Glasgow Necropolis
On the hill above Glasgow Cathedral lies one of the biggest tourist attractions in Glasgow, a massive collection of obelisks, monuments, statues and mausoleums. Glasgow’s city of the dead, the Necropolis is the final resting ground for thousands of Glasgow’s who’s who from the city’s heyday. The main entrance to the Necropolis is via the Bridge of Sighs from the Cathedral Precinct, following the winding pathways around and up to the top of the second highest hill in Glasgow.
Originally the hill which now houses the dead was called Fir Park, the name referring to the Scots Firs planted on the rocky hillside facing the Cathedral after the land had been bought by the Merchant’s House in 1650. By the early 1800s the fir trees began to die and were replaced with elms and willows, converting the area to a Victorian Park. In 1825 the Necropolis began to take shape when the dominating monument to John Knox was erected at the top of the hill (more on John Knox below). The Bridge of Sighs over the Molendinar Burn was finished in 1833, a year after the first burial at the Necropolis. After several extensions in the late 19th century, the Necropolis has grown to its current size of 37 acres (15 ha).
Designed as an interdenominational burial ground, the first burial at the Necropolis was a local Jewish jeweller by the name of Joseph Levi, with the first Christian burial the following year. The Necropolis is a memorial to the men and women who made Glasgow the ‘Second City of the Empire’, and having financed the Victorian resurgence of the city, they spared little expense in their final resting places. The tombs, monuments and architecture of the burial ground were designed by major architects and sculptors of the time, such as Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson, Charles Rennie Macintosh, John Bryce, David Hamilton and JT Rochead, creating a testimony to the wealth of the merchants in a plethora of styles. The some 50,000 people buried in approximately 3,500 tombs make up pretty much every single eminent Glaswegian of the time.
Just like Kelvingrove Park, the Glasgow Necropolis also has a Heritage Trail you can pick up at any Glasgow Museum and follow the route around the most interesting bits of the burial ground. The Heritage Trail takes about an hour and 45 minutes (if you’re walking at a leisurely pace) and contains 35 key sites of interest. Highly suggest grabbing a copy of the leaflet and taking the walk on a sunny day.
Glasgow Trivia #28: The tallest monument at the Glasgow Necropolis was also the first erected there, back in 1825. The 62m column is a monument to John Knox (1510-1572), a prominent Scottish clergyman and the leader of the Protestant Reformation, featured here in Genevan gown and holding a bible in his right hand. The monument was the first statue of John Knox erected in Scotland, some 250 years after his death. Although the Necropolis is populated by the remains of wealthy Glaswegians, John Knox is not among them, even though the tallest and most visible monument is dedicated to him. He was in fact buried in Edinburgh, where he died while in the position of the Minister of Edinburgh. It seems he would have been better of buried at the Glasgow Necropolis, as apparently he is buried under what is now a car park in Edinburgh. Nevertheless, his monument enjoys some of the best views of Glasgow.
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Inside Glasgow Cathedral
Having written at length about the Glasgow Cathedral yesterday, I now take you inside for a whirlwind tour. As you walk through visitor entrance of the cathedral on the south side of the building, you enter the Nave, the single largest section of the cathedral. The main doors to the Nave are to the west, but are only open for weddings and other ceremonial events at the cathedral. The timber roof 32 metres (105 feet) above you is of late medieval design and much of the timber may date from the fourteenth century. The cathedral has a magnificent collection of post-war stained glass windows, many with the badges of the twelve Scottish regiments that fought in World War II. The large window on the western front illustrates the creation. Originally this large open area was much larger, but after the Reformation a wall was put across the nave to allow the western portion of the nave to be used for worship by another congregation.
At the east end of the cathedral is the Quire, the centre of the religious worship at Glasgow Cathedral. The above photo is of the cross behind the altar in this section of the cathedral. I’ve previously featured the University of Glasgow coat of arms from which I found on one of the benches in the Quire. Directly below the Quire is the Lower Church, accessible via a flight of stairs on both sides of the cathedral from between the Nave and the Quire.
