Kinning Park Station – Green open space in the inner city meets M8 motorway
Kinning Park is one of the most rural of the stations on the network, in the sense that it has a park tacked onto the side of it. Although contrary to that, the station is next to a whacking great motorway. I am guessing the park may have been there first and the station and motorway merely invaders.
The reality is that once you travel beyond the commuter hub of Shields Road, you enter a quieter area of the city that is more suburban. Kinning Park, with its leafy branches and kiddies play park is about as suburban as inner city Glasgow gets. It still has the broken Buckfast bottles and overflowing bins though, so lets not get carried away with ourselves just yet.
If you are going by subway to the Hydro, BBC Scotland or the ITV studios then this is one of three possible stations you can use. The others are Cessnock and Ibrox. Due to Festival Park not being very navigable, the three stations are roughly the same walking distance depending on which part of the waterfront you are going to. For the ITV / Squinty Bridge end nearer town, Kinning Park is your best bet, while the IMAX and Science Centre is probably more suited to Cessnock.
Come straight out of the station and follow the path through the park on the right. Turn right at Paisley Road West then it’s your first left. Keep going until you see the Squinty Bridge.
The park has a triangular path that links out directly to Paisley Road West on the right hand side, and Clifford Street on the other. Cornwall Street ends in a blocked off street just in front of the station and also leads to Paisley Road West. Apart from the access via Cornwall Street, the rest of the road access to the station is blocked off.
The park itself is not big. It has some grassy areas, a hilly verge and some decent sized trees. It’s got a fairly high footfall from the subway and regular dog walkers but it’s definitely one of the quieter areas of town. Expect to see the occasional game of cricket or football in the summer months.
During the few decent summer days we get, the park bursts in to life. It’s a regular sunbathing and drinking area for all the locals, good and bad. The picnic hampers and wine mixes in fairly close proximity to the Buckfast. Just bring a heavy rug to sit on and stay away from the benches.
An interesting feature of Kinning Park, and one that will not be lost on you as you come out the station, is the concrete bridge that extends back over the motorway. The noise of cars will be evident as soon as you exit the station as well. There are a number of these bridges across the motorway at regular intervals and there are some spectacular views of the motorway to be had, especially at rush hour.
This looping concrete structure is one of many that extend over the motorway and if you want a view of 15 lanes of traffic then you get a really good shot about half way across.
Industrial units extend towards Shields Road on both sides of the motorway, so probably nothing there of too much interest. The area on the Kinning Park side of the motorway is generally in bad repair and there are a number of brown field industrial sites here either waiting for, or under development.
For those on the Subcrawl, this is the heart of Rangers territory and the District Bar is one of the main bastions of the blue faithful. If you are playing by the strict set of rules, Doctors Bar is now the closest, just straight down Cromwell Street. A quieter alternative, if you fancy the walk, is the Stanley Bar which is almost half way to Shields Road and could count for both in some of the less strict crawling doctrines.
On the whole, Kinning Park is one of the quieter stations in town. There is some parking available, but you are better off at Shields Road.
Oh, and from my days of youth, the legendary Strathclyde Computer Club used to meet in Lambhill Court just off the station exit. I wonder where Mel is these days?