- Location: Pollok Country Park, 260 Pollokshaws Road, Glasgow G43 1AT
- Opening times: 10am – 4.30pm
- Entry: Adult £8.50, Concession £6.00, Family £20.50, One Adult Family £14.00
- Access: Parking at Burrell Collection £5.00 for 4 hours, £10.00 all day
Pollok House is, according to the National Trust for Scotland’s website, “an example of Georgian grandeur that would be at home in a Jane Austin novel”. It is situated in Glasgow’s largest park, the award-winning Pollok Country Park, named Britain’s Best Park in 2007 and Europe’s Best the following year. The house was built in the 1750s for the Maxwell family, who have owned land here since the Middle Ages. In 1966, it was gifted to the city by Dame Anne Maxwell Macdonald in accordance with the wishes of her late father Sir John Stirling Maxwell, who wanted the people of Glasgow to be able to enjoy the house and estate.
I used Satnav to get to the park and then followed the signage to Pollok House, but somehow ended up in the car park of the Burrell Collection. A quick check on Google Maps told me it was a fifteen-minute walk to Pollok House, plenty of time to get there for my 11.30 self-guided tour booking. In the end, however, I only just made it, because I hadn’t taken into account the field of very friendly highland cows betwixt here and there. Of course I stopped to take pictures; how could you not? And I wasn’t alone. A crowd milled around the cattle that had come down to the fence to be petted (although I suspect they were hoping to be fed), and almost no one walked by without joining it. I also took some time to admire the Scottish Police Dog Memorial.
I have been to Pollok House twice in the past, both for Christmas events. The first time I was a member of the NTS and got an email inviting me along to see the house in all its seasonal splendour, and very handsome it was too. What stands out in my memory, though, was that they had Mrs. Clause rather than Santa on hand to meet the kids, the first and only time I have seen the big man thus supplanted (however, as we shall see later, the house has served as home to a long line of strong-willed women, of which Mrs. Claus was perhaps just the latest). The second time was a departmental Christmas night out. Each year a different person picked the venue and this was my choice.Thankfully, it proved to be a hit, with several colleagues commenting even years later that it had been their favourite venue to date. There will be no Christmas festivities this year, however, for Pollok House is closing on 20 November 2023 for at least two years’ worth of conservation work. With this in mind, I did ponder whether it was worth writing this entry up, but – hey! – it is a brown sign, and it has been bagged.
Pollok House has three floors (four, if you count the attic area which in times past served as sleeping quarters for the serving staff), but the upper storey was out of bounds on the day of my visit; one of the guides said it was normally used as an exhibition space but presumably it was now closed off in preparation for the upcoming conservation. However, I didn’t feel cheated as there were plenty of rooms to see over the remaining two floors, and the enthusiastic and knowledgeable guides stationed around the rooms were incredibly good in bringing the house and its former occupants to life.
The lower and middle floor present a classic ‘upstairs / downstairs’ scenario, with the middle floor consisting of the Maxwells’ lounge and recreation areas, such as a sun room, a music room, a library, and so on. The sun room had an interesting information board about some of the more recent(ish) ladies of the house who despite leading privileged lives were clearly committed to improving the lot of others. Lady Hannah Ann Maxwell (1831 – 1885), for example, believed that the right to vote shouldn’t only belong to the monied and campaigned for more people to have representation. Amongst her many charitable works, Lady Christian Stirling Maxwell (1871 – 1937) supported women’s hospitals in Glasgow and London and was President of the British Red Cross during the First World War.
Caroline Norton (1808 – 1877), who became Lady Striling-Maxwell late in life, was previously married to a Tory MP by the name of George Chapple Norton. When their marriage failed, not least because to his abusive behaviour, he refused to get a divorce and denied Caroline from seeing her three children. He also not only failed to support her financially, but he also claimed whatever she earned as a writer as his own. Did I mention he was a Tory MP? All of George Norton’s despicable behaviours were within the laws of the time, so Caroline campaigned ceaselessly and ultimately successfully to have those laws changed. Thanks to her, the Custody of Infants Act 1839, the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857, and the Married Women’s Property Act 1870 were all passed.
Another campaign had its genesis in the smoking room in Pollok House, for it was from conversations held in this small, warm, cedar-panelled chamber in 1931 that the National Trust for Scotland was born. Sir John Stirling-Maxwell was concerned about the potential loss of historical sites and areas of natural beauty in the face of urban growth. Inspired by the National Trust founded south of the border in 1895, he and some like-minded colleagues set up the NTS, Stirling-Maxwell serving first as a vice-president and then as president from 1943 until his death thirteen years later. Some Trust properties preserved for the nation that have previously been covered on Brown Sign Blogging include Robert Burns’ Birthplace, Hill House, the Dunmore Pineapple, Bannockburn, the Hermitage, and J. M. Barrie’s birthplace.
The ‘downstairs’ part of Pollok House is a tiled labyrinth occupying the entire ground floor and is arguably brighter and airier than the Maxwell’s living quarters. In its heyday, 48 members of staff worked here, looking after just three residents. Some of the original rooms are maintained, such as the Butler’s Office and the Head Housekeeper’s bedroom, but the kitchen is now the property’s restaurant and a gift shop occupies the former maid’s quarters.
Destination or Diversion?
Pollok House and its gardens count as a destination, with an option to stroll around the country park or to visit the nearby Burrell Collection.
Pollok House and its surroundings have been used in several television programmes and films. This bridge for example served as the French countryside in an episode of Outlander.
