Petition by the University of Glasgow to Glasgow Corporations, Regarding Proposed Trams on University Avenue

Author(s): Anonymous

IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS-SESSION 1914.
GLASGOW CORPORATION
(TRAMWAYS, ETC.) [H.L.]
PETITION
PRAYING TO BE HEARD
AGAINST
BY COUNSEL, ETC.
Unto the HONOURABLE THE COMMONS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT
BRITAIN AND IRELAND IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED.
THE HUMBLE PETITION OF THE UNIVERSITY COURT
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW.
SHEWETH :-
1. A Bill (hereinafter called " the Bill ") has been introduced and
is now pending in your Honourable House under the above name or
short title intituled " An Act to authorise the Corporation of the City
" of Glasgow to construct Tramways and Street Works, Bridges, and
" Sewers ; to borrow money ; and for other purposes." The Bill is
promoted by the Corporation of the City of Glasgow (hereinafter respectively
called " the Corporation " and " The City ").
2. Your Petitioners are a public corporation, and are the governing
body of the University of Glasgow (hereinafter called " the University ").
The whole property of the University is in virtue of the Universities
(Scotland) Act, 1889, vested in your Petitioners and the administration
of its whole property and revenues is entrusted to them. Your Petitoners
strongly object to the compulsory acquisition of their lands and
property and to after after-mentioned provisions of the Bill as injurious
and prejudicial to the property, rights and interest of themselves and
the University as subjecting the educational work of the University





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to wholly unnecessary limitation and restriction, as seriously impairing
for no good reason the efficiency of that important work, and needlessly
curtailing the valuable amenities and opportunities provided in the
University for the collegiate life of women students.
3. The University consists of two main parts. The University and
Collegiate buildings at Gilmorehill and Queen Margaret College in North
Kelvinside. There are attending the University in the present session
2771 students, of whom 2144 are men and 627 are women. Men students
study exclusively at Gilmorehill. Queen Margaret College, on the other
hand, is reserved entirely for the education and collegiate life of women
students.
4. Queen Margaret College is bounded upon the west by the Botanic
Gardens, belonging to the Corporation, and on the north by the River
Kelvin. It is a particularly attractive and secluded site, well timbered
and laid out, possessing seclusion and privacy. For such reasons it
was originally chosen for the higher education of women. Large and
suitable buildings have been erected on the site, which are used for
and possess unique advantages and facilities for the university education
of women, and as a residence for the Mistress of Queen Margaret College.
In addition, there is an excellent anatomical department and chemical
laboratory for women students. The anatomical department is very
suitably placed, the contour and extent of the present grounds enabling
it to be kept separated and retire, and at the same time convenient for
the college and students. The grounds which are to-day scarcely sufficient
in extent for the number of women students attending the College
are very largely used for the social life and collegiate intercourse of the
women students, and constitute a large part of the attraction of the
College for women students.
5. Under the Bill power is sought by the Corporation to make
and maintain the tramways in Clause 6 of the Bill, including
the following tramway (that is to say) :
" Tramway No. 15, 7 furlongs 5.9 chains or thereabouts in
" length wholly in the City and the County of Lanark commencing
" in the Parish of Govan in Great Western Road by a junction
" the with existing tramways in that road at a point 55 yards or
" thereabouts south-eastwards from the intersection of that road
" with Byres Road ; thence turning into and passing along Hamilton
" Drive, the proposed new street and bridge being Street Work
" No. 8 and Bridge No. 3, by this Act authorised, Queen Margaret
" Drive, Kelbourne Street, Albany Street, Percy Street and Garrioch
" Road and termination in the Parish of Glasgow in Garbraid
" Street by a junction with the existing tramways in that street
" at a point 12 yards or thereabouts north-westwards from the
" intersection of that street with Garrioch Road."


