Old Drumchapel

Old Drumchapel is a district of Glasgow, Scotland. Old Drumchapel is located around Drumchapel railway station. The area formed part of the Cowdenhill and Garscadden Estates.

Drumchapel in the mid 19th century consisted of Drumchapel West farm on the site of Drumchapel St Andrews Church and Drumchapel East Farm at the junction of Glenkirk Drive and Drumchapel Road. Garscadden Estate owned much of the land. However the much smaller Cowdenhill Estate owned most of the land Old Drumchapel was built on.

In the late 19th century two small coal mines were sunk. One between the stone villas in the present Drumchapel Gardens which was shut in 1879. The other to the west of the path from Essenside Ave to the railway. When this closed in May 1891 the owners of the Cowdenhill and Garscadden Estates encouraged builders to erect large semi-detached stone villas. The first five villas were erected overlooking Garscadden Business Park. In 1891 they cost £1,200 each. Other villas were built around Drumchapel railway station which opened on 1 May 1890. Drumchapel Lawn Tennis Club opened in August 1904 and Drumchapel Golf Course was opened in 1905. Harry Vardon played an exhibition 36 hole match on it in June 1909 against J.H.Taylor. The golf course was dug up in March 1917 to provide land for food production, and the club house was converted into two private semi-detached villas in Garscadden Road. The tennis club still exists, with floodlights and all weather courts. These two amenities were built to encourage housebuilders to the area. Plans to build houses on the hill overlooking Drumchapel Road were drawn up in 1898 but due to a downturn in housing were never built.

The original Blairdardie School open in 1780 at Lock 35 on the canal. Bursting at the seams with kids it moved to Garscadden Road and the new village school opened there in 1905 and was converted into flats in 2005. John Lawrence built bungalows in the 1920s and in the 1930s semi-detached villas. The bungalows cost £650, or 21 shillings a week over a period of 25 years. Further houses were built next to the Post Office in the 1930s, which cost around £500. The Post Office was opened by Mr Goldie in 1901. A nursery run by a Mrs Mackenzie was situated opposite the Post Office which grew tomatoes (Ailsa Craig) for the Glasgow Fruit Market. In the post war period the nursery was run by the Rose family; the nursery business was gradually run down with the Rose's home and the nursery making way for shops and a filling station. Later developments included Olivers Function Suite and St Benedicts Church etc.

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