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The Once Great & Proud Bellahouston Academy :: Glasgow ::

The site of the Academy was donated by the Misses Steven of Bellahouston whose generosity also provided the clocktower,and the building was designed by a Bath Street architect,Robert Balde.The advertisement which announced the opening of the Academy described it as a ‘Boy’s High Class School and Ladies’ College’.

For its first nine years the Academy struggled to function privately and the opening of new schools in the area which were supported by rates and government grants,this became increasingly difficult,despite such economies as dispensing with the office and salary of the rector.In 1885 therefore,the Academy ceased to be a private school,and was sold to Govan Parish School Board for £15,000,who added a swimming pool,one of the first in Scotland.

The school was built to provide education for the children of the area who would otherwise have had to travel to Glasgow to the fashionable schools;not an easy journey as there was little public transport until the introduction of the tram,in 1879. In 1901 the Institute was opened to train pupil-teachers,but when this system was replaced in 1907 by a junior system,the Institute became part of the Academy,which by now had become a Secondary School and Junior Student Centre.In 1905 the main building was renovated and a new gymnasium and baths were built.

In 1962 the modern building in Gower Terrace was opened and took in pupils and staff from Pollokshields Secondary and became a comprehensive & the Paisley Road West building closed.

In the late 1960s a BBC TV series ‘This Man Craig’ was filmed at Bellahouston Academy featuring the actor John Cairney,famous for his portrayals of Robert Burns.In 1973,due to increasing numbers,the old building on Paisley Road West was re-opened.

The Paisley Road West building finally closed again in 1996.