On passing through Glasgow
June 17th, 2011
Travel has long been a pleasure of mine and it had been many years (nearly 19 years in this case) since work had called me North but the opportunity to catch up after almost two decades of change was irresistible. So much is new, the Foster Armadillo concert hall, BBC Scotland, the new Zaha Hadid Riverside Museum, the Science Museum and several bridges. But better still so much is still there from last time. The Charles Rennie Mackintosh buildings, the wealth of good architecture and the friendly people.
Glasgow is a city that grows on me each time I go. Here are a very few shots of places I passed by, some of which I had time to visit and others not, but there’s always next time for it’s a city that draws you back.
On arriving at Central Station . . . let’s park our bags and . . .
. . . head East along the river side . . .
. . . passing The Briggait . . .
. . . with its beautiful carved facade . . . and walk on to Glasgow Green . . .
. . . and the Peoples Palace . . . then West along the river . . .
. . . under leaden skies . . . to one of the new bridges . . .
. . . and on to another . . . this time a road bridge that replaced a piece of history, this being a tunnel reached by two red brick rotundas that used to transport vehicles on hydraulic lifts.
Hidden behind the Mint Hotel on the right is the distinctive shape of the Norman Foster “Armadillo” concert hall which intrigued me all the way along the river walk. To the right of that though barely visible in this photo is the North Rotunda that was originally the hydraulic lift housing carrying vehicles down to the vehicle and pedestrian tunnels, which closed in 1943.
From the top floor of the YH at Park Terrace in Kelvingrove Park.
Much further west at Clydebank, an area badly bombed during the war, is a new college on an old site. John Brown’s Shipyard, of QEII fame launched 1967, and many, many others. This is Clydebank College and you can still see the slipway directed at the mouth of the river on the opposite bank.
. . . which can be seen in the photo below. . .
These were taken incidentally from the top of the Titan Crane, which is itself an exhibit and one of the only remaining structures left of the shipyard.
From Clydebank Station. A useful exercise incidentally is to go to Google Earth historic images and look at Clydebank in both the present day and 1945 when the shipyard is clearly shown, with vessels under construction.
An article about the lives of the shipyard workers may be found here UCS.mp3
The BBC page “When the Eyes of the World Were on the Clyde”
Another BBC programme, Witness – The Shipbuilders Clydeside Work-In (29th July 2011), and may be heard here on YouTube too:- Clydeside Work-in
A recent BBC4 documentary (18/7/13) entitled “The Men who built the Liners” paid homage to the shipyards of the Clyde and told the story of the “work in” including interviews with the people responsible.
Back in town is this astonishing shop window – a homage to Singer – which is so well known in Glasgow it is the name of a place as well as a sewing machine factory, as was.
I’ve recently discovered there’s one in Camden Town in London too. Photo below . . .
That’s on Buchanan St and up (and I mean up), on Scott Street is the Glasgow School of Art in a magnificent building (check out the windows) by CRM, one of several in the city.
Just along from the GSA is this lovely Deco frontage for the Dental Hospital on Renfrew St, which is difficult to show to full effect because the street is quite narrow but it’s pretty nevertheless.
. . . and detailing . . .
. . . more detailing . . .
and yet more.
On Sauciehall St more Deco, this time in the form of a hotel.
. . . heading back to the YH I came across this Italianate church, look at that campanile.
No visit of mine would be complete without some housing so here are a few mews houses, looking diminutive beside the much grander villas of Park Terrace but nevertheless providing a history lesson by their very existence.
. . . and across the road . . .
and later, from Park Terrace, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
On the way ‘home’ along Woodlands Road the sun was setting, creating beautiful skies I just couldn’t resist.
The golden glow of the setting sun on Woodlands Road.
It was still twilight at 11p.m. – unheard of further South, and makes a beautiful backdrop for the Art Gallery.
More photos of Glasgow here, from Owen Hatherley:-
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8971770@N06/sets/72157626199640517/
and his take on the city here:-
https://nastybrutalistandshort.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/glasgow-high-rise-addenda.html
A Riverside Museum review from the BD:-
https://www.bdonline.co.uk/5020256.article
Jones the Planner visits Glasgow, twice:-
http://www.jonestheplanner.co.uk/2011/09/glasgow-city-of-misguided-ambitions.html
http://www.jonestheplanner.co.uk/2012/01/glasgow-revisited.html
Aerial photos from the 1960s HT @entschwindet
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=748189708605030
https://panoramas.bzncl.tv/Gap74/
UPDATE: Today’s Building Design (24/6/11) has several items about Glasgow, the leader column, an article about the M74 extension, and a full article on the Zaha Hadid Riverside Museum.