West Dunbartonshire Arts and Heritage looks back at the opening of Knoxland Square

At the beginning of May 1890 the Lennox Herald and Dumbarton Reporter are awash with reports of a twin event in Dumbarton, the opening of Knoxland Square in Dumbarton East and the laying of the foundation stone of the Denny Institute on Church Street. The land for Knoxland Square was donated by Peter Denny, managing partner of William Denny & Bros shipbuilders. By 1881 Denny’s had acquired the land between the Knoll burn to the west and Gruggies burn to the east from Glasgow Road to the Rivers Clyde and Leven. This allowed for both the necessary extension of their shipyard and the allocation of some twenty acres of land for the building of housing for their growing number of employees. At the centre of this housing was Knoxland Square, the “lungs” of the new suburb of Newtown.

On the day a large procession of local bands and organisations left from Levengrove Park and walked over the bridge, along the High Street, past Denny’s Leven Shipyard where the members of the Denny family joined the procession and along Glasgow Road until they reached Knoxland Square. There was a large display of flags and bunting throughout the route and two triumphal arches were erected and covered in flowers spanning spots at Glasgow Road and Church place, which the procession passed under. The Church Place arch was adorned on one side with the words “Better lo’ed ye canna be” and the other “Dumbarton’s Drums beat bonnie, O”, the Glasgow Road arch had “Hail to our chief” and “Health and happiness”.

At the time of building Knoxland square was bordered by Knoxland Church, Knoxland School and the first of the new housing built for the employees by the Dumbarton Building Society. The square itself was 1 acre in extent and furnished with trees and an ornate bandstand made by George Smith and Company of the Sun Foundry, Glasgow. At the opening ceremony Peter Denny gave the title deeds to Provost Baptie along with the keys to the bandstand and in turn received a wooden casket decorated with local scenes in silver inlays which was designed by Mr J.M. Crawford, foreman of the decorative department of the Leven Shipyard, and built by Thomas Ross & Son of Buchanan Street, Glasgow. The casket contained an illuminated address, an ornate scroll, detailing the thanks of the people of the town and is now in the collection of West Dunbartonshire Council Arts & Heritage service.

After the speeches the group then made their way back along Castlegreen Street, Leven Road, Glasgow Road, Castle Street and finally on to church street for the laying of the foundation stone of the Denny Institute. The Denny Institute was built as a memorial to William Denny, eldest son of Peter Denny previously mentioned here. William Denny took his own life in Buenos Aires on the 17th of March 1887 while attempting to secure contracts for the Denny firm with the Platense Flotilla Company which carried goods and passengers on the Rio de la Plata.

The Denny Institute was envisioned as a memorial institute that would allow “reading and recreation rooms for the use of the inhabitants, and that accommodation might be provided for the public library, and the two wrought conjointly”, Dumbarton Herald 14.5.1890. It was built between what is now the Sherriff Court and the Burgh Hall and was a two storey building with the library on the ground floor and a working men’s club on the upper floor.

The library space contained a large public reading room and a smaller reading room “for ladies” with a small serving window to enable “ladies to have the use of the library in receiving and returning books without having to pass through the public reading room”, Dumbarton Herald 14.5.1890. Off the large reading rooms were three smaller rooms, two of which were for the circulating and reference libraries respectively and a further small committee room. The upper floor had a large recreation room with chess, draughts, a billiards room, card room and refreshment room. There was also a large kitchen to the back for catering, alongside living quarters for the building’s janitor. Membership on opening was less than 1p per week.

The Denny Institute was formally opened on the 26th of January 1892 and adorned with a marble bust of William Denny which was gifted by Lady Denny Samuelson. The reading rooms of the library were furnished with glass cases and a museum collection was build to be displayed therein with donations and purchases of items including anatomical models, a Samoan war knife, a comb from Fiji and a glass walking stick which had been made in the Dumbarton Glassworks. The building housed the public library until 1910 and continued to hold concerts and lectures up until the early 1950s. It was closed in 1962 and demolished in 1973.