Glasgow Cathedral

Glasgow has a history stretching back to the earliest times. Stone Age canoes unearthed along the banks of the River Clyde point to the existence of fishing communities. Celtic druids were among the first identifiable religious tribes to have lived in the area. They probably traded with the Romans who, around 80AD, would have had a trading post in Cathures, the earlier name for Glasgow. Beyond 380AD, when the great Christian missionary St Ninian passed through Cathures, consecrating a burial ground, little is known until the arrival of St Kentigern in the 6th century. St. Mungo and the Birth of a City St Kentigern settled in Glasgow in 543AD following exile from Culross, where his monastic brothers had grown jealous of his miracle powers. In Glasgow, he established his Christian church on the banks of the Molendinar burn. Such was his popularity, the people named him Mungo, meaning "dear one". When he died, he was buried within his own church. Between St Mungo’s death and Glasgow’s establishment as an Episcopal See in 1115, little is known of the city’s history. With its newly acquired religious authority, however, Glasgow was by 1172 a significant and powerful city. A further charter, making Glasgow a Burgh in 1180, opened the city’s doors to trade. In 1450, James II issued a charter to the bishop "erecting all his patrimony into a regality" - Glasgow was now a Royal Burgh in all but name.

The University of Glasgow Scotland’s second oldest university after St Andrew’s, and fourth oldest in the UK - was established in 1451. Elevated to an archbishopric in 1492, Glasgow was, by the end of the 15th century, a powerful academic and ecclesiastical centre rivalled only by St Andrew’s. The Rise of the Merchant Trader In 1560, following the Reformation, Glasgow’s last Roman Catholic archbishop, James Beaton, fled to Paris, along with many of the cathedral’s records and treasured relics. Beaton’s exile marked the move towards greater civic power, and the emerging influence of the city’s merchants and craftsmen. Trade was undoubtedly booming by the time Oliver Cromwell visited Glasgow in 1650. His agent, Thomas Tucker, recognised the city’s great potential, were it not "checqed and kept under by the shallowness of the river."

University of Glasgow

Glasgow Bridge

The 18th Century and New Opportunities When Scotland eventually turned to the Atlantic for trade opportunities, Glasgow came into its own. It was ideally placed on the west coast. By the early 1700s, large quantities of tobacco were being shipped in from the American tobacco states. Glasgow’s merchants, in turn, had contracts to supply Europe. By 1730, trade with America was fully established. Glasgow’s Tobacco Lords had cornered the market, becoming Glasgow’s and Scotland’s first millionaires. The American Revolution dealt a vicious blow in 1775. Those who had invested solely in the tobacco trade suffered literally overnight. However, many merchants had diversified into trade with the West Indies, importing sugar and making rum. By the end of the 18th century, Glasgow had become Britain’s biggest importer of sugar. The age-old problem of making the river navigable had now been overcome. In 1770, John Golborne, a civil engineer from Chester, had devised a means of flushing the silt layers from the bed of the shallow Clyde by erecting a series of jetties along its banks. By 1772 large vessels were able to sail up the river into the city for the first time.

Second City of the Empire As the 19th century dawned, and the Industrial Revolution took hold, Glasgow’s new industrialists were rapidly expanding their businesses. The population was increasing enormously as immigrants from the Highlands in the 1820s and from Ireland in the 1840s provided the unskilled labour required. The Cotton Industry, at its height, employed almost a third of the Glasgow’s workforce, but like the tobacco industry, it was to be badly affected by external factors - the American Civil War of 1861, and nearer to home, tough competition from cities like Manchester. Ever resourceful, the city turned to other industries. Between 1870 and 1914, Glasgow ranked as one of the richest and finest cities in Europe. Great public buildings, museums and galleries, libraries, were erected, Glasgow had more parks and open spaces than any other European city its size, it had a regulated telephone system, water and gas supplies. Glasgow was, without a doubt, the "Second City of the Empire."

Industrial Decline The story of 20th century Glasgow, particularly after the First World War, is marked with industrial decline of enormous proportions. Re-armament of the navy in the post-war 1930s, and once again the need for the country to replace vessels after the Second World War, stalled the process to some extent. By the 1950s, however, there was little demand for merchant or navy ships. The heavy industries which had brought the city unparalleled wealth and fame, could no longer compete with the cheaper labour costs of their emerging overseas competitors.

Kelvingrove Museum

Cultural Renaissance As the cleaning up process of the 1970s and 1980s proved, the gleaming gold and red sandstone, hidden behind decades of industrial soot and grime, revealed the finest examples of Victorian architecture anywhere in the world. In a remarkably short space of time, the city has established a new economic base centred on the service sector, and has risen from a period of industrial decline to mount a highly successful cultural sector. Glasgow now attracts major investors, events, tourists, conference delegates from all over the world who now appreciate what Daniel Defoe meant when he referred to "one of the cleanliest, most beautiful and best built cities in Great Britain."