Govan Graving Docks

Built between 1869 and 1898 by the Clyde Navigation Trust, Govan Graving Docks are the best preserved example of the Clyde’s glorious industrial maritime heritage.

The docks initial purpose was to service the Clyde’s expanding steamer fleet. Steamers were a common mode of transport in Victorian Glasgow — allowing holidaying Glaswegians to escape the noise and grime of the city and head West to Helensburgh or Gourock.

The three dry docks sit side by side, parallel to the Clyde, with the largest measuring at 268m being able to host the very largest of steamers. Indeed, docks number 1 and 3 would have been the largest in Britain at the time of construction.

The site has lain abandoned since 1988 and although exposed, its steel and concrete fixtures are remarkably well preserved. The angular dock walls were certainly built to last with the jutting granite slabs sloping down like steps into the water.

A heavy duty capstan is one of the few remaining items which offers any clues about the work that was once done here. The inscription ‘Dobie and Co Shipbuilders’ refers to a shipbuilding company active on the Clyde from 1866 to 1884, specialising in steamers and general passenger ships.

Moving towards the far end of the docks there remains a surprising amount of equipment used for the regulating of water flow into the docks. The two smaller docks are still sealed with the original caisson gates and folding bridges relatively intact.

These caisson gates would have been opened and closed using the hydraulic capstans seen above with water flow being regulated by hydraulic pumps and valves on the face of the gate.

The only remaining building on site is the Category A listed pump house. The pump house is largely roofless and looks to be one fire away from meeting the same fate as the iconic Scotway House, on the opposite bank of the river.

The pump house tower is strikingly similar to the recently renovated distillery across the Clyde at the entrance of the old Queen’s Dock. Indeed, the redeveloped industrial sites in the area only serve to amplify the decay of the Graving Docks.

To the North the Queen’s Dock now hosts the iconic SECC and Glasgow Hydro venues; to the East the shiny new BBC Scotland headquarters and Glasgow Science Centre inhabit the partially refilled Princess Docks. Despite the relative success of these projects, there is a feeling that not enough of the heritage of the Clyde was retained. In the rush to redevelop these historic sites of industry and commerce the basins and quays were filled with concrete and the buildings flattened. In their place stand some incredibly ambitious projects, like Zaha Hadid’s Museum of Transport, however, some of the residential accommodation has been less than inspiring and a feeling of disconnect, between the Clyde and the communities of Partick and Govan, continues to be an issue.

The Graving Docks are one of the last vestiges of Glasgow’s mythologised industrial and maritime heritage. For that reason alone they are worth saving.

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