19th century cobbled city centre street uncovered by Glasgow pothole

A cobbled street from the early 19th century has been uncovered by a pothole in Glasgow City Centre this week.

Directly across from George V bridge, the old cobbled street underneath the modern Oswald Street has been uncovered by a pothole - something that has been popping up in Glasgow’s roads more and more often.

First opened to traffic in 1817, Oswald street is named after James Oswald of Shieldhall, a merchant and politician with a family heavily involved in the transatlantic slave trade. The street was the western boundary of Oswald's property, which extended eastward to Stockwell Street, and the rope walk, which was in operation till well on in last century, reached the entire length, crossing Jamaica Street in an overhead gallery. Internet account Mitch Brooklyn posted about this pothole and GlagsowWorld readers tell us there are other places in the city where the tarmac has been stripped away to reveal road surfaces from the past - including on streets near the Royal Infirmary ravaged by potholes and streets between the M8 and Buchanan Galleries. Ancient road surfaces were revealed during work on High Street last year.

Two months ago, a community group called ‘Potholes make Glasgow’ (which has nearly 15,000 members on Facebook) staged a protest in George Square to voice their demands to Glasgow City Council to fix the cities ‘crumbling’ road network.

Organiser of Potholes make Glasgow, HGV driver Jamie Canavan, spoke ahead of the protest back in February, he said: "Things are pretty bad, there just doesn’t seem to be any sort of progress being made.

"The work they’re doing is just not working, they’re wasting money.

"It’s just getting worse and worse because the repair jobs they’re doing just aren’t adequate."