The Lower Church, a crypt, was built in the 13th century, although some earlier stonwork can be found. In the north-east corner of the crypt is the ower chapterhouse, the upper one being accessible from the Quire above. The eastern wall is occupied by several smaller chapels. The chapel in the south-east corner of the crypt is occupied by a display of carved stones taken from various areas of the Cathedral. The same chapel contains St Mungo’s well, a source of water for services in the Cathedral. Next to it is the Nurses’ Chapel. At the centre of this lower level is the tomb of St Mungo and some fragments of a 13th century shrine to him, but more on him below.
As you leave the lower level by the souther stairs you will find an extention jutting out of the building to your right. The 15th century Blacader Aisle (also spelled Blackadder Aisle) is named after Robert Blacader, the first Archbishop of Glasgow. This extention to the cathedral is said to occupy the site of the 5th century burial ground consecrated by St Ninian, a century before St Mungo first came to the area.
Glasgow Trivia #27: St Kentigern, more commonly known as St Mungo, is the founder and patron saint of Glasgow, a fact you might be aware of if you’ve ever been to Glasgow. Kentigern (“chief prince”) was born in Culcross in Fife and died on January 13th, 603, and he was buried at the site where Glasgow Cathedral stands today. His pet name Mungo means “dear one”. Instead of recalling his life, I’ll quickly explain his miracles:
- Here is the bird that never flew: St Mungo brought the pet Robin of St Serf back to life.
- Here is the tree that never grew: At St Serf’s monastery he was in charge of the fire, fell asleep and the fire went out. He took some branches of a tree and restarted the fire.
- Here is the bell that never rang: A bell used in services and to mourn the dead was brought by St Mungo from Rome.
- Here is the fish that never swam: St Mungo saved a Queen accused of infidelity from execution by telling the imprisoned Queen’s messenger to catch a fish from the Clyde. Inside the salmon he found the Queen’s ring which had been thrown in the river by the King.
St Mungo is also the patron saint of salmon, people accused of infidelity, and “against bullies” (according to Wikipedia). St Mungo can be found on the Glasgow coat of arms and his miracles are featured on the coat of arms of the University of Glasgow, to name a few places. More on Wikipedia.
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Glasgow Cathedral
Legend has it that St Mungo came to what is now the High Street in the East End of Glasgow in the 6th century to bury a monk at a cemetery dedicated a century earlier to St Ninian, on the banks of the Molendinar Burn, a tributary of the River Clyde. A church associated with St Mungo was established by the cemetery, around which the city of Glasgow began to grow. Little is known about the initial structures. A stone building was built on the spot in 1136 and after a fire the present cathedral began to take shape in 1197. Over the following centuries the building was extended with the Lower Church, the Quire, the Nave and by the 14th century the cathedral was completed. The Blackadder Aisle (also spelled Blacader) was added in the 15th century. The timber roof dates from the 14th century.
Due to the location of the cathedral on a steep slope on the banks of the former Molendinar Burn ravine, the (285 feet) long building has a weird floorplan, with the nave and the choir on one floor, and the crypt, chapterhouse and the Blackadder Aisle on a lower level. The spire of the cathedral rises to 67m (220 feet) above floor level. Originally the spire was made out of wood, which burned down after being struck by lightning in the 15th century, and its stone replacement was likewise damaged by lightning in the 18th century. The cathedral used to have two tower in addition to the spire, which were demolished in 1846 and 1848.
The cathedral was the seat of the Bishop and later the Archbishop of Glasgow, and is a fantastic example of Scottish Gothic architecture. It’s the only medieval cathedral left in Scotland, having survived the Reformation unroofed. During the Reformation, many ecclesiastical buildings were destroyed in Scotland but Glasgow Cathedral survived, probably due to the fact that three congregations shared the cathedral during the time. Currently the building, within which over 800 years of worship has been carried out, is property of the Crown and is cared for by Historic Scotland, while still being an active place of Christian worship. Technically, the building is no longer a cathedral, since it has not been the seat of a bishop since 1690.
