Fit for a Queen
The biggest flat on Glasgow’s South Side lives up to the royal standard
NO matter where you turn in the douce Glasgow suburb of Pollokshields, you just can’t get away from her. The ghost of Mary, Queen of Scots hovers all around you in the street names ripped from the pages of her tragic personal history.
There’s Kirkcaldy Road, named after one of her generals, Sir William Kirkcaldy of Grange.
How about Dundrennan Road, taken from the abbey to which the monarch fled after the Battle of Langside?
Darnley Road has its origins in her second husband, followed by the more obvious Regent Park Square, Queen Square and Marywood Square.
Mary’s regal legacy in the 21st Century is down to the support she enjoyed from the Stirling Maxwell family, who owned all the land here for miles around.
Hundreds of years after her death, they maintained their loyalty to Mary when they began feuing off land for handsome new tenements being built at the start of the 20th Century.
They insisted on a Mary connection in the street names given to the micro-suburb of Maxwell Park in Pollokshields. Arguably, the daddy of them all is Fotheringay Road, an elegant line of red sandstone apartments overlooking the biggest area of greenery in Pollokshields.
The name also enjoys a connection to Mary Queen of Scots – although someone back in the day slipped up with their spelling. It’s named after Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire, which any schoolboy will tell you was the place of Mary’s notorious execution in 1587.
Estate agent Corum has no fewer than three attractive apartments for sale at the moment in Fotheringay Road, not least the first floor flat that reaches royal standard on the corner of Dolphin Road.
Owned by a successful city restaurateur, it stretches to six apartments and is being marketed as the biggest flat in Glasgow’s South Side.
This ‘palace up a close’ enjoys original fireplaces, rich cornicing and ceiling roses in almost every room. The dining room has a bay window and, at 22 feet by 14 feet, is probably bigger than anything you would find in an Edwardian semi.
The sumptuous lounge also enjoys a bay window, looking straight onto Maxwell Park and the quaint Victorian train station of the same name.
Somehow, the glossy modern kitchen by Howdens does not feel out of place, its three ovens betraying the fact that the owner is a keen cook. It also affords a terrific outlook to the communal garden, which runs for a full 150 yards at the rear of the property.
The TV room has a three-piece sofa arrangement, which the owner will probably be prepared to leave behind as it was specially built to fit the space.
The wide hall is lit by three of the four crystal chandeliers in the flat that were bought at auction from the Turnberry Hotel in Ayrshire.
The accommodation is completed by a master bedroom with fireplace, two further bedrooms, shower room, dressing room and bathroom.
The wider Pollokshields area is said to be proving a magnet for aspiring young couples from Glasgow’s West End, who find they can achieve much more of a footprint for their money by crossing the Kingston Bridge. The small shopping area at the corner of Nithsdale Road and Kildrostan Street looks like it has been parachuted in from trendy Byres Road over the river, with quaintly named cafes such as La Tea Doh, Moyra Janes and Christopher Robin. But it’s one other name in the area which should grate with any proud Glaswegian. The aforementioned Dolphin Road was meant to commemorate Queen Mary’s first husband, the French Dauphin she wed in Notre Dame de Paris when she was only 15 years old. But bosses at the city’s Post Office changed the name... because they didn’t think uncouth Glaswegians could pronounce Dauphin. Sacré bleu! Offers over £345,000 to Lynsey Smith at Corum in Shawlands. Tel 0141 636 7588 or email lynsey. smith@corumproperty.co.uk