Town in Lanarkshire, Scotland
East Kilbride
A small Lanarkshire village was chosen in 1947 to become Scotland's first new town, and went on to be known for its roundabouts and its jet-engine factory.
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Key information
- County
- Lanarkshire
- Nation
- Scotland
- Population
- about 75,000 (2011 Census)
- Known for
- Scotland's first new town, roundabouts, Rolls-Royce, the Hunter brothers
- Famous people
- William Hunter, John Hunter, Ally McCoist (grew up here)
- Football clubs
- East Kilbride FC
About East Kilbride
The village that was picked to relieve Glasgow
In 1947, East Kilbride became the first new town in Scotland. Glasgow was badly overcrowded, with families packed into tenements, and planners wanted to move people to purpose-built communities outside the city. The plan drew on the Clyde Valley Regional Plan of 1946, led by the planner Sir Patrick Abercrombie. A farming village on the high ground south-east of Glasgow was chosen as the site, and almost everything you see today grew out of that decision. The town was laid out as neighbourhoods, each with its own shops and schools, around a central shopping area. It was a bold experiment, and later Scottish new towns such as Glenrothes and Cumbernauld followed the same idea.
Why EK is famous for roundabouts
Ask people from elsewhere in Scotland what they know about East Kilbride and many will say roundabouts. The town was planned around the car at a time when most families did not yet own one, and the road layout is full of them. The joke has lasted for decades, and locals tend to take it in good humour. Anyone who has circled the town looking for the right exit knows why the reputation stuck. Residents often just call the town EK.
Jet engines, laboratories and civil servants
New towns need jobs as well as houses. East Kilbride landed some serious employers: a Rolls-Royce factory working on aero engines arrived in the 1950s, and the National Engineering Laboratory set up here to test and measure industrial equipment. The town later became home to a large government office presence. One of the buildings is named Abercrombie House, after the planner whose ideas shaped the place. The result was a town of engineers, technicians and office workers, quite unlike the farming parish it had been a generation earlier.
Two brothers who changed surgery
Long before the new town, East Kilbride produced two of the great names in British medicine. William Hunter was born in 1718 on a farm called Long Calderwood, and his younger brother John followed in 1728. William became a leading anatomist and obstetrician in London, and his collection formed the basis of the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow. John became one of the most celebrated surgeons of the eighteenth century, and his work helped turn surgery into a more scientific discipline. Hunter House, the brothers' former family home, was once a museum about them. It now works as a café and community venue run by Calderwood Baptist Church.
The old village, a tower house and a name from the Gaelic
The name Kilbride comes from the Gaelic for the church of St Bride, or Brigid. The 'East' tells it apart from West Kilbride on the Ayrshire coast. The old village survives at the heart of the modern town, with its village green and parish church. Calderglen Country Park has wooded gorges and waterfalls. Mains Castle, a restored tower house of the Lindsay family, stands beside James Hamilton Heritage Park and is privately occupied. For a place planned in the 1940s, East Kilbride has plenty of older stories sitting right beside the shopping centre.
Football, sport and famous locals
East Kilbride FC is the town's senior football club and plays at K-Park in Calderglen Country Park. Showpark, by contrast, is the home of East Kilbride Thistle. Many local players have come through youth football in the town on their way to bigger clubs. Ally McCoist, the former Rangers and Scotland striker turned television pundit, grew up in East Kilbride. The Hunter brothers are the town's greatest historic exports. The town's growth also left it with a large number of parks, sports facilities and green belt on its edges, planned in from the start.