Tales From Govanhill

theatre@govanhillbaths.com

By Bruce Downie

Govanhill Library

Govanhill Library opened on 16th March 1906, the ninth of fifteen district libraries established around Glasgow, thanks in part to a gift of £115,000 from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The library was designed by architect James Rhind, in a Renaissance style. The main entrance to Govanhill Library was on Langside Road. Originally, the library had a reading department with space for 10,000 books and held twenty-nine daily and thirty-one weekly newspapers, thirty-six weekly periodicals, forty-four monthly magazines, and 550 reference books.

There was a general reading room, a ladies’ reading room, a boys’ reading room and a girls’ reading room. The entrance to the children’s reading room was on Calder Street.

The site cost £2,000, the building cost £7,000 and the first stock of books cost £1,200. In 1906, the estimated annual expenditure was £800.

In 2015, The Diversity Project created a display of stained-glass windows which tells the story of local people and is on permanent display in the library. Now the library caters for one of the most ethnically diverse communities in Glasgow.

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