The two conservation areas of Pollokshields (East and West) were designated in 1973, following the preliminary report on Conservation in Glasgow by Lord Esher, the President of the British Institute of Architects, in which he recorded that:

"Glasgow has a remarkable wealth of good architecture, very largely of the 19th century mainly concentrated in the beautiful inner suburbs Glasgow is now the finest surviving example of a great Victorian city ... Fortunately not too late we realise that a great many Victorian houses in their old settings ... are built with more craftsmanship than we can hope to emulate,
or than the world is likely ever to see again ... The problem is to safeguard this investment ...
No middle to late Victorian garden suburb as extensive as (Pollokshields) has been designated elsewhere. "