3
6. By Clause 11 of the Bill it is proposed to authorise the Corportion
to make the new streets, roads, street works, widening and
alteration of line and levels of roads described in the said Clause, includin
the following works (that is to say) :
" Street Work No. 8. A new street wholly in the City, the Parish
" of Govan and the County of Lanark, commencing by a junction
" with Hamilton Drive at a point 70 feet or thereabouts west of
" the junction of Buckingham Street with Hamilton Drive, and
" terminating on the south-west bank of the River Kelvin at a
" point 127 yards or thereabouts measured in a north-westerly direc"
tion along that bank of that river, from the north-western side of
" Queen Margaret Bridge : "
" Street Work No. 9. A widening wholly in the City, the Parish
" of Govan and the County of Lanark, of Hamilton Drive, on the
" north-west side thereof, commencing at the junction of Hamilton
" Drive with Great Western Road, and terminating in Hamilton
" Drive at a point 50 yards of thereabouts east of the junction of
" Buckingham Street with Hamilton Drive."
" Street Work No. 10. A widening wholly in the City, the Parish
" of Govan and the County of Lanark, of Great Western Road and
" Hamilton Drive, at the junction of that road with that Drive, com"
menacing in Great Western Road at a point 50 yards or thereabouts
" south-eastwards from the junction of the said road with the said
" Drive, and terminating in Hamilton Drive at a point 50 yards or
" thereabouts north-eastwards from the said junction of Great Western
" Road with Hamilton Drive."
7. Clause 13 of the Bill was inserted in the House of Lords purporting
to be for the protection of your Petitioners by the Committee
of that House to whom the Bill was referred, but the said clause is wholly
ineffective in protecting your Petitioners, and so far as the Tramways
are concerned cannot be given effect to under the powers of the Bill.
By Clause 14 of the Bill it is proposed, in the construction of
the street works to be authorised by the Bill, to authorise the Corporation
to deviate laterally to any extent not exceeding the limits of lateral
deviation show on the deposited plans and vertically from the levels
shown upon the deposited sections to any extent not exceeding 3 feet
upwards and 3 feet downwards.
9. It is proposed by Clause 17 of the Bill that the sections therein
mentioned of the Glasgow Corporation (Tramways Consolidation) Order,
1905, and by Clause 22 that the Glasgow Tramways Acts, 1905 to 1912,
and that the provisions of the Order of 1905 and the Act of 1907 mentioned
in Clause 22 shall extend and apply to the street works and tram-ways authorised by the Bill.


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10. By Clause 18 of the Bill, the Corporation ask for a period of
five years in which to construct the tramways and street works proposed
to be authorised by the Bill. By Clause 19 of the Bill, the Corporation
seek power to borrow money for the construction of the tramways and
street works proposed to be authorised by the Bill.
11. By Clause 23 of the Bill it is proposed to authorise the Corportion
to make and maintain certain bridges and river works, including
the following Bridge (that is to say):
" Bridge No. 3. A bridge over the river Kelvin, wholly in the
" City and the County of Lanark, commencing in the Parish of Govan
" by a junction with the Street Work N. 8 by the Bill authorised,
" at the termination of that work hereinbefore described, and ter"
minting in the Parish of Glasgow at a point on the south side of
" Kelvin Drive 30 feet of thereabouts, measured in a southerly direc"t
ion, from the intersection of Queen Margaret Drive with Kelvin
" Drive."
12. In the construction of the said bridge and works extensive
powers are sought by Clause 25 of the Bill in reference to the alteration
of the levels of existing roadways and approaches, the making of new
approaches and such other alterations or deviations of approaches or
other works and conveniences as may be necessary or expedient, and by
Clause 26 it is proposed that the Corporation should be authorised to
deviate laterally to any extent not exceeding the limits of lateral deviation
shown on the deposited plans and vertically from the levels shown on
the deposited section to any extent not exceeding 3 feet upwards and
3 feet downwards. By Clause 27 the Corporation seek a period of five
years for the construction of the said Bridge No. 3.
13. By Clause 43 of the Bill it is proposed to authorise the Corporation
for the purposes of the Bill to enter upon, take and use all or
any of the lands delineated on the deposited plans and described in the
deposited Books of Reference. By Clause 44 a period of three years
is proposed for the compulsory acquisition of such lands.
14. By Clause 46 of the Bill it is proposed to authorise the Corporation
to take parts only of certain properties which are specified in
the Schedule of the Bill. The said Schedule includes property belonging
to your Petitioners, but by Clause 13 it is provided that the provisions
of Clause 46 shall not apply to the properties numbered 13 and 14 on the
deposited plans so far as they belong or are reputed to belong to you
Petitioners. The plans contain other numbers applicable to the propreties
of your Petitioners, and your Petitioners own the aforementioned
strip of ground described on the deposited plans and Book of Reference




