Glasgow Garden Festival fountain found in pile of rubbish

BBC News

25-05-2025

It was one of the centrepieces of Glasgow's much loved garden festival more than 40 years ago.Now the Children of Glasgow fountain from the popular 1988 event has been found - buried and seemingly forgotten under a heap of rubble and dirt on Glasgow City Council property. The discovery has prompted calls for it to be restored to its former glory and given a prominent place in the city.Many other artefacts from the five-month long festival are considered lost, while others were repurposed elsewhere, including as far afield as Wales.
Journalist and broadcaster Paul English spotted the fountain at Bellahouston Park while working on another story and instantly recognised it.He told BBC Scotland News: "I could see this object, so I went to have a look. "I knew it was the fountain because I've written a lot about the festival in recent years and knew it was out there but not where it was. "There was no talk that it was under rubbish. You'd think it was being stored and looked after, which it clearly is not."
The sculpture, designed by Michael Snowdon, was previously found in the same area while covered in weeds in 2022 by Lex Lamb, who runs the After the Garden Festival website that aims to track down relics and artefacts from the event. The item was originally sponsored by the Royal Bank of Scotland, and featured the bank logos around it.Glasgow City Council said it does not own the fountain, but took on responsibility for storing it in the years since the event.Mr English said the sculpture - which was located in the festival's water and maritime zone - looked more like it was in a skip than anything else.Mr Lamb told BBC Scotland News it was shocking to see the fountain "wilfully neglected"He said: "Some bodies in the past, like the Sculpture Placement Group, who successfully found a location for Neil Livingstone's Spirit of Kentigern, have demonstrated that there are cases of excellent public sculpture being abandoned in council stores."Other artefacts have travelled far and wide, including the Coca-Cola rollercoaster being sold to a theme park in Suffolk and the Clydesdale Bank Anniversary Tower going to Rhyl in Wales, while the giant irises now stand by a roundabout in Glenrothes.
Mr Lamb and others with a keen interest in the city's history - including the MSP Paul Sweeney - hope to bring artefacts like the fountain back into use in Glasgow.He said: "Ideally, I'd like to see the fountain operating again in a public site within Glasgow. It'd be great if this could be at or close to its original location between the BBC building and the science centre."If this proves to be impossible it would simply be worthwhile to see it anywhere where it can be enjoyed again, fully-functioning or not, by the people of Glasgow."Sweeney, who has regularly spoken about Glasgow's need to preserve its heritage, said: "It's a shame that the striking sculptural Children of Glasgow Fountain has been left to languish in a council storage depot at Bellahouston Park."After it was brought to my attention by Lex a couple of years ago, I have been trying to get this relic reinstalled near its original location at Pacific Quay, where I think it would make an excellent centrepiece on the plaza." The festival, which was opened by Prince Charles and Princess Diana, is often cited as being influential in Glasgow's revitalisation as a cultural hotspot. It attracted around 4.3 million visitors during the five months it took over the banks of the river Clyde. Mr English said he felt the event now strikes a "nostalgia sweet-spot" for people, a sentiment Mr Lamb agreed with.He added: "It was the pivot of a remarkable ten years for a city which was then trying to get to grips with its own future. "Additionally, it was a forward-looking glimpse of a cosmopolitan and more colourful vibe to Glasgow that we take for granted now. "And it was international, in a way that was novel - at a time when the concept of a tourist in Glasgow was the punchline to a joke."A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: "The remnants of the Children of Glasgow fountain is stored at Bellahouston Nursery. "At this time, there are no plans or available funding to install the fountain anywhere across our estate."