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Maryhill Burgh Halls is a local heritage site located in the Maryhill area of Glasgow, a few miles North-West of Glasgow city centre. Maryhill Burgh Halls was initially opened in 1878 as a municipal building complex, which served as a police station and fire station until the 1970s.

The complex fell into disuse and disrepair especially towards the late 20th century, and plans for its demolishment were proposed. However, as a result of local campaigning, the decision was taken to restore the complex and for it to be used as a community resource. Repairs, selective demolition, restoration, and development work took place between 2008 and 2011. The halls re-opened in April 2012.

Maryhill Burgh Halls is run by the Maryhill Burgh Halls Trust. The Maryhill Burgh Halls Trust was established in 2004 and is community led. Volunteers form a major and vital component of the Maryhill Burgh Halls Trust. Volunteers carry out a variety a roles within it including the day to day running of the Maryhill Burgh Halls and forming a major part of the Board of the Trust.

The Maryhill Burgh Halls provides for the community office spaces, hall spaces to facilitate the hosting of events of various kinds, and a museum and exhibition space. The museum and exhibition space hosts artefacts and exhibitions relating to local heritage, local history, and other themes of interest.

Various organisations operate from the Maryhill Burgh Halls including an architecture company, an accountancy firm, a local housing association, a children’s nursery, and the constituency office of the Member of Scottish Parliament for the area.

When the halls initially opened in 1878 it contained twenty stained glass windows depicting individuals carrying out various trades and occupations that could be found practiced within the local area. The windows were produced by the studio of Adam and Small and were specially commissioned for the building.

Today, the halls has eleven of the original windows on display. The remainder are stored within the collections of Glasgow Museums. Along with the eleven original panels, another ten stained glass panels are on display that were produced by artists Alec Galloway and Margo Winning around 2015. Each of the ten panels depicts a different theme of modern Maryhill. The themes depicted were chosen from suggestions given by over two hundred members of the community.

History of Maryhill Burgh Halls
Maryhill Burgh Halls complex was opened in 1878 in response to the growing population of the Burgh of Maryhill and ensuing lawlessness. The complex’s architect was the Glasgow based Duncan McNaughton who was born in Rutherglen. The complex was designed in a revivalist French Renaissance style.

The complex consisted of a police station, a court room, a fire station, a tenement which housed the firemen, and a public hall that could seat nine hundred people. The Burgh of Maryhill being subsumed by the City of Glasgow in 1891 resulted in the civic function of the complex being lost, however it continued to be utilized for social use. A swimming baths and washhouse was added to the complex in 1898.

The police station and fire station remained in use up until the 1970s, however the complex fell into disuse and disrepair over the course of the remainder of the 20th century and plans for its demolition were proposed. Pressure from the local community led to the restoration of Maryhill Burgh Halls and it being purposed once again as a community resource. The Maryhill Burgh Halls now provides for the community office spaces, a museum and exhibition space, and halls that can be used for the hosting of events of various kinds.

Restoration of Maryhill Burgh Halls
In 2004 the Maryhill Burgh Halls Trust was set up in order to bring the complex back into use for the local community.

In 2006 the Cities Growth Fund granted the Maryhill Burgh Halls Trust £1.1 million. This funding allowed the Trust to carry out various preliminary tasks pertaining the restoration of Maryhill Burgh Halls including the necessary design and planning application work. The restoration of Maryhill Burgh Halls took place between 2008 and 2011.

Stonework and masonry repairs in order to secure the stability of the structure took place in 2008. Funding for the remaining restoration and development work was secured in Autumn 2009 after five years of campaigning by the Trust. A total of £9.2 million funding for the restoration and development of the halls was secured. In November 2009 transfer of ownership of the halls, the police station, and the fire station from Glasgow City Council to the Maryhill Burgh Halls Trust took place. The main restoration and development work on the parts of the complex under the stewardship of the Maryhill Burgh Hall Trust also started in November 2009. This work was completed in November 2011, and the halls re-opened in April 2012.

The main funding sources for the restoration and development of Maryhill Burgh Halls are: Scottish Government City Growth Fund Phases 1 and 2, The Heritage Lottery Fund, Big Lottery (Growing Community Assets), The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Glasgow City Council Better Glasgow Fund, Glasgow City Council Vacant and Derelict Land Fund, Scottish Government Town Centre Regeneration Fund, Historic Scotland, Scottish Government Wider Role Fund, and Robertson Trust.

The baths remained under the ownership of Glasgow City Council. A separate project was undertaken by Glasgow City Council to convert the former baths into a modern leisure centre for the community of Maryhill. The leisure centre was opened in April 2010 and makes available a 25m swimming pool, sauna, gym, sports hall, dance studio, and other facilities for community use.

