East Kilbride

From Free net encyclopedia

East Kilbride (Cille Bhrìghde an Ear in Scottish Gaelic) is a large town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is Scotland's sixth largest town by population size, and the largest of the country's new towns.

East Kilbride is located on high ground, about 15km (9 miles) south of Glasgow, and 8km (5 miles) west of Hamilton. East Kilbride sits on the Rotten Calder river.

The earliest evidence of habitation in the area dates back to ancient graves found near the Kype Water to the south of the district. Roman coins and footwear have also been found in the area.

East Kilbride takes its name from an Irish saint, St Bride (or Brigit) who founded a monastery for nuns and monks in Kildare, Ireland in the 6th century. Irish monks introduced her cult to Scotland. Kil means church or burial place.

East Kilbride emerged from a small village of around 900 inhabitants to become a large burgh in 1930, and then a busy new town (the first in Scotland, designated in 1947) with a population of over 81,000 (estimate in 2006).

Twinned with the city of Ballerup in Denmark, the town lost out to Stirling in 2002 to be granted city status for the Queen's Golden Jubilee, and prior to that it lost out to Inverness in 2000 as the Millennium city.

The town is occupied by a large shopping centre, comprising 6 separate shopping departments, but known by local residents as "The Town Centre". This holds the title of largest indoor shopping centre in Scotland and 10th largest in Europe. The six malls are The Plaza (development started in 1972), Princess Mall (1984), Olympia (1988), Southgate (1989), Princes Square (1997) and Centre West (2003). The shopping centre has come under recent criticism for losing major retail chains in light of rising rental prices. This coupled with the Centre West expansion and decreasing shopper numbers has allowed swathes of properties within the centre to remain closed for months at a time, notably on the first floor of Centre West and the Plaza

Former/current residents include musicians Roddy Frame (Aztec Camera), the Reid brothers (The Jesus and Mary Chain), Alex McGhie (Fake Gods), footballer Ally McCoist, television presenter Lorraine Kelly and actor John Hannah.

1 Local government district
2 East Kilbride constituencies
3 Areas of East Kilbride
4 External links

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Local government district

East Kilbride District 1975-96
Image:Scot1975EKilbride.png

From 1975 East Kilbride lent its name to a local government district in the Strathclyde region of Scotland. In 1996 administrative functions were taken over by the South Lanarkshire unitary council. (See: Subdivisions of Scotland)

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East Kilbride constituencies

There is an East Kilbride constituency of the Scottish Parliament. Since the opening of the Scottish Parliament, the constituency has been represented by Andy Kerr MSP (Labour).

East Kilbride was formerly a constituency of the UK Parliament. In 2005 it was replaced by the constituency of East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow. The seat has been held since 1987 by Adam Ingram.

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