Beneath the vaulting dome of the Kibble Palace, generations of Glaswegians have enjoyed the verdant delights of this dazzling iron-framed glasshouse that dominates the city’s Botanic Gardens.
Accessible to buggies, wheelchairs and walking sticks, the Kibble is a place to meet, escape the rain, get a wee warm up, say hello to a stranger, watch the world go by. It has always been free to do so since it opened to the public in 1873.
So plans announced by Glasgow city council to charge an entrance fee – to help plug a £50m funding gap in next year’s budget left by Scottish government cuts – have been met with implacable opposition by local people.
The actor Tam Dean Burn, who is organising a “soft occupation” of the Kibble every Saturday to challenge the council’s decision, says: “Kids have been through a lot in the last few years, especially those from deprived backgrounds, and this is a natural environment that is always changing, where they can be a bit independent.”
“We know how important green space is for mental wellbeing, how some people these days need a warm space, or older people need a place to connect. And it’s those who need it most who will be hit by the charges.”
On any given afternoon, the span of ages and interests visiting the Victorian glasshouse is striking: toddlers with their grandparents, equally entranced by the wide pool of darting carp; children chasing through the central display of antipodean tree ferns; new lovers and old friends strolling round the sculpture-lined perimeter. There are tourists admiring the orchid collection, photography students and sketching retirees.
The painter Andrew Cranston is lingering by the fish pool. “I feel it’s another erosion of civic space,” he says. “Everyone needs space to dream in, to stand and stare and not have to spend money.”
“Some people say this is middle-class griping,” he adds – the Botanics is situated in Glasgow’s largely affluent West End – “but that’s total nonsense.” Cranston points out the proximity of less-well-off neighbourhoods such as Maryhill and Partick, and the way that the Kibble’s informality of entry attracts visitors from across the city.
“I’ve no objection to giving donations when you can, but charging entry is nonsensical,” says Sheila Penny, a nanny who has been bringing children to the Kibble for 25 years.
Glasgow city council estimates that proposed charges of £3 for adults and £1.50 for children could raise about £185,000 annually, and says its budget “aimed to protect services and jobs where ever possible and has looked to deal with the funding gap by raising revenue where we can”.
“It’s just another attack on common space,” says Sapna Agarwal, referring to recent cuts to library opening hours in the city. “Society is becoming more fragmented and people are struggling in so many different ways. We need spaces where people can be together.”
More practically, she adds: “It’s the only free space where you can be outside in the park with small children then come in for a warm up, a snack or a nappy change.”
Her daughter, eight-year-old Yukio, says she likes playing among the tree ferns. “We used to call it ‘the jungle’ when we were younger,” says her friend Clem, also eight, “but now it’s like a really easy maze.”
“I like how there are all these crazy plants from all over the world in this one spot,” says Duncan Carmichael, 11. His poem about the Botanic Gardens has been shared by the Keep the Kibble Free campaign as a prime example of the beneficial impact the glasshouse can have on young people. In it, Duncan, who is autistic, describes “the big leaves in the palm house towering over me as I walk”.
His mother, Vivien Scotson, says: “I’m a registered carer and a single mother so we are limited to free-of-charge activities. He spends hours looking at the fish and I get to see my child calm and happy. It’s quite a magical place.”
But an entry charge on top of travel costs would turn it into an expensive day out. “It’s saying people like us are not welcome in places like this when it’s been free for over a 100 years. I think a lot of people will take this personally.”
