Old Travel Blog Photograph Post Office Possilpark Glasgow Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of the Post Office in Possilpark, Glasgow, Scotland. Possilpark is a district north of the River Clyde. The district's hub is Saracen Street. The area developed around Saracen Foundry of Walter MacFarlane and Company, which was the main employer. In the wake of the Saracen Foundry's closure in 1967. Walter MacFarlane was the man who renamed the estate of Possil to Possilpark, which grew from a population of 10 people in 1872, to 10,000 by 1891. MacFarlane oversaw the removal of all the woodlands and after creating railway access to his foundry, laid out the rest of the park land as a grid plan of streets and tenements, including naming the main street running through the new suburb, Saracen Street. The Saracen foundry made a series of decorative iron works, from railings and water fountains to park bandstands. These were exported all over the British Empire, and can still be found in abundance in many parts of North Glasgow. After World War II, the combination of the collapse of the British Empire, the move away from steam power and the adaptation of new designs and materials meant a vast decline in orders for Saracen's standard cast iron designs. The MacFarlane company moved into standard foundry work, including being one of five foundries casting Sir Giles Gilbert Scott's classic K6 telephone box for Post Office Telephones. After a take over of the company in 1965, the works closed and the infrastructure was demolished in 1967.



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