| Comment | I haven't actually come across anything written on this. It's an interesting question. But I think it's as u/janquadrentvincent says: Govan and the area around it (what we know as Ibrox, Cessnock) and Kinning Park were outside the city boundaries as independent burghs for a long time, up until the early 20th century. Govan continues to have a strong identity of its own, partly due to the strength of the shipbuilding and industrial heritage, and it's slight isolation from other "southside" neighbourhoods - it was physically cut off early on from Pollokshields and everything east of this by the Paisley main railway line, and moreso by the construction of the M8 in the 20th century.
By comparison, everything south of Laurieston down to Queen's Park grew as planned extensions of the municipality of Glasgow. And unlike Govan, which has been a sizable settlement since the 900s, these "southside" districts are very new inventions - rising out of farmland which the landowners turned into housing districts as the agrarian economy turned to heavy industry in the 19th century. That's when populations moved into Pollokshields, Govanhill, Mount Florida etc.
So, I think it's these two factors that make what *is* and what *isn't* considered proper Southside Glasgow today. |
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