Germiston, Glasgow

This article is about the district in Glasgow, Scotland. For the city in South Africa, see Germiston.

Germiston
Germiston Location within Glasgow
OS grid reference	NS617666
Council area	Glasgow City Council
Lieutenancy area	Glasgow
Country	Scotland
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	GLASGOW
Postcode district	G21
Dialling code	0141
Police	Scotland
Fire	Scottish
Ambulance	Scottish
UK Parliament	Glasgow North East
Scottish Parliament	Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn

15 Forge Place, Germiston before demolition

Germiston is an area in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated north of the River Clyde.

History

It formerly centred around Germiston House, a mansion built in 1690 by Robert Dinwiddie a tobacco lord in Virginia and father of Robert Dinwiddie governor of Virginia and Lawrence Dinwiddie Lord Provost of Glasgow, both of whom were born there.

Lawrence Dindiddie inherited the house and raised his 21 children there.

In 1864 the house was acquired by Rev Dr George Stewart Burns minister of Glasgow Cathedral. The setting of the house was ruined by a railway line being placed beside it and it was used as housing for labourers from around 1890.

The area forms part of the suburb of Springburn for political purposes, but is more commonly referred to as part of the Royston corridor,its location midway between Blackhill & Garngad earns it a position as the 'wee sister' of both of those larger neighbourhoods. The recent construction of new private housing injected some much needed life into what was a decaying area, combined with new developments on the old railway yards on Royston road, have done much to breathe new life into the area.

During Glasgow's growth during the Industrial Revolution, it was a vital part of the city's locomotive manufacturing industry, as well as sitting upon a major railway junction. Germiston Works, one of such locomotive factories was sold onto the Cape Asbestos Company, who used it to manufacture fireproof insulation materials. The plant still exists to this day, under the ownership of Promat, and now uses the safer Calcium Silicate for such material.

A narrow gauge underground railway used to exist at Germiston, however the majority of the path it once took as now been "filled-in" to develop the land for house building. The tunnel, which runs from Darnick Street Tunnel to Royston Road Forge Street has long since fallen into disuse. The Tunnel, known locally as the "Blind Tunnel", access is not the experience it one was, thanks to new lighting. It is often confused with an adjacent tunnel that has now been blocked completely by metal fencing to ensure no unauthorised access to the local Provan gas Works. The underground railway from Germiston was used to transport coke to nearby Provan Gas Works for the manufacture of gas.