The Glasgow-born shipping magnate and fine art collector Sir William Burrell lived from 1861 to 1958 and amassed an astonishing collection of painting, sculpture and other treasures that he bequeathed to his natal city. It took until 1983 to organise custom-built premises to exhibit the material, in Pollok Country Park, but since then the Burrell Collection has been the Koh-i-Noor in the city's cultural crown.
The Scottish Parliament has a constituency called Glasgow Southside, and you do hear people in the city talking about the Southside, so it clearly exists beyond the imagination of travel guide writers trying to divide Glasgow into manageable chunks. As a matter of geographical fact the area is a sprawling, largely residential stretch of the city with more than a dozen distinct neighbourhoods. Starting on the south bank of the Clyde it ranges from Govan in the west to Richmond Park and Shawfield in the east and penetrates as far south as Shawlands, even to Giffnock (technically not in Glasgow but across the county line in East Renfrewshire). Given this diversity, the Southside isn't so much a single place as a collection of places: extensive, defined by what it isn't –north of the river – and strategically dipped into by visitors heading for standout attractions like the Burrell Collection or the Scottish Football Museum. Where you might wander the streets of the Merchant City or the West End, browsing, looking for a café or shop that catches your eye, you won't necessarily have those opportunities here but the Southside does offer two of the biggest football stadiums in the British Isles – Hampden and Ibrox – as well as parkland, theatre and an interesting selection of bars and eateries dotted around its many streets.
