Bishopbriggs

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Bishopbriggs is an affluent commuter suburb in the northern outskirts of Glasgow, Scotland. Though once an independent burgh, Bishopbriggs is now one of the main towns of the East Dunbartonshire Council Area. It currently has a population of approximately 23,500 people.

The principal retail area of Bishopbriggs Cross is known as the Triangle shopping centre. This was a redeveloped area made possible by the demolition of older tenement housing stock to facilitate the construction of new council offices, retail units, and a large Safeway supermarket (now Morrisons) in the early 1990s. Tenement buildings dating from the Victorian era are still present on the western side of Bishopbriggs Cross.

There is also a pedestrianised area at Cross Court which includes the war memorial, erected in 1920 by the Stirling family, once major land owners in the area. The family seat was Kenmure House (now demolished) in parkland which is now Bishopbriggs Golf Course. Cadder House (1654) was also a Stirling family residence. It is now the clubhouse of Cawder Golf Club. Bishopbriggs is also notable for its superior villas, constructed during the 1850s, adjacent to the then recently completed Glasgow-to-Edinburgh Railway, its art deco 'Garden Suburb' on the former Brackenbrae and Balmuildy Estates, and also for its large scale modern housing developments. In the 1960s the town residents campaigned successfully to avoid being absorbed into the City of Glasgow boundaries, resulting in the formation of Bishopbriggs Town Council. Following local government reorganisation and the creation of Regional and District Authorities, Bishopbriggs became part of Strathclyde Region, and the Town Council gave way to Strathkelvin District Council, along with Kirkintilloch and Lenzie. With the introduction of the present unitary local government system in 1996, and the dissolution of the Regional and District setup, Bishopbriggs became part of the East Dunbartonshire Council area.

In the last decade or so, major housing developments in the nearby village of Robroyston, adjacent to the M80 motorway, have led to residents of that area relying on Bishopbriggs for most vital services such as churches, schools, and recreational facilities. As a consequence there have been calls in recent years for Robroyston to be formally incorporated within Bishopbriggs and transferred from the City of Glasgow to the control of East Dunbartonshire Council.

Famous residents from the area have included the actor and writer Dirk Bogarde, the Oscar-winning director and actor Peter Capaldi, musicians Paul Buchanan and Paul Joseph Moore from The Blue Nile, bassist Jack Bruce of seminal 60's supergroup Cream, Owen (Onnie) McIntyre, rhythm guitarist and vocalist with The Average White Band, and the political radical Thomas Muir of Huntershill, after whom one of the local Secondary schools is named. The area is served by seven Primary schools and three Secondary schools, which are set to be rebuilt as the result of a PPP (Public-Private Partnership) investment into education infrastructure, with support from the Scottish Executive. The Roman Catholic Secondary, Turnbull High School, is set to be rebuilt on its present site whilst the two non-denominational Secondary schools, initially set to merge to a new school on the site of the present Bishopbriggs High School near Bishopbriggs Cross, are set to merge to form a new school named Bishopbriggs Academy on the present Thomas Muir High site. Although the decision to change the location of the new school against public opinion has caused significant local controversy, this will make a large area of land adjacent to the Cross available for expansion and commercial development. The town has a municipal library, which forms a prominent local landmark, housed in the B-Listed former buildings of the Bishopbriggs School. The library has been enhanced by a £400,000 refurbishment in recent years. Bishopbriggs also has a large sports centre, the 'Leisuredrome' which is one of the best equipped facilities of its kind in Scotland.

Lowmoss Prison is located on the outskirts of the town at the site of a former World War II RAF Barrage balloon station, near to the Strathkelvin Retail Park and Lowmoss Industrial Estate. In early January 2007, it was announced that East Dunbarton Council had lifted its objection to plans for the prison to be extensively modernised and extended, and after completion will be three times its present size, capable of containing 900 inmates in a medium-security facility. Whilst HarperCollins publishers in the Westerhill area of Bishopbriggs remains a notable local business, currently employing some 340 people, and nearby Norwich Union's national customer service centre currently employs over 1,000, Bishopbriggs still remains very much a commuter suburb of Glasgow, with around 80% of its workforce commuting to work in the city itself.

The Church of Scotland has three churches and parishes in the town, Cadder, Kenmure and Springfield Cambridge. Colston Wellpark also serves the soutehrn end of the town at the Glasgow boundary.