Helensburgh Heritage
Helensburgh Heritage Trust
WHEN townsfolk and visitors walk out the main entrance from Helensburgh Central Station, opposite them is a piece of local history.
Painted on the wall above the shops is ‘Macneur & Bryden Ltd.’, the name of a multi-faceted business which was probably the most used and best known shop in Helensburgh for almost a century.
THE SON of a famous Rhu artist earned fame of a very different kind.
Tom Guthrie was the son of Sir James Guthrie, but he did not inherit his father’s artistic talent. Instead he was an expert pilot and a pioneer of seaplane passenger excursions.
MANY Helensburgh people were sad to hear in February 2014 of the closure of the town’s oldest hostelry, the Imperial Hotel on West Clyde Street.
Originally the Tontine Hotel, what is now popularly known as ‘The Imps’ has seen and played a big part in the town’s history since the early years of the 19th century, not long after burgh status was gained in 1802.
ONE of Glasgow’s most popular newspapers used to be the Evening Citizen . . . and it was founded and edited for many years by a Helensburgh man who started a press dynasty.
A HELENSBURGH man who rose to the top of the regional newspaper industry recently celebrated a poignant anniversary.
It is just over 25 years since Iain D.McAulay received a kidney transplanted from his brother Archie, and it is still keeping him alive and well.
A LEADING Cardross resident for nearly 40 years was one of the owners of the world’s largest private steamship company . . . which is said to have been the inspiration for the popular 'Onedin Line' TV drama series in the 1970s.
Shipowner Claud Allan was a member of the Allan family of Scotland and Canada, founders of the Allan Steamship Line.
MUCH is known about a popular Helensburgh institution, the Queen’s Hotel in East Clyde Street, but there is a significant gap in the list of owners.
Henry Bell, the town’s first Provost, is believed to have opened the seafront hotel — then named the Baths Inn — with his wife Margaret in 1807, a year after he acquired the land.