The history of horse-drawn trams in Glasgow has been covered in several excellent resources (see the book “The Glasgow Horse Tramways by Struan Robertson or this link, for example) but my interest was in the depots.
Prior to 1872 Glasgow was served by horse buses (the distinction being, of course that buses do not run on fixed tracks – while this means they did not require track-laying and so were cheaper and more flexible in terms of routes, they were also harder on the horses, slower and less comfortable). The owner of the biggest fleet of horse buses was Andrew Menzies:
Here is one of his buses, on Sauchiehall Street at Kelvingrove Street:
Port Eglinton was in Tradeston, the north-west terminus of a canal intended to link Glasgow to the Ayrshire coast (ultimately the Paisley Canal railway line, source). ‘Crescents’ was the name of the suburb around Lynedoch Crescent (between Park Circus and Woodlands Road).
When the Westminster Parliament passed the act enabling tramways in Glasgow, the company who had won the contract to run the horse trams went into business with Menzies and he became the managing director. His depots, 50 cars and 500 horses transferred between businesses. At this time, his depots were at North Street in Anderston and Risk Street in Calton.
The North Street premises had previously been known as The Westend Horse Bazaar when Menzies took it over in 1851:
And here on the 1856 map:
A horse bazaar was literally a place to buy and sell horses, as well as carriages and presumably associated equipment and goods. It would have had stables and storage space and thus served a dual purpose as the horse bus depot.
There was a rebuild in 1875 and this burned down in 1884 with the loss of 175 horses. It was the new building that can be seen in this map of 1893-4:
Many of these streets have vanished but you can see St Vincent Street at the top of the map and Anderston Cross in the bottom-right.
I have never seen a photo of the depot but fortunately the ‘Britain from Above’ website was able to oblige (source):
We’re looking from the south-west but I doubt if any building shown is still standing. The red circle in the bottom right is Anderston Cross – you might be familiar with it as the Anderston railway station under the approach motorway to the Kingston Bridge, so if you went off to the right from there you would he heading for Central Station, past the Marriott Hotel. The depot/stables is the larger red circle in the top left, just north of the burial ground for the old church.
Here’s the approximate site today, by the trees on the right where the M8 is emerging from the cutting through Charing Cross to begin the approach to the Kingston Bridge (behind the camera and to the right):
Menzies’ other depot, Risk Street in Calton, was probably sold fairly early on in the 1870s and a new depot established.
The best source for the locations of the other horse-tram depots is John Hume’s book “Industrial Archaeology of Glasgow”. He says that by 1877 there were depots in
Cambridge Street
58-72 Tobago Street, Calton
Nelson Street, Kingston
David Street, Bridgeton
Whiteinch
The later additions (around 1883) were Thurso Street, Partick, and 28-32 Duart Street, Maryhill.
Cambridge Street
Hume says this was established by 1877 but the first map with sufficient detail to see the use of individual buildings is from 1893. This places it at the corner with Renfrew Street:
The building seems to have survived to 1960, by which time it housed an Esso garage and an undertakers:
This is the approximate equivalent from Google Street View of May 2024:
You may spot that the building on the corner of Sauchiehall Street, latterly Dunne’s, is common to both photos.
I also have aerial photo retrieved from the ‘Britain from Above’ website, from 1928 looking north-west:
And from 1929 looking north-east:
In the bottom-right you can see Sauchiehall Street running diagonally, with the sunshades protecting the shop windows. Renfrew Street runs parallel and the depot is the two cantilevered roofs running from Cambridge Street to Rose Street (source).
58-72 Tobago Street, Calton
This depot was located off of Great Hamilton Street, now known as London Road, near to Templeton’s Carpet Factory:
To the left of Tobago Street you can see Green Street at the top of the map; Risk Street, location of Menzie’s former stables, were the next street to the west of this. The original depot here burned down in 1883.
The 1884 building survived for Hume to photograph in the late 1960s, seen here from the front:
Here is the 2024 Google Street View:
And here is the old depot from the side (on the right):
Note that buildings were typically over three floors: the ground floor was from the tram vehicles, the first floor was for the horses (accessed via a ramp) and the top floor for grain stores.
Nelson Street, Tradeston
David Street (Crownpoint), Gallowgate
In this map we are in the east end with Gallowgate running horizontally across the top:
The depot is visible in the bottom-right corner and gives its alternative name of Crownpoint.
The original depot was bruned down in 1885 but rebuilt as the biggest on the whole system.
This is the best photo I can come up with, a 1948 view (Britain from Above, source) looking north-north-east:
The depot would have been in the right-hand side of the red oval – the works, making tram cars, is in the left of the red oval extending to Whitevale Street.
Today the site of the depot is a primary school:
Whiteinch
No address was available for this depot, but following the tram lines on the 1893 map to its terminus revealed the location on Dumbarton Road, at the corner with Jordan Street:
In 2024, there is no trace:
By 1909 the map shows the site had tenements built upon it.
The depots covered above formed the network in 1877 at the time of this map:
After this, the additions were Thurso Street in Partick and Watt (Duart) Street in Maryhill (covered in another post here).
Thurso Street, Partick
We have photos of this from Hume in the late 1960s:
And in 2024:
The final depot, at Watt Street in Maryhill (later Duart Street) has been covered in a previous post (link).
As Glasgow Corporation Tramways prepared to replaced the GT&O network, it established horse-tram depots at the following locations:
Celtic Street, Maryhill
Dalhousie Street, Cowcaddens
40-44 Kelvinhaugh Street, Yorkhill
Hayburn Street, Partick
105-115 Admiral Street, Kinning Park
Albert Drive, Pollokshields
25-39 Rowchester Street, Bridgeton
45 Ruby Street, Dalmarnock
Paton Street, Dennistoun
81-83 Keppochill Road, Springburn
These are generally better recorded because the Corporation turned many of them into electric tram depots or other buildings that were retained as part of the transport network well into the twentieth century.