Cathedral Square is a public square in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. Cathedral Square and precinct is situated adjacent to Glasgow Cathedral on High Street/Castle Street at John Knox Street. Nearby are many famous Glasgow Landmarks such as Provand's Lordship, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Necropolis, the ceremonial Barony Hall of Strathclyde University, and the Glasgow Evangelical Church at the Square. It is one of six public squares and precincts in the city centre. Prior to the 1870s the post-medieval clutter of congested dwellings and workshops, on the remaining debris of the long-gone Bishop's Castle, where Castle Street is today, hampered access to the Infirmary, with its small Infirmary Square, and Cathedral. The new CityImprovement Trust, under architect and city superintendent John Carrick, started to clear the hovels near Glasgow Cross and erect new tenements up the High Street and Castle Street. A new road was fully opened, John Knox Street, curving its way past the Necropolis entrances, covering over the Molendinar Burn, and down to Duke Street, close to Wellpark Brewery at the Drygate. Cathedral Square Gardens opened in 1879, formed by John Carrick and landscaped by Duncan McMillan. In 1890 a decorative fountain, the Steven Fountain, was placed in the centre., the same year as the Doulton Fountain in Glasgow Green. As well as being a restful place the square has been used for political gatherings.
Discharged Prisoners Aid Society, 1896, red sandstoned building designed by architects Campbell Douglas and Morison
Barony Hall, 1889, category A listed red sandstoned building designed by Sir John James Burnet., as the New Barony Church, with its interior loosely modelled on Gerona Cathedral.
Queen Victoria, monarch from 1837 to 1901. Sculptor Albert Hemstock Hodge, 1914.
John Knox, theologian, minister, reformer. Designer W Warren, carver Robert Forrest, 1825.
In the late 1890s the sprawling Duke Street Prison, to its south and downhill, planned to open a new entrance and building at the edge of the square which caused "indignation meetings" and a successful campaign to save the green space, and some verses to think better, including... an extract... of CATHEDRAL SQUARE. We love it, and who shall dare To chide us for loving Cathedral Square? We’ve cherished it long as a sacred place, We’ve shown it to strangers of every race. 'Tis bound by a thousand ties to our hearts, And we add to its treasures in fits and starts. Would you learn the spell? St. Mungo dwelt there, a sacred space Cathedral Square!
