What does our constant debate around whether an area is south side or west end say about Glasgow, asks Marissa MacWhirter

If I close my eyes and picture the south side, I see an organic spike tattoo wrapped around a fist clasping a tiny pastel paper coffee cup. A sea of Alpha Industries bomber jackets, independents with limited opening hours and a penchant for drama. I can smell the warm vegetal scent of fruit wafting down Victoria Road, hear the bicycles whizzing past.

Ask me to picture myself in the west end, and I’m in a crowd of students nudging along Byres Road, holding my breath against the damp, hot air blowing from the Subway station. Or I’m heaping spoonfuls of taramasalata onto charred sourdough at Crabshakk admiring the glossy-haired patrons. Or counting the cockapoos along the streets and in the park.

One of my favourite community pastimes is defining Glasgow’s two most hotly contested areas online: the west end and the south side (or is it the southside?). It’s easy to conjure the gist of each area. For me, the south side is the grungier, more eclectic cousin of the west end, which feels cleaner but also more sanitised. The south side is independent shops, a DIY ethos, multicultural, and intergenerational. The west end is curated, an aspirational brand of middle-class identity. Both are defined by walkability, their leafy, Victorian-era parks, their sandstone tenements, and the trendy places where you can fill your gullet or wet your whistle.

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The physical boundaries are much harder to define. But boundaries mean a lot in Glasgow, a city that has been carved up like a carcass, with many areas bulldozed in the name of progress. The city is physically chopped up by transport infrastructure, from the M8 that carved up Anderston to the train lines that slice up sections of different neighbourhoods.

The post-war clearance programme (one of the most extensive in Britain) left Glaswegians with a strong topophilia. Where you live is a strong marker of class, cultural capital and social identity, which is why the Reddit boundary police frequently turn out in full force for every debate. But the debates reveal something deeper about our sense of anxiety over gentrification and what identity means in a city where streets you thought would last forever disappear.

I found it hard at first to wrap my head around the tribal-like intensity with which people in the city protect neighbourhood boundaries or debate them. As a reporter covering the city, one of the biggest faux pas is to get an area wrong. But the boundaries in certain pockets are blurred; they are not on Google Maps, and the understanding of where one place stops and another begins is often down to learned knowledge. Like the lines on the road that have been worn away by so many cars, it’s up to you to just know where you are.

What constitutes the west end in Glasgow was established in the early 20th century. The west end is Hillhead, Kelvinside, Dowanhill, Kelvingrove, and Hyndland. Neither Finnieston nor Partick is the west end, no matter how many chi-chi restaurants open there. Estate agent Slater Hogg & Howison perhaps has the most delusional definition of the west end, in which they include: Finnieston, Charing Cross, Woodlands, St George's Cross, Broomhill, Thornwood, Whiteinch, Anniesland, Jordanhill, Whiteinch, Scotstoun, Knightswood, Yoker, Scotstounhill, Old Drumchapel, Blairdardie, Maryhill, Maryhill Park, Summerston, Cadder, Ruchill and North Woodside.

The south side is even more difficult to define. It historically would have referred to everything south of the Clyde, but now largely refers to Queen’s Park, Shawlands, Govanhill, and Strathbungo. As Finnieston and Partick are west without the “end”, Mount Florida and Battlefield are south without the “side”.

Where these definitions are upheld within the collective consciousness, there is a sense that some places, typically working-class ones, are dropped because they are not on brand. Then there are other places that have their own identity altogether. Take Govan, which I would never consider to be the south side. It’s southwest, sure. But Govan was its own town until Glasgow annexed it in 1912. Glasgow also has peripheral estates that didn’t grow naturally out of the city over time. Castlemilk, Pollok, Drumchapel, and Easterhouse were all built around the 1950s and don’t really fit in with the kind of urban living that defines the “south side” or “west end”.

So you think you live in the west end? Are you sure? (Image: Colin Mearns)

I asked comedian Zara Gladman, thinking that if anyone knows for sure, it would be the icon behind the Glasgow west end Mum sketches. She told me she didn’t have much of an opinion on it, adding it’s a topic that winds people up, “but ultimately doesn’t matter”. Her thoughts align with mine, that the south side is essentially the areas around Queen’s Park rather than Govan or Ibrox which have their own identities. “I reckon you have to go properly south of the river to be ‘south side’”, she says. “And the west end is walking distance to Glasgow Uni, although Finnieston is walking distance but wouldn’t technically count as ‘west end’ because it has its own identity.”

The reason boundary lines matter so much is that people have bonds to areas. Place names are not just geography; they carry emotional, social, and cultural meaning. Historically, where you’re from is essentially shorthand for who you are. Because both the south side and the west end are aspirational and mostly filled with young people who are still shaping their identities, the cultural shorthand of each place matters.

I’ve heard Calton referred to as “Merchant City East”. I’m sure this debate will come for the east end next, just as the independent coffee shops have. Dennistoun would make the cut for sure, and Bridgeton, Barrowfield and Parkhead, of course. Shettleston and Tollcross might be east without the “end”.

Changing neighbourhoods are undoubtedly touched by gentrification, new cafes, rising rents, and the reshaping of long-standing communities. But the city is always going to be in motion, whether Mount Florida enters our collective map of the south side or not.

Marissa MacWhirter is a columnist and feature writer at The Herald, and the editor of The Glasgow Wrap. The newsletter is curated between 5-7am, bringing the best of local news to your inbox each morning without ads, clickbait, or hyperbole. Oh, and it’s free. She can be found on X @marissaamayy1

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