The clearance
In 1906 the farm and stables in the area bounded by Roman Road, Drymen Road and Stewart Place (now the western end of New Kirk Road) were cleared. In the 1901 Census three families were listed with the address simply given as New Kirk: the Gibsons, the Mackies and the Stewarts – but they could have shared the old farm house. The balance of evidence does (to me) suggest three separate dwellings however – here is the 1885 Valuation Roll:
This seems to show Mackie at the old farmhouse and two other dwellings, one probably a tied cottage owned by the New Kilpatrick Church for one of its staff members.
This is the New Kirk Farm House (not the Coaching Inn) – we’re looking at the corner now occupied by the Hillhart Cafe – note the cottage to the right (the tile roof is important, see next photo). The rooves visible between the farm house and cottage are Douglas place, in modern terms the shops on Roman Road from the old Bank of Scotland to Bulbir’s (the Post Office).
Mathew Henderson
The man who commissioned the clearance and the new building was Mathew Henderson. He was a developer and builder working across Glasgow and living in a villa called Rual in the (then) small village of Drumchapel, close to the junction of Garscadden Road and Drumchapel Road.
New Kirk Square bears his initials, and the year it was built:
He had an ambition that Drumchapel would become a ‘model suburb’ along the lines of Westerton but his hopes were unfulfilled at the time he died in 1914:
Publicity for the new building
Henderson’s obituary is extremely interesting, but would you not expect that the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald would mention that one of his works was to redesign Bearsden Cross? This newspaper had its editorial office in Milngavie at the time but the omission is difficult to explain. Henderson was the owner and the landlord for about half the shops and many families in Bearsden.
Scanning the pages for 1905 and 1906 I can find no mention of the planned demolition, the design for the new buildings, the appointment of a builder … There are two cursory mentions. The first is from the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald of 4th January 1907
There were 12 shops rather than “about 20”. (Mackie and Denholm’s new stables are, I believe the building now housing Massimo’s and Timsons on Kirk Place; the council chambers are probably on Roman Road, last used as a registry office (?)).
In the 31st May edition of 1907, the same newspaper reported:
The name of the new building: “New Kirk Square”
You might reasonably assume the name New Kirk came from the North Church, completed in (I believe 1899, right across Drymen Road – but as we have seen (link) it was used as the name of the farm here from around 1860 onwards. It can only refer to New Kilpatrick Church but why it came into use in 1860, I cannot explain. The Parish Church, of course, dates from 1649 with a rebuild in 1807.
And it’s not a square – I thought it was a trapezium but Wikipedia tells me this requires two parallel sides and the best term is “irregular quadrilateral”. So New Kirk Square or, more accurately, Old Kirk Irregular Quadrilateral, you decide.
Open for business
The first announcement of a new shop was in the 29th March edition of the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald in 1907:
James Frame was the original occupant of numbers 7 and 8, currently occupied by Slater Hogg and Howison – if so, the alteration referred to could be to enable 7 and 8 to function as one shop. (It was not a success, James Frame moving out by December 1908, possibly first in, first out).
The 12th April edition of the newspaper carried the next announcement:
It is possible John Greenlees’ shop was the first one to open in New Kirk Square, at number 12 (now Wright and Crawford’s).
The following week, the newspaper carried announcements from three more shops. At number 3 (recently The Scallop’s Tale):
Note the address is given as Henderson’s Buildings.
At number 5 (the shop now split between KP’s and The Barber at the Cross):
Like James Frame at number 8, James Graham was based in Dumbarton Road, Partick and planned to open a new branch in Bearsden.
At number 11 (currently Vivi’s):
Finally, the 24th May edition carried an announcement from the new tenant of number 14 (currently Mini Moments):
By 1915 there were 12 shops in New Kirk Square, 8 at Douglas Place (Roman Road), 3 on Stewart Terrace (Drymen Road). There were a further 7 at Eaton and Melville Places (Drymen Road by the station) and 4 at Douglas Park Terrace (on the south side of the railway bridge at Hillfoot), for a total of 34 shops.
Three of the twelve shops at New Kirk Square transferred from Douglas Place, the other nine being new shop-owners to the area. New types of shop not previously available included a specialist shoemaker, ironmonger, confectioner and tobacconist, as well as Olaf Ploettner’s short-lived ladies’ hairdressers.