The “Bridge of Sighs”, just to the left of this photo, which connects Cathedral Square to the Necropolis, was built in 1833. The name is said to derive from that of the Ponte dei Sospiri in Venice, or more likely it refers to the funeral processions crossing from the Cathedral to the Necropolis. The bridge crosses Wishart Street, which was built in 1877 over the Molendinar Burn. If you’ve ever crossed the bridge and though to yourself that the street below looked a bit like a river, you weren’t wrong. The street follows the course of the former ravine. The name Molendinar is probably derived from the Latin molendinarius, meaning “belonging to a mill”, as it once provided the water power for a couple mills along its course.
Glasgow Cathedral is also where the University of Glasgow spent its first years, from 1451 to 1460 when the University moved down the street to its Old College campus on High Street. William Turnbull, who founded the University, was Bishop of Glasgow at the time. The Bishops of Glasgow subsequently served as Chancellors of the University for around two hundred years, until the Civil War.
Glasgow Trivia #26: Close to the Cathedral, at the corner of High Street and Castle Street, is the third “TARDIS” in Glasgow. Quite close to this is a bronze statue of King William III (Prince of Orange) on horseback, sword drawn, erected in 1735. Legend says that when the statue was moved up from Trongate to its current location in the last years of the 19th century, the movers knocked off a part of the horse’s tail. Instead of fixing it like it was before, they affixed the tail back on a ball and socket joint. So, on a really windy day the tail may actually swing in the wind. Another version of this story says that the tail was originally built this way. I prefer to think that the story went like this: “Whoops, we broke it. Oh well, let’s fix it so it’ll swing in the wind and say that that’s the way it’s always been. Genious.”
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Fireworks at Glasgow Green
The heart of Glasgow’s East End is the 55 hectare (136 acre) Glasgow Green, the city’s oldest park. Its history can be traced back to 1450 when the lands were gifted by King James II to Bishop William Turnbull and the people of Glasgow, just one year before the same people founded the University of Glasgow. Initially the Green was used for grazing cattle, washing and bleaching clothes, drying fishing nets and for swimming.
In the 1820s the common land was laid out as a public park with statues, drinking fountains, children’s playgrounds and other features added. Over the years the public park has been a popular location for army and militia parades and exercises, political and religious meetings and demonstrations, the Glasgow Fair until 1871, pop concerts, funfairs, and an annual fireworks display held on November 5th. The above photo is from the 2009 fireworks display. Public executions took place on the Green up until 1865, when the last person to be executed was hanged (see post on Sauchiehall Street).
Although practically devoid of trees, the Green has several landmark structures, such as the People’s Palace and Winter Gardens, a museum and glasshouse which opened in 1898. Since the 1940s, it has been the museum of social history for the city of Glasgow, and tells the story of the people and the city from 1750 to present. Outside the People’s Palace sits the Doulton Fountain, donated to the city in 1890 when it was moved from Kelvingrove Park after the 1888 Internation Exhibition. At 46 feet high and 70 feet across at its base, it is the largest terracotta fountain in the world and features a slightly larger than life figure of Queen Victoria and groups of waterbearers from Canada, Australia, India and South Africa representing Britain’s Empire.
Glasgow Trivia #25: The centrepiece of Glasgow Green is the 43.5m (144ft) Nelson’s Monument, a stone obelisk commemorating the naval victories of Admiral Horatio Nelson. It was erected in 1806, a year after the Admiral’s death in the Battle of Trafalgar, and was the first monument in the world dedicated to the decorated war hero. In 1810, four years after it was built, the monument was hit by lightning and 6 meters (20ft) of masonry was knocked off from the top. Instead of replacing the fallen section, a lightning conductor was placed in its place. There’s a painting in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum by John Knox (1778-1845) portraying Nelson’s Monument being struck by lightning.
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The Barras
For a sliver of “true” Glasgow and the Glaswegian accent, also known as Glasgow Patter, head on down to the Barras Marketplace in the East End of Glasgow on a Saturday or Sunday between 10am and 5pm. The Barras is a massive outdoor and indoor flea market, where you can find such items as antiques, electronic appliances, collector’s vinyls, cigarettes, flowers, books, clothes, bags and of course, bootleg DVDs.
