Blythswood Hill

Blythswood Hill, leading to Blythswood Square, is one of the central hills overlooking the River Clyde, which form the city of Glasgow, Scotland, and was developed as one of its prestigious residential areas from 1800 onwards, being known then as ″the magnificent New Town of Blythswood″.[1] After the Reformation the Lands of Blythswood were owned by the distinguished Glasgow merchant family Elphinstone, whose last descendant George Elphinstone became an MP of the Scots Parliament. Through his daughter it changed to the Douglas-Campbell family during the 17th century. Archibald Campbell, whose son became Lord Blythswood, setting about feuing the lands to developers.[2]

Blythswood Hill
Blythswood Hill Location within Glasgow
OS grid reference	NS583656
Council area	Glasgow City Council
Lieutenancy area	Glasgow
Country	Scotland
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	GLASGOW
Postcode district	G2
Dialling code	0141
Police	Scotland
Fire	Scottish
Ambulance	Scottish
UK Parliament	Glasgow Central
Scottish Parliament	Glasgow Kelvin Glasgow

West George Street on Blythswood Hill, Glasgow city centre, viewing west

St Vincent Street on Blythswood Hill, Glasgow around 1830, viewing east.

It lies on the western flank of Buchanan Street and rises to a plateau before dipping again towards the Charing Cross area of Park Circus and of Woodlands. To its north is Garnet Hill. Blythswood Hill contains the area from Renfrew Street, Sauchiehall Street and Bath Street south to Bothwell Street, and below to Argyle Street, and from West Nile Street westward to Elmbank Street and beyond.[3] The first street to be opened up was Bath Street in 1802, by textile manufacturer and builder William Harley (1767-1830) who also formed his pioneering public baths, dairy and bakery at its eastern end.[4][5] His planned Blythswood Square at the western end sits partly on his pleasure grounds, viewing tower, orchards and bowling green which he opened for the public, next to his house of Willow Bank.[4] Harley also owned much of the hill to the north which he named Garnethill in honour of Professor Thomas Garnett one of the first professors of what is today`s Strathclyde University.

Blythswood developed due to the mercantile expansion of the city in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, housing the city's wealthy cotton merchants and shipping magnates in Georgian townhouses and Victorian terraces. The area is on a grid-iron layout which started first around George Square in the 1790s, adopted by Glasgow Town Council, and continued for urban development west over Blythswood, and south over the Clyde to Tradeston, Laurieston, and Hutchesontown. The grid-iron system was later adopted in 1830 by New York, followed later by Chicago, and other cities in America.[2]

Blythswood Square was the home of Madeleine Smith - a daughter of leading architect James Smith - who in 1857 was tried in the High Court for the murder by arsenic poisoning of her lover Pierre Emile L'Angelier. Although the case was not proven, to the delight of the public, the story scandalised Scottish society, and is recounted in Jack House's 1961 book Square Mile of Murder.

Today, residential use is returning to Blythswood Hill, while remaining mainly offices, hotels, shops, restaurants and art organisations. The conversion of the former Royal Scottish Automobile Club building at 8-13 Blythswood Square to form the Blythswood Square Hotel is an example of the latest enhancement and improvement of the whole of Blythswood Square.