Botanic Garden Railway Station
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Botanic Gardens Railway Station was opened on 10 August 1896. By the Glasgow Central Railway. Although the station building was built on ground level. The actual station platforms were underground, beneath the Glasgow Botanic Gardens. The station was closed between 1 January 1917 and 2 March 1919 due to Wartime economy. It closed permanently to passengers on 6 February 1939, with the line being closed completely on 5 October 1964.
The station building was converted into shops after the station's 1939 closure and by the late 1960s was occupied by a popular cafe called 'The Silver Slipper.
A nightclub called "Sgt. Peppers" and a plumbers shop, "Morton's" also inhabited the building until It was ravaged by fire on the night of 22 March 1970.
The decision was taken by the then Glasgow Corporation not to undertake repairs and instead to completely demolish the station and leave the site derelict. At the time of the fire, plans were being considered to demolish the station as part of a controversial scheme to widen Great Western Road. This was probably the reason why the decision not to repair the station dwas made.
Almost forty years after the fire, the platforms still remain underground where they can be seen through still open airvents in the Botanic Gardens.
An abandoned tramway kiosk designed in the same style as the station and built in 1903 is still present at the site.
In 2007 plans where submitted to build a night club which would involve completely rebuilding the station building to its original design on its footprint. Coincidently almost 40 years after it was destroyed.
The plans were met with considerable opposition from the local community who organised a campaign group largely objecting to the idea of a nightclub appearing in a tranquil place like the Gardens. The plans where rejected in 2008 and the station still lays derelict.
Although very few things actually remain of the station itself, its still a very impressive site. The twin platforms now ravaged by decay and severely overgrown are a sight worth seeing.
What probably makes the station even more appealing is the fact that very few sites like these are still in existance today.
