Kelvindale 3.7

Kelvindale is a district in the west of the city of Glasgow, Scotland.ConstructionConstruction started in the late 1920s with work being undertaken by the City Corporation. This was followed up in the early 1930s by the Glasgow-based housebuilding company Mactaggart and Mickel. The houses were intended for rent rather than for sale, they consisted of semi detached villas. A proportion of these houses were set aside for rent by Glasgow Corporation. The Corporation extended the building down Kelvindale Road towards Collins Paper Mill. Subsequently in the 1930s the Western Heritable Investment Company extended the district considerably by building the last range of pre war tenements at Dorchester Avenue, Ripon Drive, etc. between 1934 and 1938. These tenements are unique since they are built on concrete rafts due to the heavy mine workings in the district from the Garscube estate. They were planned as four storey but due to Scots Law they were reduced to three stories.The district is dominated by the gas holders (erected in 1891 but now de-commissioned) which were reputed to be the biggest in the United Kingdom. During the Second World War the Royal Air Force stationed a balloon unit on what is now ex-MoD housing on Dorchester Avenue. The large fields were once used for grazing horses and cattle but are now the site of more tenement building and the Kelvindale Primary School. Gibson Hall, a former Glasgow Caledonian University Hall of Residence which stood on Dorchester Avenue, was recently demolished to make way for new build. Flanders House, built for soldiers of the Great War, was demolished in 2006 and has been replaced by a modern construction.