Ritchie Park was a housing estate in the Renfrewshire town of Johnstone, near Glasgow. It was the first peripheral housing scheme built in the town in the 1920s. Ritchie Park was followed soon after by Cartside in West Johnstone. It was surrounded by the industrial estate to the west, Thornhill to the south, the village of Elderslie to the east and the town of Linwood to the north. It was cut off from Linwood by the Paisley Canal railway line and from Elderslie by the Glasgow-Ayr railway line.
Housing was entirely made up of 2 and 3 bedroom cottage flats - the popular method of housing at the time.
The area, although initially popular became rundown. The construction of post war estates like Johnstone Castle and Corseford where housing was even better than the cottages played a part. As did the rising gang culture. Ritchie Park became a well-known meeting place for youths from Linwood, Johnstone and Elderslie to fight due to its convenient position.
A private estate was built nearby on John Lang Street called Peockland Gardens in the 1980s. This affordable mixture of semi and detached properties was a success and raised unpopularity of Ritchie Park just across the road from the fairly quiet middle class suburb.
Regeneration began in November 2001 with the transfer to Paisley-based, Williamsburgh Housing Association. they deemed the current housing stock in Ritchie Park unsuitable for habitation and began demolition which continued through till 2003. In their place, 94 red brick houses, semi and detached, were made available for sale and 66 cottage flats and semi-detached properties were built for rent. 3 cottages from the original older scheme were retained and refurbished inside and out. The estate still suffers from crime and gang culture. Little can be done about that but housing has been hugely improved.