Between the bustle of the city and the swinging south side is the worst area in Glasgow. Not the worst for what it contains, but what it lacks. As Laurieston gives way to Eglinton Toll, this area within spitting distance of Scotland’s largest city centre is overwhelming in its absence. The A77 traffic sewer carries vehicles through the nothingness on their way to Strathbungo. Inside a vehicle, the full effect of the vacuum’s apex could pass you by. But travelling this way on foot or by bicycle, it snatches the air right out of your lungs.

The sky-blue cladding on the M74 does nothing to replace the airspace you leave behind when travelling beneath it. Around it everything stops, save the roaring of motors. It has a dizzying effect. But soon the buzz picks up again and you’re in Govanhill, or Pollokshields.

Talk of dereliction in this area reached a crescendo in August when a second fire threatened to swallow up the old Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice. This was after the old India Buildings gave up the ghost and the council were forced to dismantle it for a fee of around £1 million.

In September, around a month after steady public outcry following the Carlton Place blaze, Ruairi Kelly, city convenor for neighbourhood services and assets, told our sister title Glasgow Times that the council was working on something. A North Laurieston masterplan with New Gorbals Housing Association. Spanning the area south of the River Clyde towards Bridge Street Subway station, between the Sheriff Court and the railway line into Central Station, the masterplan is expected to be published this year.

I reckon the best we can hope for is more build to rent apartments for Londoners who fancy a discounted rent of £1,400 while they “work from home”. Hopefully they throw in a façade retention or two when they bulldoze the place. I jest. It’s exciting to see some attention paid to an area that the city turned its back on long ago. But who knows how long it will take?

(Image: Erz Landscape Architects)In the meantime, one of the most compelling concepts for regenerating the area came across the news desk earlier this month. The Devon Street Urban Park plan would see around 8,000 square metres of derelict land under the M74 transformed into a major urban sports park. Less than a mile from Carlton Place, it would create a free to use space for skateboarders and BMX riders alongside public art and active green space for walking, wheeling and cycling.

The project has been in the works for over ten years, originally dreamed up by longtime skateboarder Neil Davidson in 2012. He saw an opportunity in the “lost space” separating the heart of the south side from the rest of the city. Using the belly of the M74 as a canopy, the park could become a rare undercover, outdoor community space. Since 2014, the project has been led by Scottish artists and skateboarders Toby Paterson and Raydale Dower of Glasgow Urban Sports. BMX rider and professional ramp builder John Bailey (Vision Ramps, The Loading Bay) joined the team in 2020.

A rare bird, this plan actually has money behind it. The Susanne Marcus Collins Foundation, a US-based philanthropy fund named in honour of Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus’s late daughter, has pledged £1.2 million to support the capital delivery of the project. Glasgow Urban Sports and The Loading Bay have been carrying out extensive community consultations, speaking to every resident they can get in contact with. Local schools, organisations and housing associations have also been brought into the fold. Most have been incredibly supportive, but there is always a nimby or two lurking in the shadows. “One of the residents wants a chip shop, but we are not putting a chip shop in.”

It is not often that a city is bestowed a new park. And rarely one to this scale. The planning application will be submitted in December after a second consultation is carried out. The hope is to get the park built before the 2026 Commonwealth Games. John describes it as “shovel ready”.

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Skateboarding and BMX riding have come a long way since I was growing up, especially in Glasgow. The city is one of the first to scrap its cycling strategy in favour of a Glasgow “Cycling and Urban Sports Strategy”, which has allowed public spaces to be rethought in terms of how they can incorporate obstacles for skating and riding. It was a move praised by The Loading Bay and Glasgow Urban Sports, but when I tried to ask the council last week if anyone wanted to boast about the pioneering policy to me, the press office declined.

Though there will always be tension around legitimising a sport that once operated in the fringes, bringing it into discussions of city policy has helped more kids to get involved. Since The Loading Bay opened in 2020, it’s helped innumerable schoolchildren learn how to BMX or skateboard, and the data coming out of the indoor urban sports centre has proved just how valuable it is to young people. And how popular. The Loading Bay now welcomes more than 30,000 visitors each year.

The Devon Street Urban Park has the potential to reconnect the edge of the south side with the rest of the city. To transform such a lonely space into a free sports hub, naturally sheltered from the rain for year-round use, is an incredible prospect. Particularly since it borders Govanhill, home to the highest child poverty rate in the UK. If built, it will have a seriously positive impact on neighbouring families.

Urethane wheels smacking concrete was my coming-of-age soundtrack. People close to me have always skateboarded, from high school in Vancouver to young adulthood in Glasgow. Close friends, partners, myself for a few summers. There is something important to be said about the community it creates for young people and the mental health support that those friendships offer. It doesn’t cost that much to pick up and it’s common for older skaters to gift youngsters who can’t afford a board one of their old ones. It will be great for Govanhill.

I hope the dull roar of the M74 overhead is drowned out by the whirring, popping and scraping of an urban park soon. It’s been a long time coming.

Marissa MacWhirter is the editor of The Glasgow Wrap. Each morning, Marissa curates the top local news stories from around the city, delivering them to your inbox at 7am daily so you can stay up to date on the best reporting without ads, clickbait or annoying digital clutter. Oh, and it’s free. She can be found on X @marissaamayy1