What would you like to see happening? Music from up and coming bands? Shakespeare in the Park? Performances by local dance groups? The School play? Screenings of classic films? We already have some intruiging responses from our survey carried out in summer 2009 but we’re always ready to listen.

The space will be an asset to the whole city of Glasgow not just the south side. It will be unique; attracting touring companies and events to the city and enabling the area to take part in city wide festivals.

19th September 2010 is a date to remember; this is the day that work started on the new Queen’s Park Arena. The first stage is to stabilise and consolidate the ground under the area by filling in the old mineworkings. The site engineer told QPA that they’d found that two seams of coal had been extracted starting at 9 metres down and extending 6 metres – that’s a lot of space and quite close to the surface so this work is vital before anything else gets done.

Work on this stage should take 3 to 4 weeks after which we will begin to see the restoration and creation of the new central seating tiers.

Article about Queen’s Park Arena In Evening Times

Work is expected to take place this year on the first phase of the project which will restore and develop the arena terraces and provide a smooth, level performance space and new drainage and ground consolidation work. The space should be ready to host an events programme in 2012, in time for the 150^th anniversary of the Park’s opening in September 2012.

The first phase is expected to cost about £230,000 and funding has been secured from the Landfill Communities Fund, the Southside Central, Pollokshields and Langside Area Committees of Glasgow City Council and the Strathbungo Society. The project started as a pilot project supported by the Scottish Government is pursuit of their empowering communities agenda and has made rapid progress since beginning in spring 2009. Glasgow City Council, who own the Park, have supported the project by undertaking investigative ground surveys and will assist with the remedial underground works, landscaping and drainage works in the surrounding area.

The project is being led by representatives of the four community councils which border the Park – Crosshill/Govanhill, Langside, Battlefield and Camphill, Mount Florida, and Shawlands and Strathbungo. It follows on from extensive consultations and presentations to local community groups and stakeholders. During the 2009 Southside Festival 94% of 717 respondents to a questionnaire indicated their enthusiasm for and interest in the project which answers a need for a range of music, drama, dance and other activities involving the whole community, and especially young people. The project design is the work of ZM Architects (Glasgow) who won the competition for the Arena design in 2010. The second phase of the project, estimated at £300k and consisting of a purpose designed staging structure for film as well as performing arts, and further seating and facility improvements will be the subject of a second stage fund raising campaign.

The project began in spring 2009 as a Scottish Government supported pilot project to see if community councils could work together in a common cause, an objective which has been realised and far surpassed. To enable fund raising and plan for the sustainability of the project under community management, the Steering group has now formed a charity and company limited by guarantee, Queen’s Park Arena Ltd.

Evelyn Silber, the Steering group chair, said, ‘ We are delighted that this community-led project has attracted such a high level of public and stakeholder support. We look forward to achieving phase 1 so events can begin there in 2012 and are looking to develop our operation to run the events programme. Full details of the project are on our new website – www.queensparkarena.org.uk

James Limb, chair of the Strathbungo Society, commented, ‘The Strathbungo Society is very pleased to be able to support the Queen’s Park Arena, which will offer such potential in a beautiful setting in the heart of the Southside.’

Dr Silber is currently the Chair of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society and former Director of the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery and the chair of the Langside, Battlefield and Camphill Community Council which is one of the community councils involved in the Arena Project.

You can find out more about the Arena Project here:
http://www.qppp.org.uk/
http://www.lbccc.org.uk/2010/09/27/queens-park-performance-space-2/
http://southsidehappenings.blogspot.com/2009/10/queens-park-performance-project.html
http://southsidehappenings.blogspot.com/2010/06/bandstand-winning-design-chosen.html

The lecture is part of the Pollokshields Heritage 2011 Lecture Series – more information can be found on their website http://www.pollokshieldsheritage.org/

Admission £5 including wine.

The Fotheringay Centre is located at the corner of Beaton Road adjacent to Hutchesons’ Grammar School who purchased, restored and developed the church building to include a multi-purpose auditorium and lecture theatre. Close to Maxwell Park railway station. the centre is also readily accessible from Crossmyloof railway station.

10 designs, shortlisted by the Judging Panel* from among 77 competition entries, were exhibited on 22-23 May in Queen’s Park Glasshouse, during and after the Southside Festival. 496 exhibition visitors chose their favourite design and made comments. The public vote was passed on to the Judging Panel to consider along with their own assessment of how far the designs met the brief, showed design flair and promised to provide an affordable and practical as well as an inspiring solution. The four winning designs were 5^th, 2^nd, 4^th and 1^st public choices.

The design competition, organized jointly by Glasgow Institute of Architects and the steering group for the Queen’s Park Arena, represents an important stage towards the final design solution for the flexible, multi-purpose performance space. Once fully designed and costed the Steering Group will be submitting applications for funding and hope to get work on the new Arena under way in 2011-12.

Evelyn Silber, chair of the Steering Group, said, ‘We were pleased so many creative ideas came out of this competition. Visitors to the exhibition really got into discussing the designs and were excited by the visions of what a popular place and landmark this could be in the Park. We will be taking on board what we have learned from a number of the competitors and the public comments to help us finalise the brief and commission a really good looking, practical and achievable design.’

The top designs, full results and competition vote, public comments and judges’ comments can be found on www.qppp.org.uk and www.queensparkarenadesigncompetition.co.uk . The prize winning design will also be exhibited in Queen’s Park Glasshouse.

* The members of the Judging Panel were Claire Charlwood and Scott Mackay (local residents and members of QPPP steering group), Martin McKay and Martin Docherty (GIA), Katrina Brown (Common Ground) and Gerry Grams (Glasgow City Council design adviser).