The name comes from, “barra”, another Glaswegian nickname, meaning “barrow”. It roots back to the 19th century when street traders could be found working all over Glasgow from hired-out barrows. Although being spread out around the city, there were place where these traders would congregate. After the turn of the century a young woman by the name of Margaret Russell (later McIver) bought a plot of open land and began renting out stationary carts and space on the land, creating her own marketplace which she called “Glasgow Barrowland” and which we now known as “the Barras”. Some of the buildings housing various wares date from the interwar period when the marketplace really took off and still carry the name “McIver”.
Glasgow Trivia #24: The Barras, officially Barrowland, also lends its name to a Glasgow institution, The Barrowland Ballroom, commonly known as The Barrowlands. Originally opened in 1934, the Barrowlands was the leading dancehall in Scotland until the decline of dancing, when it became a major concert venue. Although the capacity of the hall is quite modest (around 1,900 people) compared to other big-name venues in Gklasgow like the SECC, many world-renowned bands have called it one of their favourite venues to play at, and it has hosted such international names such as Oasis, The Cure, Iron Maiden, Green Day, U2, Blur, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Metallica, Justin Timberlake, Garbage, Sheryl Crow, Britney Spears, Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, Elvis Costello, Megadeth, as well as numerous famous acts from Glasgow itself. The front of the building is decorated with a distinctive animated neon sign, which is hard to miss at night.
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George Square
Outside the Glasgow City Chambers is Glasgow’s main public square. George Square was laid out in 1781, but for the first few years it was quite unglorious, filled with dirty water and used for slaughtering horses. From 1787 to the 1820s the sides of the square slowly began to be lined with townhouses and hotels. During this time George Square became a private garden for the surrounding residents. The Queen Street Railway Station was opened in 1842 and by 1850 the surrounding area had become a centre for mercantile activity and the square itself was opened for public use.
The square was named after King George III, a statue of whom was originally intended to occupy the centre of the square. The American War of Independence and the American colonies becoming independent had such a profound effect on the business and wealth of Glasgow’s Tobacco Lords that feelings against the King faltered (his bouts of madness didn’t help either). It was decided that the centrepiece of the square would instead commemorate Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), the Scottish novelist and poet. Incidentally, when the statue was erected in 1837 atop the 24m (80ft) tall column in the middle of George Square, it was the first ever memorial dedicated to him.
The most modern memorial at George Square is the Cenotaph, located opposite the entrance to the City Chambers, part of which is featured in the photo above. The Cenotaph was erected in 1921-24 to commemorate the Glaswegian who died in World War I and subsequent conflicts. The 9.7m memorial is flanked by two lions and depicts a sword and St Mungo above the city’s coat of arms. In addition to being a home to a number of statue and memorial, George Square hosts political hustings and meetings of all sorts, protests and demonstations, fairs and parades, as well as the annual Remembrance Day, Hogmanay and St. Andrews’s Day celebrations, as well as being the location of a Christmas fair and an ice rink around Christmas time. You can view what’s going on at George Square right now through two webcams. [Webcam #1] [Webcam #2]
Glasgow Trivia #23: In addition to the Cenotaph and the Scott Monument, George Square boasts a fairly large number of public statues. Statues commemorating the following people were erected at Georgw Square: Sir John Moore (Peninsular War commander) in 1819, James Watt (engineer and inventor) in 1832, Queen Victoria in 1854, MP James Oswald in 1856, PM Robert Peel in 1859, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1866, Lord Clyde (Indian Army commander) in 1868, Thomas Graham (chemist) in 1872, Thomas Campbell (poet) in 1877, Robert Burns (poet) in 1877, and PM William Ewart Gladstone in 1902. The statues of a young Queen Victoria and Prince Albert are the only known equestrian statues of them.
