Outdoor artworks
street and courtyard artworks
john Creed - Gates
The black steel gates to Maryhill Road and the original Halls entrance were created by internationally-renowned designer and craftsman John Creed and built at his workshop in Milton of Campsie.
John made the gates in “hot forged steel” in a traditional manner, his inspiration for the work coming from the lead work within the stained-glass panels. Small polished stainless steel elements are included in the design to evoke a sense of light again in reference to the stained glass- a feature in keeping with John's desire to ensure innovation and originality.
Commissioned by the Trust, the gates were funded by Glasgow City Council.
You can check out Creed’s other works on his website.
andy scott - Firemen gates
The new entrance courtyard the Burgh Halls shares with Maryhill Leisure Centre was once the site of the Maryhill Fire Station. Opened in 1892 and designed by City Engineer A.B. McDonald., the fire station once featured a three-storey tenement above the four stone archways.
The tenement, where the firemen lived, was demolished in the 1960s, but the archways remained. To fill the arches, and highlight the important past of the building, Andy Scott won a design competition to make four sets of gates, the design depicting period firemen and their equipment, providing a striking and memorable celebration of the past, while helping highlight the new entrance to the restored and regenerated Burgh Halls & Leisure Centre.
Springburn-born sculptor Andy Scott is renowned for the Kelpies in Falkirk.
Lamppost
Outside in the internal courtyard stands a lamppost with the writing ‘Maryhill’ on the crossbar.
Made of cast iron, the lamppost was made by George Smith & Son’s Sun Foundry in Glasgow, sometimes before 1896. Originally a gas lamp, the wide bars at the top were where the lamp-lighter rested his ladder to get up to light the lamp each evening. The team of lamplighters were based in part of the old fire station next door, which was in today’s courtyard that is now shared with the gym.
The lantern on top of the post once hung outside the original entrance to the Burgh Halls, off Maryhill Road. It was taken down during the Regeneration works, cleaned up and restored in 2011.
The lamppost itself was part of Glasgow Museum’s collection now gifted to Maryhill Burgh Halls Trust.
Based initially in Port Dundas and later in Parliamentary Road, the Sun Foundry was founded in 1858 by George Smith and shut its doors in 1889. Some examples of the foundry’s work include the Bridgeton Cross bandstand and the Grand Fountain in Paisley.
You can read more about the Sun Foundry on glasgowsculpture.com.
Rankinfraser & WAVEParticle - Gairbraid Avenue Public Realm Project
The Gairbraid Avenue public realm project was completed in October 2012. The project, won through invited competition by rankinfraser landscape architecture in 2010, sought to enhance and build upon the recent regeneration of Maryhill Leisure Centre and Maryhill Burgh Hall. The creation of a new public space in front of the Burgh Hall and Leisure Centre, the restoration and reintroduction of forgotten streetscape elements and the introduction of new public art all contribute to the rediscovery of a sense of place and identity.
Reorganisation of the parking and vehicle access has created more space for pedestrians resulting in wider footways and the reintroduction of the gardens which used to enclose the Burgh Hall. The underground Victorian toilet has been consolidated and the railings and stone cope repaired.
The artwork ‘Star Map’ created by WAVEparticle incorporates a constellation of names of the great and the good of Maryhill. The names came from conversations with local people, historians, shopkeepers, kids playing in the street, people walking their dogs in the park.
Some of the names are:
Rosemary: the commander of the local Girls’ Brigade
Executive: first police dog of Maryhill
Tashay: Excutive’s handler and local police officer
Stephen Adam: artist of the Maryhill Burgh Hall stained glass series.
Stewart Bell: former manager of local Shakespeare Street Youth Club and former board member of Maryhill Burgh Halls Trust
Huw McCowan: fallen WW1 soldier the Shakespeare Street Youth Club was dedicated to.
Roxy: the old Maryhill cinema in Maryhill Road