About us

The Friends formed in 2009, a group of local people who shared concern for the neglected state and appearance of the station. From 2011 to 2013, Inverclyde Council awarded the group prizes for our efforts in their annual GardenFest. In 2013 we won a a silver cup!

Despite a major programme of repair and restoration in 1994 the station’s canopies and glazed roof leaked like colanders in several places. Several of the rooms around the concourse, formerly waiting rooms, lay empty and forlorn. And the feature for which the station had been famed since it first opened, its displays of potted plants and hanging baskets, were nowhere to be seen. A modern railway no longer requires several hands to run it. There is one staff member on duty at a time, and they have no opportunity to attend to plants.

ScotRail operates a programme called ‘Adopt a Station’, aimed principally at unmanned stations, but also available to others. Members of a local community are encouraged to take an interest in the appearance of their station, usually by installing and maintaining containers of plants, for which ScotRail supplies funding.

Wemyss Bay and Skelmorlie residents decided to take advantage of this offer, and formed themselves into a named group – the Friends of Wemyss Bay Station. Starting with some tubs of plants, we have gradually expanded our activities both inside and outside the station buildings. Towers recall the tiered displays of the past, and a Station Garden has been created on the remains of a siding which had been an eyesore for many years. This now houses a polytunnel and some raised beds where a variety of vegetables and plants are grown.

In the empty First Class Waiting Rooms the Friends now operate a secondhand bookshop and gallery, open 6 days per week, and staffed by volunteers. The funds raised have been used to restore these neglected rooms to something of their former glory. The gallery contains several items of period furniture, in keeping with the former style of these rooms, including a table surrounded by chairs, where visitors can enjoy the selection of folders containing archive photographs and articles available to browse. It also hosts a permanent exhibition of photographs of the history of the station, and the local area. The rooms have become a place to visit, to spend time when waiting for train or boat, a refuge from the weather, a source of gifts with a local slant and a haven of peace within the bustle of this major terminus on the Clyde Coast.

Outside in the entrance to the concourse a beautifully restored vintage map of the Clyde enhances the approach to the spectacularly designed concourse. The concourse itself, as well as displaying wonderful flowers and trees has an interesting timeline on the far wall and a delightful bronze statue of ‘Bobby’, a young boy heading purposefully towards the ferry on the start of his holiday. These enhancements have been entirely funded by moneys raised in the bookshop, membership fees and donations.