I visited the Southside: The happiest and best place to live in Glasgow - here are my thoughts

Our readers recently told us that the area around Queen’s Park is the happiest and best place to live in Glasgow so we headed for the Southside of the city to see what they were on about. You can read the list of happiest places in Glasgow here.

Having been brought up in Maryhill, venturing over to the Southside never really appealed to me growing up as I would usually head into town or the West End if I was going out for dinner or a drink.

I, like many Glaswegians, have been pulled in a bit by the variety of independent shops, restaurants and bars around Queen’s Park which I have been checking out over the past few years. That meant that when this opportunity arose to head into the heart of the area, I just couldn’t resist finding out the reasons why Glaswegians rate it so much.

Queen’s Park is easily reachable from the city centre with regular trains leaving from Glasgow Central station, so I hopped on one to take the journey over the River Clyde with it only taking six minutes before you are standing on Victoria Road.

We kicked off our wander around the area with a coffee at Cibo which is a great laid back cafe that have a wonderful selection of fresh Italian produce with their coffee being top notch.

Read More: Glasgow's happiest neighbourhoods: The 13 happiest and best places to live in Glasgow according to Glaswegians

After that we took a wander through the park which was pretty quiet to head over to Battlefield which has been making a bit of a name of itself recently. At the top of the hill before heading into the area, we spoke to the assistant general manager Vlad Catalin at Church on the Hill which is a favourite spot where Scotland fans like to gather before games at Hampden Park.

Vlad is originally from Romania and pretty much set the tone for the day as he very eloquently set out the reasons why he believed that the area around Queen’s Park was the happiest place to live with him placing an emphasis on the families which live around the park and how multicultural this pocket of Glasgow is.

It was then down to Common Ground who are probably best known for the bright mural on the side of their wall which blends together a bit of Glasgow’s East End and Southside with Battlefield being in the same font and design as the Barrowland Ballroom with owner Neil explaining to us the importance of community in the area.

Next up was a walk back up the hill to head for Shawlands which was recognised in 2022 as the eleventh coolest place to live in the world by Time Out along with the likes of Colonia Americana in Guadalajara, Mexico and Cais do Sodere in Lisbon, Portugal.

They described the area as “the bustling nexus point of Glasgow below the Clyde” and who are we to argue? As soon as you arrive in Shawlands you are met with a great range of independent shops which is again at the core of why the area around Queen’s Park is the happiest and best place to live in Glasgow as people build up relationships with shop owners and staff which makes for terrific atmosphere.

In Shawlands we chatted to staff at Starter Culture and Green Goose who told us about the relationships they have built up with customers and why there is such a great eclectic mix of businesses in the area.

A short walk along Pollokshaws Road, past the park, takes you into Strathbungo which has a fine balance of traditional bars mixed with new restaurants which have brought exciting flavours to the Southside.

We stopped in for a chat at Lobo to find out why so many people head to their restaurant with. We were told they get a lot of people in from the West End which shows the shift that has happened across Glasgow. It was then back round to Govanhill for a quick pint in the Queen’s Park Cafe at the top of Victoria Road where there has been a pub since 1870.

Although we all have our own favourite neighbourhoods, there is no doubt that this pocket of the Southside is one of the best places to be in the city thanks to those three pillars of family, community and diversity, which make it the happiest place to live in Glasgow.