Could another UK city get a New York-style High Line?

The UK already has one garden inspired by New York City’s High Line – the Castlefield Viaduct in Manchester – and there’s another in the works for Camden in London. But could it get a third?

There are calls to turn a disused viaduct in Glasgow into a sky garden inspired by the one in the Big Apple. Jock Breckenridge, a landscape designer, has said he wants to transform the Gorbals Viaduct, which formerly carried the mainline of the Glasgow and South Western Railway into St Enoch’s Station until its closure in 1965.

Breckenridge is currently fundraising and gathering community support for the plans. He told the Glasgow Times that he is in conversation with Network Rail, which owns the viaduct, alongside local heritage groups and other possible partners.

In his plans, Breckenridge wants to redesign the viaduct which opened in 1871. He would clear the trackbed which is now overgrown with trees, giving access to the local community. He also hopes to transform the long-lost Gorbals Station, which closed in 1929, into a community hub and heritage centre. 

Part of the track still carries a double track line linking Glasgow’s north and south railway systems. It occasionally carries rolling stock and freight trains. 

‘I pass the viaduct frequently on my bike and it strikes me that it is a historical asset that’s undervalued,’ Beckenridge told the Glasgow Times. 

‘Not only is it one of the last Victorian structures left standing in a redeveloped Gorbals, it is a direct link to the days when trains such as the Thames Clyde Express, the Stranraer and Ardrossan boat trains and specials carrying thousands of day-trippers and holiday makers to Clyde resorts, made their way over the viaduct.

‘It stood high above the cramped tenements of Gorbals, then home to the Glasgow Irish and Jewish immigrant communities, and would have been busy at night, too, with trains running to and from College Street Goods Station. We need to record and honour those days by properly conserving the viaduct.’

A Network Rail spokesperson said: ‘Network Rail welcomes interest from local communities and are always open to discussing ideas that aim to improve or celebrate our railway infrastructure.

‘We’re committed to working constructively with partners where appropriate and offering support wherever we can.’

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