Garnethill Park

Category: Urban Design

In the heart of the Garnethill area is a very special park. It might be called an urban park, because it is small and integrated into the urban fabric, rather than a place like Glasgow Green which dominates a whole area and is quite a natural piece of landscape. If you look closely at both parks, you will see big differences in the way they are laid out and what purposes they serve.
Garnethill Park was built to have many functions and to be attractive to all kinds of people.

It has a large play area, with unusual wooden play equipment like the Rope Slide and Climbing Frame. It also has small waterfalls running over rocks, where people can sit down and eat lunch or read. It has seating for visitors who want to relax in comfort, and grassy areas with paths in between. The park used to be a patch of waste ground. But local people from Garnethill Community Council felt the space could be put to better use. A number of sponsors helped to fund the design and construction, and a German Environmental Artist called Dieter Magnus was asked to make the initial plans for the park.

The park was opened on October 26 1991. A plaque at the corner of Rose Street and Hill street commemorates a visit to the park by the Princess Of Wales on December 13 1991.

One of the park's most attractive features is the unusual lighting, made of square metal lightboxes in a style similar to the architecture of Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928). Mackintosh designed the Glasgow School Of Art building a few streets away, and the park tries to be sympathetic to the history of the area and the local atmosphere. There are also striking metallic globes placed into the water channels which reflect the world around and make ripples in the flowing waterfalls.