00 - 14:00 and 17:00 - 20:00, with an online consultation launching on the same day.

Visualisations provided courtesy Float Digital.

10 Comments

#1 Posted by Big Chungus on 2 Oct 2024 at 11:20 AM

Looks class. Top effort.

#2 Posted by Ben on 2 Oct 2024 at 11:39 AM

This looks fantastic. It will bring Glasgow into line with its European counterparts and act as a great template for other waterfront public realm projects around the country. Build build build!

#3 Posted by Mick on 2 Oct 2024 at 11:47 AM

Looks like great urban space. But if it does get built please maintain it

#4 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 2 Oct 2024 at 12:11 PM

Consultation -- 1 day.
Build Programme -- 10 years is the bookies favourite.
George Square cadence -- might be optimistic.

Positive note -- much more balanced proposal than earlier / more ambitious plans.

#5 Posted by Roddy_ on 2 Oct 2024 at 13:48 PM

This is an extraordinary and very welcome volte face.
The previous iteration by the same design team made provision for a series of resi/commercial tower blocks along the waterfront thereby commodifying what had been trailed in the DRF's as a linear public park. The proposed footprints of the buildings dwarfing the leftover green elements. This earlier position was defended to the hilt and was an extraordinary piece of hubris on the part of the proposers. One wonders why this has changed. Was it the weight of opposition to the earlier scheme, voiced at the earlier consultation? Was it technical - i.e. quayside wall ? Or was it - as I suspect- the risk element in a depressed market (see Buchanan Galleries) that has made all of that disappear? Either way - it looks way more like the linear park that it was supposed to be in the first place even with the inclusion of some kind of pavilion.

#6 Posted by Kay on 2 Oct 2024 at 16:40 PM

The amphitheatre looks like it's missing from these designs? Be a shame to lose it but I guess it does go mostly unused these days. Otherwise, yeah, that's a fairly reasonable upgrade.

#7 Posted by Jungle John on 2 Oct 2024 at 17:21 PM

Is that crocodiles in the Clyde!?
Maybe the new park could have a Croc feeding platform?

#8 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 2 Oct 2024 at 21:16 PM

Funny how the visuals focus on the north bank -- I fear the south bank will be value engineered towards irrelevance and forgotten about.

The south bank needs to be of the same quality and scale as the north bank or it will only be half a job done.

Finally where is the budget coming from?
Cut the Avenues extravaganza in half and we could start tomorrow.

#9 Posted by Nairn's Bairn on 3 Oct 2024 at 11:38 AM

Brilliant. Such an important section of the Clyde, properly part of the city centre yet so forgotten.

On the downside, Scottish detective dramas will have to find somewhere else to film their 'body discovery' scenes.

#10 Posted by Mark on 3 Oct 2024 at 11:58 AM

#7- nice try, but everyone knows you only get alligators on the west coast, and crocodiles in the east. Just like polar bears live in the Arctic, and penguins are in the Antarctic.

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