Beardmore Hotel and Conference Centre

The NHS National Waiting Times Centre (comprising the Golden Jubilee National Hospital and Beardmore Hotel and Conference Centre) was not the first major undertaking to occupy the north bank of the River Clyde at Dalmuir.

In 1900, William Beardmore, Managing Director of the Parkhead Forge in Glasgow, identified the green field site as suitable for a new shipyard and engine works to complement the products of his Forge. Between 1901 and 1906, he laid out one of the largest shipyards in the UK and marked its opening, in June 1906, with the launch of the battleship HMS Agamemnon for the Royal Navy.

The yard, called the Naval Construction Works, covered nearly 100 acres and during its employment peak in World War One, had a payroll of 13,000 people. A vast range of products were constructed at Dalmuir during the war including ships of all descriptions, aircraft, airships, tanks, guns, shells and mines. After the war, to cover the cessation of armaments production, Beardmore constructed locomotives and steel houses at Dalmuir. However, the depressed years of the 1920s proved to be difficult for William Beardmore and Dalmuir shipyard as it did for many armaments based companies across the UK.