Maryhill Burgh Halls Trust
Maryhill Burgh Halls is owned and run by the Maryhill Burgh Halls Trust. The Maryhill Burgh Halls Trust was established in November 2004. It is a partnership between local residents, Cube and Maryhill Housing Associations, Glasgow City Council, Elected Members, and officers of local organisations. Members of the public can apply to join Maryhill Burgh Halls Trust. It currently has 180 members.

Maryhill Burgh Halls Trust has a few waged members of staff and a number of volunteers who are involved in its day to day running. The Trust also sub-contracts a number of building management roles and office marketing.

The Board of the Trust is comprised of fifteen members. The fifteen members include ten members of the public who are local residents or who work in the local area and have been or are active in Community Development Work in the area over a number of years. These ten members of the Board of the Trust are elected on to it by the members of Maryhill Burgh Halls Trust at the Annual General Meeting. The remainder of the Board consists of two co-opted individuals and experienced members of staff of Cube Housing Association, Maryhill Housing association, and Glasgow City Council.

The Stained Glass Windows
When Maryhill Burgh Halls first opened in 1878 they contained twenty specially commissioned stained glass windows. These were removed from the halls in 1963 and were stored in the collection of Glasgow Museums. The panels were then restored through a process of cleaning, repairing, and reframing.

Today, the Maryhill Burgh Halls has eleven of these panels on display along with ten specially commissioned glass panels that were produced around 2015.

The Historic Stained Glass Windows
The stained glass windows that were on display in the Maryhill Burgh Halls when it first opened were specially produced by the Glasgow studio Adam and Small. Adam and Small was founded by Stephen Adam, who was born in the vicinity of Edinburgh in 1847 and was of international renown in the field of stained-glass design and production. He had the author Robert Louis Stevenson as a school classmate and started as an apprentice of James Ballantine of Edinburgh.

The panels depict ordinary people, dressed in their ordinary work clothing, carrying out various trades that could be found practiced in the Maryhill area during the period. This makes the panels unique, for at the time religion was the main theme depicted by stained glass artists. In other stained glass panels of the period where workers are depicted, they are usually depicted in classical, biblical, or medieval clothing, poses, and settings. The author Michael Donnelly writes that the commission for Maryhill Burgh Halls was ‘…one of the most important commissions…’ of Stephen Adam’s career. The author Ian R Mitchell describes the stained glass panels as of ‘world-historic’ importance for being ‘…one of the largest and most realistic collection of portraits of labour produced in two centuries.’

The titles of the glass panels in alphabetical order are: The Blacksmiths, The Boatbuilder, The Bricklayers, The Calico Printers, The Canal Boatman, The Chemical Workers, The Dye Press Worker, The Engineers, The Glassblower, The Iron Moulders, The Joiners, The Linen Bleachers, The Papermaker, The Railway Men, The Sawyer, The Soldiers, The Teacher, The Wheelwrights, and The Zinc Spelters.

Due to a dearth of accounts or photographs of the historic glass panels as they were originally on display in the halls, it is currently unknown in what order they were initially displayed.

Eleven of the historic stained glass windows are now on display in Maryhill Burgh Halls. Ten of them can be found mounted in the main hall, and The Canal Boatman is on display at the main entrance to the building.

The Modern Stained Glass Windows
In order to contribute to the lasting legacy of the Maryhill Burgh Halls restoration project, ten new stained glass windows were commissioned. The ten stained glass windows were produced by the Scottish artists Alec Galloway and Margo Winning.

The themes for the modern stained glass windows were chosen to reflect themes of importance for the community of Maryhill today. The themes were chosen from suggestions gathered from over two hundred of members of the community. The suggestion were taken over a period of several months at a series of workshops, visits, and talks.

The final themes chosen were: culture, diversity, education, heavy trades, regeneration, social heritage, space age, sport and leisure, workers, and youth.

After approval of the final designs, each panel was built at Alec Galloway’s workshop in Greenock. The titles of the panels are: Art-Beat, Down Maryhill Road, Playing the Game, Global Village, Knowledge, Going Out, Burning Spirit, Made in Maryhill, Touching the Stars, and Yesterday and Today.

It is claimed that due to the inclusion of an active QR code on the ‘Touching the Stars’ panel, this makes it the world’s first ‘interactive stained glass panel’.

The Courtyard Entrance Gates
The entrance to the Maryhill Leisure Centre and Maryhill Burgh Halls share a common courtyard. This courtyard used to be the site of the fire station. The fire station included a three storey tenement above four stone archways. The archways remain today and form the entrance to the courtyard. In order to connect its current use to what was there in the past, the well known Scottish sculptor Andy Scott (The Kelpies in Falkirk are amongst Andy Scott’s other creations) was commissioned to produce four metal gates to fill in the archways. The metal gates feature firemen in period uniforms along with period equipment and engines.

