History of Huntly Gardens

This page is a placeholder at the moment, but we are hoping that anyone with some local knowledge will help us flesh out a history of the street. Please get in touch if you do have any information, history or interesting stories you would like to share. For some great information about the wider local area, Gerald Blaikie has an interesting website with many pages about the West End of Glasgow and beyond,

The street was constructed between 1870 and 1880.

In the 1869 Bartholemew map, while Kew and Grosvenor Terraces had been constructed, the streets behind Great Western Road had not yet been developed.

An extract from the 1869 Bartholemew map of Glasgow showing the area around Huntly Gardens

By 1876, the North side of the road is seen to be represented, although the south side hasn't yet been fully built.

An extract from the 1876 Bartholemew map of Glasgow showing the area around Huntly Gardens

And by 1882, both sides of the gardens have been built.

An extract from the 1882 Bartholemew map of Glasgow showing the area around Huntly Gardens

North Side Road - To Adopt or Not

The question as to whether the North Side Road should remain private or be adopted by the council has been one discussed many times, most recently when the Dowanhill parking permit zone was established in 2017 (was it really that long ago?). Joyce at Number 2 has provided some correspondance from the late 1980s to early 1990s when the issue was much discussed, with an eventual vote among residents being held on the matter.

The first document records a meeting between a resident and the Roads Department of the then Strathclyde Regional Council held on 11th May 1988 to discuss the pros and cons of having the road adopted by the council.

The next letter is from 27th June 1989, asking residents to sign and return their request to have the road adopted. This quickly draws a rebuttal from another member of the committee with a letter stating that the letter does not represent the feelings of the full committee.

On 30th July 1989, the committee received a letter from Councillor Mason of Strathclyde Regional Council offering his opinions (or more specifically his non-opinions) on whether adoption of the the road should be pursued. An interesting point near the bottom of page 2 is his assurance that the council "has no wish or intention to introduce traffic management (or a regulated parking scheme) in Dowanhill".

A resident's meeting was evidently held on 5th February 1990, with a letter circulated shortly afterwards outlining the results of a straw poll on the road being adopted (10 votes for remaining private and 4 votes for adoption), the results of discussion about road and pavement repairs and extimated costs for those repairs.

The issue was put to the vote shortly afterwards, with three options being voted on - whether the road should be adopted, what repairs should be done and whether sleeping policemen should be installed. Various letters were sent out from residents in favour of adoption and against shortly afterwards.

The last letter in the collection shows the results of the vote, with a clear desire for the road to remain private (58.5 against vs 15.5 for - it is unclear how half votes appear!). Road and pavement repairs were also approved, and the installation of speed bumps also approved by a narrower margin (45.5 votes for and 27.5 against).

Thank you to Joyce for providing all these!