page_title: Coatbridge
section_title: Landmarks
hierarchical_section_title: Coatbridge / Landmarks
caption_attribution_description: English: Coatbridge church, North Lanarkshire, Scotland
context_page_description: Coatbridge is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, about 8 ¹⁄₂ miles east of Glasgow city centre, set in the central Lowlands. The town, with neighbouring Airdrie, is part of the Greater Glasgow urban area. While the earliest known settlement of the area dates back to the Stone Age era, the founding of the town can be traced to the 12th century, when a Royal Charter was granted to the monks of Newbattle Abbey by King Malcolm IV. Coatbridge, along with its neighbour Airdrie, forms the area known as the Monklands.
  In the last years of the 18th century, the area developed from a loose collection of hamlets into the town of Coatbridge. The town's development and growth have been intimately connected with the technological advances of the Industrial Revolution, and in particular with the hot blast process. Coatbridge was a major Scottish centre for iron works and coal mining during the 19th century and was then described as 'the industrial heartland of Scotland' and the 'Iron Burgh'.
  Coatbridge also had a notorious reputation for air pollution and the worst excesses of industry. By the 1920s however, coal seams were exhausted and the iron industry in Coatbridge was in rapid decline.
context_section_description: The built environment around Coatbridge's town centre is a mixture of late 19th- and early 20th-century sandstone buildings and late 20th-century precast concrete shops. The leafy Blairhill and Dunbeth conservation areas to the west and north of the town centre comprise detached, semi-detached and terraced sandstone residential buildings. The bulk of the remaining surrounding areas consist of various 20th-century local authority housing buildings. Several high rise flats dominate the skyline. Due to the decline of industries, several private housing estates have been built on reclaimed land.
  In 2007 Coatbridge was awarded Prospect architecture magazine's carbuncle award for being the 'most dismal town in Scotland'. The town was also described by Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle as 'like Bladerunner... without the special effects'.
  Drumpellier Country Park is set around Woodend Loch. There are extensive woodlands, a visitor centre and a butterfly house. Monkland Canal runs through a section of the park.
  The Time Capsule is a multi-purpose leisure centre containing a swimming pool, an adventure pool set in a prehistoric environment, an ice skating facility, sauna/steam room and a sports complex with gym halls and other facilities. The Showcase Leisure Park contains a 14-screen cinema, a 10-pin bowling complex and numerous restaurants.
  Landmarks in Coatbridge include:
  Coatbridge Leisure Centre – Peter Womersley 1970s brutalist, modernist cantilevered building sited on the main road into Coatbridge
  Coatbridge Library – an Andrew Carnegie-sponsored 1905 pink sandstone structure. Imposing B-listed structure sited on Academy Street
  St. Augustine's Church and buildings - Built in 1873 and located in the Dundyvan area. A red sandstone B-listed Rowand Anderson Gothic church
  The Quadrant Shopping Centre - Has been described in one article: '...from the set of Camberwick Green. A new clock tower, which looks as if it was designed on the back of a beer mat, marks the town centre, a throwaway gesture compounded by the addition of some appalling public art-cum street furniture'
  St Andrew's Church - 1839 early Victorian Gothic church by Scott Stephen & Gale in the Whitelaw hill area. Its steeple towers over the town centre.
  Coatbridge railway bridges - The B-listed 1898 bridges span Bank Street, West Canal Street and the former Monkland Canal. The bridges underwent specialist restoration in 2009
  St Mary's Church - B-listed Gothic church in Whifflet designed by Pugin and Pugin in 1896. Contains an elaborate and ornate interior ceiling.
  The former Cattle Market Building - erected in 1896, B-listed façade of the sandstone cattle market building within the Blairhill and Dunbeth conservation area
  Summerlee Heritage Park 2008 extension - Spaceship style glass and metal addition to existing building by North Lanarkshire Council's in-house Design Services Team
caption: St Andrew's Church
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