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Glasgow City Chambers
One of the most striking buildings in Glasgow is the Victorian-era City Chambers at George Square, completed in 1889, which reflects the city’s importance and wealth at the end of the 19th century. Today they are home to the Glasgow City Council. The foundation stone was laid in October 1883 by the Lord Provost Ure and the building was inaugurated by Queen Victoria in August 1888. If you look carefully at the top of the western facade of the building, you can spot a statue of Queen Victoria sitting on her throne. Around her are figures of Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales, as well as the colonies of the British Empire. Above her is Truth, popularly known as Glasgow’s Statue of Liberty (due to the similar pose), flanked by Riches and Honour. At the very top of the tower are statues of The Four Seasons. (You can see the original size of the photo here, and find the mentioned statues on it.)
As impressive as the City Chambers are from the outside, they’re even more ornate and awe-inspiring within. The expansive entrance hall displays a mosaic of the city’s coat of arms on the floor, and large murals decorate the walls. That’s about as much I can tell you about the inside of the building from personal experience, but from photos and writings I can tell you that the interior keeps to the venetian style, with rich marble staircases and pillars, a ceiling of gold leaf, fine paintings on the walls, to mention a few exuberances.
The cost of the building was nearly four times over budget, which would probably explain why the interior is so lavishly decorated. Interestingly, when it opened, the City Chambers was one of the first buildings in the country to be lit by electricity. There are free daily tours of the Chambers, lasting 45-60 minutes, and I plan on taking a tour next term. maybe I’ll post some photos of the interior the next time I feature the City of Glasgow on this blog.
Glasgow Trivia #22: The Glasgow we know might be the largest and most important Glasgow in the world, but it’s not the only one. There are some # Glasgows in the world, all of them in the Americas. You can find the smaller Glasgows in Alabama (a few scattered houses), California (nothing, at all), Delaware (pop. ~12,000), Georgia (a cemetery?), Kentucky (pop. ~14,000), Missouri (pop. ~1,200), Montana (pop. ~3,200), Illinois (pop. ~170), Ohio (pop. very few), Oregon (pop. ~275.5), Pennsylvania (pop. ~63), Virginia (pop. ~1,046), West Virginia (pop. ~783), Jamaica (a few houses), Ontario (Canada) (farms and some houses) and Suriname (pop. ~776). There’s also a New Glasgow in Nova Scotia (Canada) (pop. ~9,500) and a mountain range called the Glasgow Range in New Zealand.
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Central Station
Opened in 1879 and extended in 1905, Glasgow Central is still Scotland’s busiest station and with some 27.5 million users in 2009, it is the busiest railway station in the United Kingdom outside of London, coming in 7th overall. The original 8 platforms have been extended to 17, with 2 on the lower level, and the station serves the southern towns and suburbs of Greater Glasgow, the Ayrshire and Clyde coasts, and is the main terminus for rail services to southern Scotland and to England,
The Central Station is an interesting place to pass an afternoon or evening, especially if people or train watching is a hobby of yours (apparently platform 11a is the best for the latter exercise). The most striking feature of the interior of the Central Station, distinctive curved wooden concourse buildings, were added between 1899 and 1905. Originally housing waiting rooms, a restaurant and ticket offices, it was believed that the curved buildings and rounded corners helped prevent crowding and bottlenecks. They were renovated and redeveloped into shops, eateries and an upstairs bar/restaurant in the 1980s. The golden lettering above Argyle Street was added in the early 2000s.
Glasgow Trivia #21: Continuing with the habit of assigning nicknames to local landmarks, the glass-walled railway bridge above Argyle Street at Glasgow Central Station is referred to as the “Heilanman’s Umbrella” by locals. The name roots from the forced displacement of Scots during the Highland Clearances of the 19th century, when tens of thousands of Highlanders, speaking Gaelic but no English, descended upon Glasgow looking for work. While in Glasgow, these Highlanders kept in touch with each other by often meeting under the bridge, a large shelter them from the rain.
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Gallery of Modern Art
Sitting in the middle of the Royal Exchange Square, between Buchanan Street and Queen Street is an impressive neoclassical building, surrounded by cafes during the summer months and by a artificial sky of winter lights during the darker months. The Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) is the home of Glasgow’s contemporary art, the second most visited art gallery of its kind in the UK outside the Tate Modern Gallery in London, and like most of Glasgow’s public museums, entrance is free.
