Pollokshields Heritage

Trees

Pollokshields is as much defined by its trees as its buildings and open spaces!
Throughout the neighbourhood there are predominantly lime trees. There are also varying numbers of sycamore, holly, cherry, chestnut, conifer, beech, elm, pine, maple, ash, silver birch, oak, poplar, yew, rowan, larch, alder, hawthorn, willow and whitebeam trees, with magnolia, laburnum, lilac and rhododendron among the many shrubs.
Much of the original street tree planting has been eliminated in recent decades.

All trees within a Conservation Area or under a Tree Preservation Order are protected by law. It is illegal to "cut down, lop, top, uproot, wilfully damage or destroy" a legally protected tree without permission. Owners must notify the Director of Development and Regeneration Services, Glasgow City Council, if they wish to undertake work to a tree within the Conservation Area; permission for work to a tree covered by a Tree Preservation Order must be sought with a written application.

HOLLY BUSHES
The most historic of the garden trees is the humble holly – the badge of the longstanding Maxwell family who owned the land on which Pollokshields was developed. The motto – ‘Do Good While The Holly Is Green’ features in the Burgh Hall building both on the largest of the original stained glass windows and inscribed on the new stonework that formed part of the regeneration project.

WALNUT TREE
One of the more unusual trees in the district, it thrives in the garden of the Nan McKay Hall, off St John’s Road, formerly the grounds of the long-demolished no. 26 Maxwell Drive.

GINGKO
One of the most distinctive trees recently introduced to Pollokshields was planted at The Hidden Gardens in 2003. The gingko is the world’s oldest species. In Jurassic times it was found world-wide, and survived latterly in China. This one is a mere twenty-three years old and was brought from Germany.

DAWN REDWOOD
Is this the most unusual tree in Pollokshields?
Thought to have been extinct for over 5 million years, the Dawn Redwood was discovered by chance in a remote Chinese village in 1941, one of the most exciting events in the plant world of the last century. The first one to be planted in Britain was in 1949 and it is now a familiar sight in parks and gardens throughout the UK. The species is classified by the World Conservation Union as ‘critically endangered’ as it is found rarely in the wild.

POPLAR GROVE
(Leven St / Nithsdale Rd)
All of the green spaces between blocks of buildings across the suburb were planted with clusters of similar trees. This is one of the most distinctive, bordering on Nithsdale Road at its junctions with Leven Street and Shields Road, edged with poplars.