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as belonging to the Corporation. Clause 13, subclauses (3) and (4)
are limited to the said street work No. 8, and make no provision
regarding the acquisition of a strip of ground belonging to your Petitioners
along the north-western side of Hamilton Drive which is necessary
for the construction of Street Work No. 9, or for the protection of your
Petitioners from the damage which will be caused to your Petitioners
by the construction of Street Work No. 9 and Bridge No. 3.
15. It is further proposed by the Bill, and particularly Clauses 46,
48, 49 and 50 to vary to general law in favour of the Corporation, and
to make new and exceptional regulations in reference to the taking of
land and the determining of disputed questions of compensation.
16. Your Petitioners are subjected by the Bill to one or other of
two injurious alternatives : Either by Clause 43 to be expropriated
wholly from and dispossessed of Queen Margaret College, or by Clause 13
to be subjected to the irreparable loss, damage and annoyance of having
a new street and tramway constructed through the most valuable part
of the College grounds.
17. On the one hand the proposed Tramway No. 15 and the Street
Works Nos. 8, 9 and 10 and the Bridge No. 3 would, if constructed,
ruin Queen Margaret College, for, as laid out on the deposited plans,
the said street and tramway are intended to pass through the main
buildings of the College. If on the other hand the road and tramway
were formed as suggested by Clause 13, subclause (3), it would be impossidle
owing to the proximity of the road and tramway to carry on the
work of the University in Queen Margaret College as a place of instruction,
resort and study for women students.
The construction of the road and tramway as provided for by Clause
13 involves the placing of a main thoroughfare with tramway traction
engine and other noisy and objectionable traffic on the College land
close to the College buildings. The noise, dust and vibration and other
annoyances resulting therefrom would so seriously interfere with teaching
educational and scientific work as to lead inevitably to its discontinuance
in the College. The College is built, arranged and ventilated with reference
to its existing conditions of quietude, seclusion and privacy. To
insert double windows, as was suggested by the Corporation, to keep
out the noise means to keep out the air, as the College is entirely ventilated
on the natural system and would be wholly inefficacious. The
construction of the road and tramway on the part of the College ground
taken would so seriously injure the amenities of the remainder of the
College grounds as to make them wholly unsuitable for recreation and
collegiate intercourse for which, by reason, of their special advantages,
the are so largely used to-day and would deprive the College of a large




6
part of its attraction to women students. It would further leave the
College with an are of ground wholly insufficient for the needs of the
increasing number of women students resorting to the College.
19. Your Petitioners confidently submit that the practice and policy
or Parliament is to further and facilitate by every means the extension
and efficiency of University and higher education, and to avoid and
prevent by every means in its power the infliction and such injury on the
public and an educational institution such as the Corporation wholly
unnecessarily in this case propose to inflict on the University.
20. The site of Queen Margaret College was selected on account of
its secluded situation, its convenient position and its facility of access.
While the sire of the women's department of the University cannot be
at Gilmorehill, it must be within reasonable distance of it, and if a new
site had to be acquired by the University there is no similar or appropirate
one available. If a new site had to be acquired it would be
necessary to build it up by the purchase of late by private treaty from
several different owners, and at such prices as the owners might fix.
All such land is subject to restrictive conditions in reference to the use
and occupancy ; there is no land on part of which there is not already
a certain amount of building which would require to be removed if University
buildings were to be erected. Even if land in the neighbourhood
were acquired, it would not have the seclusion of the present site, or its
attractiveness or its suitability for University purposes. If it was
possible to acquire a site, the land would require to be formed and laid
out at large expense, and the erection of new and suitable building
would be very costly. With the advance in price of building in
recent years, buildings with the accommodation provided for by Queen
Margaret College could not be erected except with a large expenditure
of money, and additional cost might be involved owing to the situation
and contour of the land. It would take several years to erect such
buildings, and they would require to be ready for occupancy before the
existing buildings were interfered with. The disturbance and expense
consequence to removal would be great. The provision for compensation
under the Lands Clauses Acts would be totally inadequate for a case of
this kind.
21. The Corporation have suggested that the University has plenty of ground at Gilmorehill upon which to erect buildings in lieu of Queen
Margaret College if a change were necessary. This is not the case. The
vacant ground belonging to the University at Gilmorehill is of limited
area, unsuitable for the purpose, and reserved for laboratories and
other buildings of a like description in extension of those already existing
upon Gilmorehill which will become necessary within a comparatively