The neoclassical building was originally built in 1778 as a townhouse for a wealthy local tobacco lord, William Cunninghame of Lainshaw. Since then it has changed hands several times: it was purchased by the Royal Bank of Scotland 1817, after which it housed the Royal Exchange from 1832, when extensive reconstruction and additions were finished and the pillars, cupola and large hall added. Stirling’s Library took over the building in 1954, until in 1996 it became the home for contemporary art in Glasgow.
Glasgow Trivia #20: Outside the GoMA sits one of Glasgow’s most infamous landmarks, a statue of the Duke of Wellington on horseback (erected 1844). The orange traffic cone which the Duke is sporting in the photo above is put up there pretty much every weekend, and city authorities regularly remove the traffic cone, only to have it reappear, without fail, every weekend. Even with this ongoing battle, the Duke and his hat have featured on numerous tourist guidebooks and books on Glasgow, apparently even on some financed and supported by the City Council. On occasion the horse too might be sporting a pair of sunglasses.
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Princes Square
Now one of the most upmarket centres of shopping in Glasgow, Princes Square used to be an open cobbled courtyard with stables. The original buildings on Buchanan Street consisted of a four-storey merchant square, completed in 1841. In 1987 the court was completely refurbished, and further extended in 1999. The modern interior, now covered by a glass dome roof, is surrounded by the preserved original sandstone facades with the eastern wall redone. Art Nouveau finishings decorate the Square, most notably the 10m by 20m wrought iron and steel peacock, which was added in 1990.
Fashion, art, design, gifts, jewellery, lifestyle, the shops and their products are as stylish as the building itself. Above the thirty odd high-end shops is a floor of stylish cafes, bars and restaurants open until midnight and accessible by escalator from Buchanan Street. Even if you can’t afford to shop there, the architecture inside and outside the shopping centre is worth checking out.
The name is not a misspelling. In 1841 the Lord Provost of Glasgow, James Campbell, who owned the building, named it in celebration of the birth of the Prince of Wales, later to become King Edward VII.
Glasgow Trivia #19: From the first introduction of movies to Glasgow in the last years of the 1800s, Glasgow has been a cinema mad city. In 1939 the city boasted the title of Cinema City, with more than 110 picture houses seating over 175,000 people, more cinema seats per head than any other city in the world. Today only around 10 cinemas remain in Glasgow, but the city is home to the world’s tallest cinema, the 62m (203ft) Cineworld on Renfrew Street, which opened in 2001. With 18 screens on 12 floors, it’s also one of Britain’s busiest cinemas, achieving that distinction in 2003 with 1.8 million visitors.
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Sauchiehall Street
The northern stretch of the Golden Z, Sauchiehall Street is one of the main shopping and business streets in the centre of Glasgow. The name, unlike Buchanan Street and Argyle Street, does not root from a person. The first part is derived from “saugh”, the Scots word for a willow tree, and the second part, “haugh” is a Scots word for a meadow, or the land at the bottom of a river valley, of which “hall” is an anglicization of. Hence, “Sauchiehall” roughly translates to ‘Way of the Willows’.
Originally, the street was a winding, narrow lane, with villas and large gardens. Presumably with willow trees, so you can see where the name comes from. Today the street runs for about a 2.5km (1.5 miles) from the top of Buchanan Street to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, where it meets with Argyle Street to form Dumbarton Road.
Sauchiehall Street was formerly home to many local quality department stores and retailers, of which Watt Brothers at the corner of Sauchiehall Street and Hope Street is the only one to survive from those early days. Now its pedestrianized section (east of Blythswood Street) is populated by typical High Street retailers while the western end of the city centre section of the street, by Charing Cross and the M8, is littered with an assortment of restaurants, bars and clubs, as well as Glasgow’s first “skyscraper”, the 10-storey Beresford Hotel, now converted into private flats. Probably the most famous landmark is the Willow Tearooms, originally designed as Miss Cranston’s Willow Tea-Rooms in 1903 by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. (Note how the name matches that of the meaning of Sauchiehall Street.)
