2. mother-in-law had the unfortunate
Visitors and Characters
distinction of being the victim of
The Green has had its share of
Glasgow’s last public hanging.
notable residents and visitors.
In 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie
In the nineteenth and twentieth
marched his troops up and down
centuries great orators addressed
the Green threatening to destroy
political and religious gatherings.
the City. Only twenty years later,
In the first half of last century John
James Watt, whilst strolling on
MacLean and Guy Aldred addressed
the Green, was inspired by the
J A M E S WAT T
rallies and the Green became the
idea which led to his invention of the steam engine which,
GLASGOW GREEN
focus of struggles for women’s
quite literally, drove Britain’s industrial revolution. Thirty
Origins
suffrage and for workers’ rights
years on from that event, David Dale, one of the greatest
The first written mention of Glasgow Green was in 1450
– including, ironically, the right to
and most innovative entrepreneurs of his age, took up
when James II granted the land to Bishop William Turnbull.
gather on the Green itself.
residence beside Glasgow Green. GUY ALDRED
From then it became common grazing, a practice which
was to continue for four centuries.
Over the years the Green grew and changed, although its
present form was largely the work of James Cleland, the
city’s Superintendent of Public Works whose landscape
scheme for the Green was completed by 1826.
In addition to its use for grazing, the Green was also
the site of traditional ‘Scotch Washing’. The practice of
tramping washing in large tubs was later replaced by a THE GYMNASIUM
wash-house but the use of the Green for bleaching linens Events and Gatherings P O L I T I C A L R A L LY
in the sun and the popularity of the common drying area Yet it is as a focus for leisure, for recreation and for public
continued well into the twentieth century. events ranging from the festive to the macabre, that
Glasgow Green has continuously played its part at the heart
of Glasgow life.
From 1814 until 1865 Jocelyn Square was the site of
seventy-one public executions. Sixty-seven men and four
women died, “facing the monument”, among them twenty-
one murderers. James ‘Pearly’ Wilson was hanged and
beheaded for high treason (as one of the leaders of the
Scottish Nationalist uprising known as the Radical War of
1820). Doctor Edward Pritchard who murdered his wife and
WASHING ON THE GREEN P O L I T I C A L R A L LY