7
short time. instead of there being plenty of ground, the area available
is in fact insufficient for the requirements of the University apart altogather
from the special requirements of the women's department of the
University.
22. Queen Margaret College and buildings, with the ground on which
they are erected, were gifted by the late Mrs. Elder to your Petitioners to
be held by them as an integral part of the University, and exclusively as
a place for the separate University teaching of women as students of the
said University.
23. The proposed Street Works Nos. 8, 9 and 10, Bridge No. 3 and
Tramway No. 15 are unnecessary. What public need there may be for
them is not in any degree commensurate with the public damage which
would be done to Queen Margaret College. That damage would be much
lessened if the said works were formed entirely to the west of Queen
Margaret College. This could be done in a manner equally suitable for
tramway and general vehicular traffic.
In the year 1905 the Corporation was authorised by the Glasgow
Corporation (Tramways Consolidation) Order Confirmation Act, 1905,
to form a line of tramways serving the same purpose as Tramway No. 15
along Oran Street, Gower Street, Montgomerie Street, across Kirklee
Bridge, and along Kirklee Road. The said Kirklee Bridge is a suitable
bridge, and the route is equally suitable for tramway and other vehicular
traffic as Tramway No. 15 and Street Works 8, 9 and 10 and Bridge No. 3.
It would likewise save the great expense of a new bridge involved in the
present scheme.
25. In the year 1911, the Corporation approved and deposited plans
for a Provisional Order seeking power to form a new bridge across the
Kelvin slightly to the east of the existing Queen Margaret Bridge, and a
street and tramway from Queen Margaret Drive over the said bridge with
the junction in Great Western Road, either at St. James Place or St.
James Street. The formation of such street, bridge and tramway
could be made without damaging Queen Margaret College, and are
equally suitable for tramway and other vehicular traffic as Tramway
No. 15 and Street Works 8, 9 and 10 and Bridge No. 3.
26. The Botanic Gardens are a public park belonging to the Corportion
and held for public purposes, and lie immediately to the west
of Queen Margaret College. If it is a public necessity to have a new direct
road between Garbraid Street and Great Western Road, which your
Petitioners do not admit, this could be obtained by the formation of a
street and bridge across the Kelvin commencing at Queen Margaret
Drive passing through the Botanic Gardens to the west of your Peti-




