The ‘Greek’ Thomson Sixty Steps

Join us at The Sixty Steps, just off Queen Margaret Drive in Glasgow’s West End. At the site of the original Queen Margaret Bridge, built over 50 years before the bridge we know today, stands Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson’s only civic structure, an immense retaining wall with a sweeping staircase which was originally lit by ornate cast-iron lamps from the Saracen Foundry in Possilparrk. At the top of the wall is a small wildlife garden which is on land reclaimed after extensive engineering work stabilised the structure in 2017. Come and look down on the Kelvin Valley from the restored pillared viewing point known as the Belle Vue. The old Queen Margaret Bridge stood for a hundred years. It was known locally as Walker’s Bridge after John Ewing Walker who had it built to connect the developed Great Western Road with the still wooded and rural north bank of the Kelvin. The development of North Kelvinside was to follow. Walk round the wall taking in Thomson’s idiosyncratic designs such as a mysterious doorway and a fireplace. Look into the past through our collection of old photographs and map