We walked the Govan Partick bridge and hope it's a sign of better times ahead for River Clyde

It took me around 15 minutes to walk from my home in Partick to sunny Govan today (Saturday) - and I wasn’t the only one.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent months eyeballing the Clyde on the way past the Riverside Museum, awaiting a date for the city’s newest bridge to open to the public.

That day arrived around 10am on September 7, and my family were among hundreds marking the occasion with a jaunt across the river, no boats required.

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Glasgow's new bridge taking pride of place next to the Riverside Museum.
Reader Christine Montgomery captured this stunning photo of Glasgow's new bridge taking pride of place next to the Riverside Museum. -Credit:Christine Montgomery

There has been a lot of debate this week about whether we need the Govan Partick crossing, a £29.5m swing footbridge connecting two former boroughs with plenty of historical links but only the nightmare-inducing pedestrian walkway of the Clyde Tunnel (if you know you know) joining them together. Until now.

Like any major funded project, you can always ask whether the money would be better spent elsewhere - but a brief wander around both sides of the Clyde this morning showed that this is more than just a physical bridge across two communities.

Govan’s Water Row is pristine and shining. New flats seem to have been built with their surroundings in mind - dare I say it, for a change - and those sharp-pointed roofs atop tall towers perfectly complement the new bridge.

The fact that I can see them from my window in the upper reaches of Partick has, until now, been a little bit misleading - because short of catching a Subway, Govan was not exactly a stone’s throw away.

Now, the Riverside Museum and the up-and-coming southside neighbourhood are, well, neighbours…and both point to a new direction for the whole of the Clydeside as a go-to destination.

Govan has always had a rough-and-ready reputation. But then so did Partick, once upon a time, before it was adopted by the west end (and property prices to boot).

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Govan's Water Row has a new lease of life.
Govan's Water Row has a new lease of life. -Credit:Glasgow Live

Nowadays, a wander south means verging-on-trendy cafes, out-and-out trendy offices in former shipyard buildings and rows of outstanding looking shops thanks to the Govan Shopfront Improvements scheme, harking back to a time when both neighbourhoods had an identity all of their own. And with a bridge connecting the two, it’s fair to say that Govan could be one to watch on the property front.

How long before people start calling it the 'new west end'? Well, my husband - a Partick-till-I-die kind of guy - had the cheek to wheel it out today, before waxing lyrical about Govan having a Baynes ("brilliant macaroni pies" apparently, presumably without the west end price tag).

We’ve both been walking more over the last few years, kicking off in lockdown when it was the only thing to do and continuing when our son arrived. And so the three of us were among the very first to cross the new bridge this morning, keen to see a potential new route and what it means for both sides of the river.

The baby is now a rampaging toddler, incidentally, and had a ball walking along the walls on either side of this shiny new addition. He might even have had a wee dance along to the entertainment on offer throughout Saturday.

Glaswegians turn out in droves to see the new bridge.
Glaswegians turn out in droves to see the new bridge. -Credit:Glasgow Live

As for the crossing itself, it's very impressive to look at, and hints at what the rest of Glasgow’s riverfront could be, with some investment and TLC to those derelict stretches between here and the city centre.

Now we just need to think of a name for the thing, because Squinty and Squiggly are taken - but the Pointy Bridge, as some people have suggested, does have a nice ring to it…

For those there today, it’s a nice wee bit of local history, to say that you were there for the bridge’s big public opening. But more than that, it’s a reminder that our city deserves better, and could do more to honour its once thriving shipbuilding heritage with a Clydeside to be proud of.

If you’re looking for something to do this weekend then taking in Govan, Partick and everything going on between the two is just the ticket.

But beyond this weekend's big events, let's hope Glasgow's new addition is a sign of more good things to come.

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