8
tioner's property and terminating at the Great Western Road, which
can be done on the lines and levels shown on the plans and sections of
which a copy has been deposited with this Petition at the Private Bill
Office of the House of Commons. This route is equally suitable for
tramway and other vehicular traffic as Tramway No. 15 and Street
Works 8, 9 and 10 and Bridge No. 3.
27. The granting of powers to take a portion of the property of
your Petitioners which is in regular use for educational purposes, is
wholly unwarranted and without precedent, and ought not to be sanctioned.
If the result of the formation of the proposed tramway, street
works and bridge is to be detrimental to any one, the detriment should
be sustained by the Botanic Gardens, which belong to the Corporation.
There are already tramways through the public parks in Glasgow
and a railway under the Botanic Gardens, with a station and other works
on the surface thereof.
28. The proposed Tramway No. 15, after passing northwards over
Queen Margaret Drive, is intended to pass along Kelbourne Street,
Albany Street, Percy Street, and Garrioch Road to its junction with
Garbraid Street. The School Board of Glasgow has two schools in
Percy Street, and by arrangement with them and for their protection,
a Clause 10 of the Bill has been inserted, by which it is provided that
notwithstanding anything in the Act contained or shown on the deposited
plans, the Corporation shall not without consent in writing
of the School Board of Glasgow construct so much of Tramway No. 15
as is situated in Percy Street. The effect of the aforesaid clause is that
the scheme for which parliamentary sanction is asked cannot if sanctioned
be carried out beyond the end of Albany Street except with consent of
the School Board of Glasgow.
29. Your Petitioners submit that Queen Margaret College is an
even more important institution than the two schools of the School
Board, and that a similar clause should be inserted in the Bill as regards
the University.
30. If contrary to the hope and expectation of your Petitioners
your Honourable House should see fit to inflict the injury on the University
proposed by the Bill, Your Petitioners earnestly ask that no such
injury should be authorised unless and until the Corporation have procured
and laid out at their own expense to the satisfaction of your
Petitioners in substitution for Queen Margaret College a site possessing
adequate and equal amenities and facilities for the education and collegiate
life of the women students of the University, nor until a College has been
erected thereon to the like satisfaction of equal and adequate accommoda-




9
tion to that presently afforded by Queen Margaret College and the
University has been compensated for all the loss and damage of removal.
Your Petitioners submit it would be wholly inequitable and improper
that the risk and loss of and in procuring a new site should be thrown
upon the University whose public function is of at least equal importance
to the community as that of the Corporation and so indirectly thrown
upon the students of the University.
31. There is no justification for any of the proposed works in so far as
these may interfere with the property and rights of your Petitioners.
32. The powers sought by the Corporation in connection with the
settlement of disputes are not only contrary to the public law, but are
in themselves highly objectionable, and your Petitioners object to the
powers proposed to be conferred on the Corporation by Clause 46 of the
Bill to take parts only of your Petitioners' lands and property.
33. The scheme is ill-considered and incomplete. The estimates
and engineering and other details of the scheme are defective, incomplete
and insufficient. The tramways and street works can only be
constructed and worked at a loss to the ratepayers of the City and are
unnecessary in the public interest.
The Bill contains divers clauses and provisions, besides those
before referred to, which are of an objectionable nature, and which
ought not to be sanctioned, and it does not contain adequate provision
for the protection of your Petitioners' property rights and interests or
make proper provision for compensation to your Petitioners for the
injurious consequences which would result to their property from the
construction of the tramways, street works and bridge hereinbefore
specially mentioned.
35. For these and for other reasons your Petitioners object to the
powers sought for under the Bill so far as relating to the said tramways,
street works and bridge.
36. The preamble of the Bill cannot be proved.
YOUR PETITIONERS therefore humbly pray that the Bill may
not be passed into law, and that they may be heard by
their Counsel, Agents and Witnesses before the Committee
of your Honourable House to whom the Bill may be referred
against the preamble of the Bill and (if the same do pass)
against the clauses and provisions thereof which affect their
property, rights and interests, and in support of such other




19432
GLASGOW UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES
IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
SESSION 1914.
GLASGOW CORPORATION
(TRAMWAYS, Etc.) [H.L.]
PETITION
OF
THE UNIVERSITY COURT OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW
AGAINST
BY COUNSEL, ETC.
MITCHELLS, JOHNSTON & CO.,
160 WEST GEORGE STREET, GLASGOW,
Solicitors.
BEVERIDGE, GREIG & CO.,
23 ABINGDON STREET, WESTMINSTER, S.W.,
Parliamentary Agents.

Petition by the University of Glasgow to Glasgow Corporations, Regarding Proposed Trams on University Avenue

Document Information

Document ID	535
Title	Petition by the University of Glasgow to Glasgow Corporations, Regarding Proposed Trams on University Avenue
Year group	1900-1950
Genre	Administrative prose
Year of publication	1914
Place of publication	London, England
Wordcount	3970

Author information: Anonymous

Author ID	395
Surname	Anonymous