Quite interestingly, in the Wikipedia article for Sauchiehall Street, someone thought it was worthy to note a notable resident of Sauchiehall Street, one Edward William Pritchard, infamous for murdering his wife and mother-in-law by poisoning, and for that being the last person to be publicly hanged in Glasgow, in 1865.
Glasgow Trivia #18: Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) may be the most famous Glaswegian designer, but one invention which seemingly bares his name was not devised by him: the waterproof raincoat referred to as the “mackintosh“. That distinction belongs to Charles Macintosh (1766-1843), a Glaswegian inventor. The mackintosh first went on the market in 1823 under the name “macintosh”, but has somehow gained the extra “k” to its name, so it’s easy to make that mistake.
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Buchanan Street
Renowned for its Victorian architecture and modern urban design, Buchanan Street is one of the main shopping streets in Glasgow, the spine of the city’s Golden Z. Originally the street was called Virginia Street, after a house called Virginia House which belonged to a wealthy tobacco lord Andrew Buchanan, whose wealth came from the tobacco fields of Virginia in the American Colonies. Buchanan Street was given its current name sometime between 1778 and 1786, when it was named for Andrew Buchanan, a leading merchant in the city, a proprietor of the grounds where the street grew, and nephew of the aforementioned Glaswegian by the same name.
Over the years the street stretched to connect with Argyle Street and became a major traffic artery in the city. Its ascension to becoming Glasgow’s main shopping street began in 1978, when the entire street was pedestrianized, save for where other streets cross it. Buchanan Street met the new millennium being repaved with high quality granite stonework and boasting blue neon lighting to light up the street at night.
Today many of the stores are high street and upmarket shops, especially considering the high rents in the many Victorian buildings. In addition to Buchanan Galleries, Buchanan Street is home to the House of Fraser, Princes Square, and Argyll Arcade, to name the larger department stores and the like. The first was mentioned on Saturday, the second will be featured in a few days, and the third is one of the UK’s oldest covered shopping arcades, having been built in 1827. Much of the street survived the most recent recession, although some shops packed up, most notably the Borders bookshop by the Royal Exchange Square.
The statue, seen int he photo above, where Buchanan Street meets Sauchiehall Street, was unveiled in 2002 and depicts Scotland’s first First Minister, Donald Dewar (1937-2000), a graduate of Glasgow University. Apparently the statue was placed on a raised plinth after it had been repeatedly vandalized, reportedly because of its ugliness.
Glasgow Trivia #17: Leading from Buchanan Street by St. George’s-Tron Church is one of many examples of Glasgow leading the world. In 1986 the Glasgow City Council renamed St. George’s Place to Nelson Mandela Place while the political prisoner sat in prison and apartheid was still ongoing in South Africa. The city had already given Mandela Freedom of the City five years earlier. There are numerous places around the world named in honor of Nelson Mandela, so what makes this one in Glasgow special? Because this renaming really upset one of the residents there who now had to list its address as being on Nelson Mandela Place. That resident was the South African consulate.
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Argyle Street
Argyle Street runs west from Trongate, but due to modern development and the M8 highway the street breaks twice in the middle, after which it continues to meet up with Sauchiehall Street by the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum to become Dumbarton Road. The eastern end of the street, pedestrianized between Queen Street and Glassford Street/Stockwell Street, makes up the southern stretch of the Golden Z, being one of the principal shopping streets in Glasgow.
Argyle Street has gone through several name changes over the centuries, and the exact history of these name changes seems unclear. It has been called St Thenew’s Gait or St Enoch’s Gate (see Trivia below), Westergait, and Dumbarton Road, all variably its original name, but a name at some point. After these names it became Anderson Walk, and finally in 1751 (or 1760) it was renamed Argyle Street, after Archibald Campbell, the 3rd Duke of Argyll. (If anyone knows the reasoning between this double use of Argyll/Argyle, do tell.)
