Changing Face of the Area around the Church
As mum and I were leaving the church on Sunday we stopped to look at the
building work taking place around St Oswald’s.
The library, above the shops, was managed by South Lanarkshire Council
and has been left lying derelict for many years.
I remember being taken to both the Castlemilk Rd facility as well as the
building next to my primary school on Bankhead Road, opposite Mitchell’s
Farm.
My memory is the silence at Bankhead Library and of struggling with huge,
weighty reference books taking them to a table so that I could flick through
the pages and admire the tropical fish from around the world. In later life my
dad bought me a double fish tank for my flat and set it up for me. Watching
the fish is very relaxing. However I seem to be able to kill them off so the
tank is presently empty.
I hope when the library has been converted into flats there will be a show-flat
so I can go and do my nosey!
The other memory was that the block of flats opposite the church was
previously The STATE Picture house, then County Bingo Hall. As a family
we went along on a regular basis. As the titles finished rolling the evening
ended with the National Anthem (not now-a-days). The only films I
remember seeing were James Bond 007 and The Greatest Story Ever Told
(which is appropriate for this time of the churches calendar) but there must
have been many more over the years.
Do you remember visiting the STATE, (see back page) or popping next door
to Robbs Café for ice-cream or coffee (sitting at the round tables)?
There was the
Co-op and Massey
grocer; Bobby
Broadley
Newsagent; the
dairy where you
could buy loose
butter; Malcolm’s
chemist; fish shop
and butchers;
garage and Mr McLean’s hardware store.
I look forward to receiving your memories for future magazines.
Editor
StOM Page 18