18-05-2025
Symbol of Glasgow renaissance found buried under park rubble
The centrepiece of a festival that foretold the renaissance of Scotland's largest city has been found discarded beneath rubble at Bellahouston Park.
Designed by the renowned sculptor Michael Snowden, the Children of Glasgow Fountain was commissioned for the 1988 Glasgow Garden Festival, which attracted more than a million visitors.
It was later obtained by the local authority, which moved it to Kelvingrove Museum, but it was removed during renovation works in the early 2000s.
Lex Lamb, who runs the heritage project After the Garden Festival, hopes the fountain will be given a new lease of life.
He has developed a database logging the whereabouts of artworks and temporary structures designed for the event.
He said: 'This is a rare relic of a pivotal event in Glasgow's recent history. It's also the work of a significant sculptor and deserves better than its current abandonment.'
Paul Sweeney, the Labour MSP for Glasgow, hopes the city council and others will fund the revival of the 20ft fountain.
He is urging the Royal Bank of Scotland, which sponsored the structure, to help pay for projected refurbishment costs of up to £16,000. It is thought the artwork could be installed at the redeveloped Govan dockside.
He said: 'It's a shame that this striking sculptural fountain has been left to languish in a council storage depot at Bellahouston Park.
'I've been trying to get this relic reinstalled near its original location at Pacific Quay, where it would make an excellent centrepiece of the plaza adjacent to the Science Centre and the BBC Scotland studios.'
Sweeney, a board member of Glasgow City Heritage Trust, has also appealed to Scottish Enterprise and BBC Scotland, whose headquarters occupies a significant footprint on the 120-acre site. He said he hoped to make the fountain's return 'a reality sooner rather than later'.
Opened by Prince Charles and Princess Diana, and held on infilled graving docks, the Glasgow Garden Festival's highlights also included a rollercoaster.
When the temporary festival site was cleared in 1990, items were snapped up by external parties, with artworks by respected Scottish artists including Eduardo Paolozzi, Stan Bonnar and George Wyllie being reinstated across the country.
The rollercoaster is in use at a theme park in Suffolk; a tower was installed on the seafront in Rhyl, north Wales; and the miniature steam train that skirted the site is at a Japanese resort.
A Glasgow city council spokesman said: 'The remnants of the Children of Glasgow Fountain are stored at Bellahouston Nursery. At this time there are no plans or available funding to install the fountain anywhere across our estate.'
