Landuse in Govan

To give you an idea of how the built land is used (generally) in Govan, I have prepared below a coloured plan listing 5 different land uses.

Legend
Red - Residential
Yellow - Industry and offices

Light Blue - Community (includes churches, schools, hospital etc)

Dark Blue - Leisure (includes football stadium, cinema, bingo etc)

Pink - Retail (includes shops, restaurants etc)

On examining this diagram, it can be seen how the ship building industry has lined the river and the old railway line which would have supported them is also lined with industry. The industry in the middle also links the shipyards with the southern edge of the old docks. Industry has also formed adjacent the motorway. As residential streets were demolished to make way for the motorway, space became available for industry and offices.

Residential is the majority land use and it is clear that there is an east west divide with the east forming a more linear route along Paisley Road West.

Community land use is sporadic across Govan.

Leisure land use is quite low although this map does not highlight the open park land where sports etc can be played.

Retail use is mainly at Govan cross (Near the River) and the Asda store (adjacent the motorway). There are a few small shops dotted around amongst the housing to provide convenient daily provisions.

Since 1999/2000 when this information was collected for my Masters degree there have been a number of changes to the drawing above.

The north side of the river is currently being transformed with the industrial buildings now demolished to be replaced by new housing developments (see below) and the proposed Transport museum by Architect Zaha Hadid is now on site. (see also below).

Image from Govan towards the new Glasgow Harbour housing complex.

Proposed image of the new transport museum currently under construction.


Major changes in Govan has been the development of the derelict dock site. This has included the Glasgow Science Centre (see below), Scottish TV HQ and David Chipperfield's BBC Scotland HQ (see below) along with other office development.

Images of the Glasgow Science Centre.

Images of BBC Scotland.

Two new bridges have also been erected, one is a modest footbridge linking the Science Centre with the SECC and the other is the extravagant Clyde Arc road bridge (see below) located adjacent the Scottish TV HQ's.