For seven months from May 1938, Bellahouston Park in Glasgow’s South Side was given over to the spectacular Empire Exhibition. It was a chance for industry and tourism to stand side-by-side and stun the ordinary people of the tenements and shipyards of Glasgow and Scotland as a whole.
It was hoped that the grand exhibition would serve to stimulate the Scottish economy which was only just getting back on its feet after the Great Depression. However, it is the sheer scale and remarkable architecture of the exhibition which is wondrous to modern eyes.
Originally, the 300ft Tower of Empire (or Tait Tower as it was more humbly dubbed by Glaswegians) was intended to stand as a permanent structure but it was unfortunately demolished in 1939.