Athletes' Village breathes new life into East End
A Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games site whose development will help to breathe new life into the east end was also at the centre of a revolution which helped to transform the lives of Glaswegians some 200 years ago.
The site of the new Athletes’ Village at Dalmarnock was also home to the world’s first attempt to create a public water supply - the Glasgow Waterworks Company.
Over the past two years, archaeological work has identified and recorded many elements of the huge waterworks complex which was the first to pipe filtered water to Glasgow homes and businesses.
The then Glasgow Town Council supported the creation of a municipal waterworks by investing £1000 along with other like minded individuals and entrepreneurs who were ahead of their time in seeing the importance of clean water to a growing city population.
The Dalmarnock site opened in 1809 supplying water raised from the River Clyde via pipes, filtering ponds and reservoirs to the city’s rapidly expanding population for a small water rate charge.
The works employed cutting edge steam technology of the time and was constructed under the advice of top Scottish engineers James Watt and Thomas Telford.
Hugh McBrien, Manager of the West of Scotland Archaeology Service, said the Dalmarnock site is a great example of a project which has integrated good planning, development and archaeology principles to get the most out of the site without having an impact on project completion timescales.
Mr McBrien said: "Having access to a site as important as this and being able to excavate its buildings and to collect and record artefacts is vital for Glasgow’s sense of place and identity. It is also helping to build up a meaningful picture of our city’s past and our place in the world.
"Many Glaswegians are aware that Loch Katrine has been supplying Glasgow’s water since the 1850s. But what they might be surprised to know is that 50 years earlier our city was the first in the world to attempt to have a complete municipal water supply.
"Indeed London councillors in the 1820s wanted to improve drinking water supplied to their voters, they came to Glasgow en masse to learn about the filtering and distribution technology used at the Glasgow Waterworks plant. It was that cutting edge and before its time.
"The archaeological work carried out at the Athletes Village site now means that that story of the Glasgow Waterworks Company will be preserved and remembered rather than been forgotten as just another footnote in a history book."
Councillor Archie Graham, Deputy Leader of Glasgow City Council and Executive Member for the Commonwealth Games, said: "I am amazed that the Athletes’ Village site which is playing a pivotal role in the development of our city today and into the future played such a vital role in our past regeneration.
"Through the work being done on the site we have been able to collect and document the importance of this site for all the growth of our city. It is nice to see that Glasgow’s entrepreneurial and engineering heritage put us at the forefront of bringing clean water to our city and helped inspire others to do the same.
"I know that this site and its history will play a part in educating all our citizens about Glasgow past and its future."
Ed Monaghan, spokesperson for City Legacy Homes, said: "City Legacy Homes was happy to follow the advice of West of Scotland Archaeology Service to uncover these extraordinary artefacts.
"It seems very fitting that a development, designed to breathe new life into the East End of Glasgow 200 years ago was discovered on the Athletes' Village site, as it now plays a vital role in transforming this area once again."
Archaeologists from AOC Archaeology Group and CFA Archaeology Ltd have been able to build up a meaningful picture of the site and excavated boiler houses and engines houses, one of which originally housed two massive steam engines called Samson and Goliath, which pumped water around the works and into the city.
The massive waterworks site was built on both sides of the Clyde. On the Dalmarnock side, all the main office buildings, boiler house and engine house were located along with the final filtering ponds on an area the size of four football pitches. On the Cuningar Loop, the primary filtering and settlement ponds were located over a site the size of 11 football pitches.
A pipe designed by James Watt drew water under the River Clyde from the Cuningar Loop ponds into the final filtering ponds on the Dalmarnock side before being pumped out of the site to be distributed around Glasgow.
The archaeologists have also discovered other significant industrial archaeological remains nearby. The Springfield Print and Dye Works carried out experiments on refining the Turkey Red dying process in the early 1800s, just downstream of the waterworks.
Turkey Red, named because the process was believed to have been invented in Turkey, was introduced to Scotland in 1785 by George Macintosh (of the Macintosh coat fame), who invited a French chemist, Pierre Jacques Papillon to Scotland to explain the dyeing process.
They set up the Dalmarnock works, along with David Dale (who later established New Lanark and the largest cotton mill in Scotland which was further enhanced by his son-in-law Robert Owen) and began production of long-lasting red dyed cloth. The process used ammonia, sulphuric acid, sheep’s dung and bulls’ blood.
The archaeologists on the Athletes’ Village site found ingots of glass and pottery which would have been used in the experiments into Turkey Red process.
The successful development of the 32.5 hectares site in Dalmarnock is a key component in the delivery of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. The Athletes’ Village will provide accommodation and facilities for 6500 competitors and officials during the Games.
After the Games, the Athletes’ Village – the first stage of the City Legacy Homes development - will become a desirable new residential community including 304 private homes, 400 homes for rent and a new 120 bed care home for the elderly. The removal of the temporary facilities within the Athletes’ Village after the Games will release additional land for further residential development.
Glasgow City Council as owner of the site took advice from the West of Scotland Archaeology Service to ensure that archaeology investigations were built into every element of the contracts from the preparatory work to the start of the build programme. That has meant that the archaeology digs have not had an impact on delivery timescales.
The Athletes’ Village will be built by the City Legacy Consortium, which is made up of developers and contractors CCG, Cruden, Mactaggart & Mickel and W H Malcolm.
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