Travellers queuing at Queen Street Station on Fair Saturday 1955. The building on the right is the North British Hotel.
Opened in 1842, Queen Street is Glasgow's oldest surviving railway station. The arched iron and glass roof (visible on the left, above the station sign) was completely hidden from view from West George Street in 1969 by new offices.
By the mid-1950s most working people in Glasgow were given a fortnight's holiday in July timed to coincide with the traditional Glasgow Fair. Many holidaymakers continued to head for resorts "doon the watter" on the Firth of Clyde or to the Scottish countryside, but others began to travel further afield. Buses setting off from the city centre took a growing number of Glaswegians to European destinations such as France, Austria and Switzerland during the 1950s.
In 1955 Partick Camera Club set out to create a photographic survey of Glasgow. As the project progressed, other camera clubs joined and each was allocated a district of the city to photograph. Glasgow Museums exhibited the photographs at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and at the People's Place, and in 1956 the exhibition was shown at the Palace of Art in Bellahouston Park. The photographs are now part of Glasgow Museums' collections.
Reference: 1005.97.86 / OG.1955.121.[88]
Reproduced with the permission of the Partick Camera Club
Keywords:
British Railways, Copthorne Hotel, Fair Fortnight, Fair Saturday, Glasgow Fair, Glasgow Photographic Survey 1955, holidays, hotels, North British Hotel, Queen Street Station, queues, railway stations, tourism, tourists
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