From its origins as a weaver's village in the 1720s, Anderston merged with the city of Glasgow as that city began to develop in the 18th Century east and west along the banks of the River Clyde. Its name being derived from the principal landowners of the area, the Anderson family of Stobcross. The village became an industrial centre with the growth of Glasgow's cotton industry and by 1824 it had become a Burgh of Barony, although by 1846 it had been incorporated into the city. Anderston Quay, lying between the Broomielaw and Lancefield Quay, was a small but busy commercial quay on the north bank of the Clyde.
However, by the mid 20th C. the area had declined, having lost it industries, and the overcrowded housing had become slums. The Anderston Comprehensive Development Area was created in 1961 to bring about redevelopment while also creating space for new roads. However the consequence was that Anderston Cross, which had been the heart of the community, was removed and the M8 Motorway now divides Anderston. The Anderston Interchange now connects the M8 Motorway, to the north of the Kingston Bridge, with the A814 Clydeside Expressway. A network of pedestrian overpasses cross these roads in a vain attempt to reconnect the disparate sections of the district.
The Anderston Centre was completed in 1972 by R. Seifert and Partners as an enormous integrated commercial, office, residential and leisure complex. The centre was never completed, the shops struggled as the community was gone and the centre declined in the 1980s and 90s. Parts were subsequently demolished while other sections have been redeveloped.
Today, Anderston lies on the western fringes of the city centre and as such is home to a new international class of hotels and major riverside development. Between 2009 and 2018, a £60-million regeneration project saw the demolition of poor-quality residential blocks built in the 1960s to replace Victorian tenements. These were replaced with 542 stylish mixed-tenure flats, a collaboration between the Sanctuary Scotland Housing Association, the Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council. There is an enormous mural of the locally-born comedian Sir Billy Connolly on one of the blocks, while a statue of Charles Rennie Mackintosh by sculptor Andy Scott was been unveiled by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in 2018 to celebrate the completion of the award-winning regeneration project. The project also re-instated a section of Argyle Street which had been lost to the 1960s development. The Pyramid at Anderston is a community hub located in the former Anderston Kelvingrove Church.
