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St Peter's Parish Church

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St Peter's Parish Church

St Peter's Parish Church in Oswald Street.

The church hall was built in 1836 as a chapel of ease. The parish was erected in 1853 as St Peter's Church quoad sacra (ie; an independent parish for church purposes only, without teinds or heritors to provide for a manse, church upkeep etc). The congregation seems to have moved to a new building in Brown Street in the early 1900s. It terminated in 1951 when it united with St Martin's as Anderston and St Peter's, and subsequently became part of Anderston Kelvingrove.

In 1936 the old St Peter's was converted to a zoo by the Wilson family, which had previously kept a zoo under the railway arches in Argyle Street. Wilson's Zoo became very popular, offering a pet shop in the basement as well as cages on two floors containing diverse animals such as tightrope-walking lions and lionesses which performed twice a day; a black panther; monkeys; a badger; parrots; macaws and a mynah bird which spoke in a Glaswegian accent. The zoo closed in the 1950s and the building was later demolished.

Reference: 1560.77.822

Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Museums

Keywords:
Anderston and St Peter's Parish Church, Anderston Kelvingrove Parish Church, Church of Scotland, churches, pet shops, quoad sacra parishes, St Peter's Parish Church, Wilson's Zoo, zoos



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