Home At Princes Dock, Glasgow

The Donaldson Line's home base was Prince's Dock, Govan Glasgow. Prince's Dock was the largest dock in the upper Clyde. When Alister came to Glasgow this is where his ship berthed.

Prince's Dock closed in the 1970s. In 1988 the area was used for the Glasgow Garden festival. The docks have largely been filled in and the area has been renamed 'Pacific Quay'. I do not know why, maybe it is after one of the quays in the dock; the Donaldson Line certainly ran a route into the Pacific and up the West Coast to Vancouver through the Pananma Canal so maybe there is some historic basis for the name. Or maybe quay sounds more upmarket than dock.

In 2010 the Prince's Dock, sorry Pacific Quay site contains the Glasgow Science Centre, BBC Scotland and the Festival Park from 1988. Further rather nice office blocks are being added but there are an awful lot of cars.

The only old dock building that has survived is the hydraulic power station that provided power to the dockyard cranes.


View Prince's Dock in a larger map

I have overlaid the docs onto today's map, I positioned and traced an old aerial photo so I think it is pretty close.