Maryhill Museum
Maryhill Burgh Halls Trust is committed to collecting and making accessible the history of the Burgh Halls and Maryhill area. For this purpose a permanent museum has been created inside the Halls. The museum is a place to share the Halls’ local history collection and offers opportunities for community displays. Locals are encouraged to share their memories of Maryhill as well as learn about the history of the area. Through this, the Burgh Halls hopes to advance local access to arts, heritage and culture, and engage with the local and wider community to safeguard and celebrate a shared history.

Fred’s War 2018 exhibition
Fred’s War tells the extraordinary story of the 1st Cameronians who achieved notoriety for selling the Great War’s earliest front line photographs. Leaving from Maryhill Barracks, Fred Davidson, their 25-year-old medical officer (one of the first doctors to win the Military Cross) smuggled his camera to the front line in his medical bag. On display at the Burgh Halls was a WW I metal helmet, some medals, a nurse’s cap, field glasses, various maps, a wide selection of Fred’s photographs and a camera similar to that used by Fred.

For this exhibition, some examples of the types of cameras which would have been used at the time were sourced. One of these was an Ansco 'Buster Brown' No.2 Box Camera which had a very old spool of medium format, 120 film inside waiting to be developed. The roll was partially developed and found to contain old pictures of Lincoln and nearby Boston in the USA. Sadly, some of the pictures were destroyed by light leakage.

Partick Thistle Football Club: Then and Now
Between 6th March 2019 and 27th September 2019 the museum hosted an exhibition pertaining to the history of Partick Thistle Football Club. Partick Thistle Football club was founded in 1876 and has been based in Maryhill since 1908. Their nickname is ‘The Jags’, and they are based in Firhill Stadium in Maryhill.

A Flag for Maryhill
A competition was launched on 31st August 2020 to invite individuals, community groups and schools to create proposals for a community flag. This competition named ‘A Flag for Maryhill’ brought the community together to reflect on Maryhill’s history and look to the future, creating a symbol which would represent Maryhill as a proud part of Glasgow with its own unique sense of character.

The entries were submitted to an assessment panel which included representatives from the Flag Institute, the Lyon Court (a court of law that regulates heraldry in Scotland) and a special celebrity guest judge, Scottish actress, Jane McCarry. The panel narrowed the selection down to 5 top designs. From these 5 entries the public voted for their favourite design either by social media or in-person at the Burgh Halls. Voting opened on 5th July 2021 and closed 17th August 2021. The top designs were revealed on 4th July 2021 across the Burgh Halls’ social media accounts.

The winning flag was revealed at a community event street party on 2nd October 2021 at 1pm. The event ran from 11am- 4pm. Children and parents enjoyed many activities including face painting, art & crafts, balloon sculpture and card-making as well as free meals and ice cream.

The flag can be obtained free from the Burgh Halls while stocks last.

The Way We Were
Between the 1st of September 2020 and 18th of September 2020 the museum hosted an exhibition consisting of black and white photographs by the Glaswegian photographer Morton Gillespie. This exhibition depicted the social history of 1960’s Glasgow.

Glasgow Photo Journey 1978
Between 12th of July 2021 and 26th of December 2021 the museum hosted an exhibition of black and white photographs by the Manchester based photographer Jos Treen. The exhibition consisted of a selection of photographs taken around the streets of Glasgow in 1978 by Jos Treen during the year in which he was living there. The collection of hundreds of photographs lay forgotten for forty years before they were rediscovered. A selection of the photographs were posted on his social media feeds previous to Jos’ exhibition in Maryhill Burgh Halls.

Loving Earth Textile Panels
Between 18th September 2021 and 15th November 2021 the museum hosted an exhibition consisting of a selection of textile panels produced by members of the public for The Loving Earth Project.

The Loving Earth Project invited members of the public to submit 30 cm x 30 cm textile panels that depict themes pertaining to the effects of environmental degradation, contribution of one's own lifestyle to the degradation, and measures that can be taken to address it.

The exhibition was timed to coincide with the weeks leading up to and including the COP26 climate conference that took place on Glasgow between 31st October 2021 and 13th November 2021.

Jo Sunshine Art
A selection of drawings by the visually impaired Glasgow based artist Jo Sunshine have been on display in the museum since Autumn 2021. Jo was left completely blind in her left eye and with a misty blur in her right eye since being involved in a car accident. Subsequently, she draws everything large and in bold colours.

Glasgow Orchestral Society
Since the 29th of November 2021, the museum has hosted an exhibition consisting of artefacts pertaining to the history of the Glasgow Orchestral Society.

The Glasgow Orchestral Society was formed on the 29th of December 1870 (it was initially called the Glasgow Amateur Orchestral Society). They have used Maryhill Burgh Halls as a venue for their weekly rehearsals since October 2011.

Maryhill Burgh Halls Café
When the Maryhill Burgh Halls re-opened in 2012 it also opened a café on the premises. The café provided a number of seated tables and made available to its visitors various hot and cold food and drink for purchase.

The café did not re-open when the halls were once again made open to the public after the first UK Covid-19 lockdown. There are plans to re-open the café in the spring of 2022.