St Enoch Square, outside the western front of the St Enoch Centre, used to be home to a medieval chapel called St Thenew’s Chapel which was demolished during the Reformation. A new chapel, St Enoch’s Church, was built on the spot in 1780 and rebuilt in 1827. It was demolished for good in 1925. Today the square contains the 1970s subway station entrance, and a Baronial building (or, if you will, a very small castle), which was built in 1896 as the above ground ticket office and entrance to the St Enoch Subway Station. Subsequently it served as a travel centre, and most recently as a cafe. The eastern side of the square, where St Enoch Centre stands today, used to be the St Enoch Hotel and St Enoch Railway Station, from 1876 to 1977.
Glasgow Trivia #16: Who was St Enoch? The name is a corruption of St Thenew (Saintteneu = Saintenoch), also known as Theneu, Teneu, Thaney, Thenaw, Denw, Thanea, or Theneva (whew!). According to legend, this 6th/7th century Scottish saint was St Mungo’s mother. She is said to have been buried underneath the Square named after her, where medieval chapel bearing her name used to stand. Her Saint’s Day is today, July 18th.
[Summer 2010 Poll: Where Are You From?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
The Golden Z
Having gone through some extensive city centre development in the past decade or so, Glasgow has quickly gained the distinction of being the largest centre of shopping in the UK outside of London. The absolute centre of the city’s shopping (and dining) is often referred to as “The Golden Z”, running roughly in the form of the letter “Z” for some 2.5 miles from Sauchiehall Street in the north, down Buchanan Street and Argyle Street in the south.
There’s some talk of “The Golden Z” becoming “The Golden I”, as the two corners of the Z have in recent years become the focal points for shopping and continue to grow. At the northern end of Buchanan Street is the £250 million Buchanan Galleries, opened in 1999. Previously this part of the centre was full of derelict buildings but is one of the nicest and thriving parts of the city, complete with some 80 shops and the adjoining Royal Concert Hall.
At the other end of Buchanan Street is the St Enoch Centre, which opened in 1989. Boasting its status as Europe’s largest glass-covered enclosed area, it also features Scotland’s largest food court. St Enoch Centre is currently undergoing an extensive £100 million refurbishment, slightly behind schedule, which will have a better chance at competing with its rival mall, Buchanan Galleries. To keep the rivalry going, Buchanan Galleries is set to begin a £400 million project to double its size, to compete with St Enoch Centre. I can’t decide which one I prefer, but Hamley’s having opened a standalone toy store in the St Enoch Centre, I’m kinda leaning toward the southern end of the Golden Z. The number of hours I’ve spent there, being a child again… =)
As important as the two focal points of the Golden Z are, it wouldn’t be the same without the three streets which make up the last letter of the alphabet and true city centre of Glasgow. Hence, I will feature them in the coming days.
Glasgow Trivia #15: The corner of Buchanan Street and Argyle Street is dominated by the sizable House of Fraser department store. Although the department store group’s flagship store is on Oxford Street in London, and there are dozens of stores across the United Kingdom and Ireland, the Glasgow branch is where it all started. It was founded in 1849 by Hugh Fraser and James Arthur as a small drapery shop. Come to think of it, I’ve never bought anything there, only popping by at the Hamley’s section, before the bigger Hamley’s opened across the street.
[Summer 2010 Poll: Where Are You From?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Clockwork Orange
The Glasgow Subway, opened on 14 December 1896, is the third-oldest underground metro system in the world after the London Underground and the Budapest Metro. Originally built as a cable-hauled railway, with propulsion provided by stationary steam engines, the railway was hailed as the first of its type in the world. The subway saw little change until in 1935 the trains were electrified and in 1977-1980 the stations and trains were modernized.
The Subway runs in a loop for some 10.5km (6.5 miles) in twin tunnels, clockwise on the Outer Circle and counterclockwise on the Inner Circle. There’s a total of fifteen stations, spread out on both sides of the Clyde. The three busiest stations are Buchanan Street and St Enoch in the city centre, and Hillhead in the West End. The most noticable feature of the Subway and the trains is its size, as most of the tunnels are relatively shallow, and narrow, being only some 3.4m in diameter. Each car is very small (12m long) and quite low, adding to the perception of the trains coming out of the tunnels like little worms or caterpillars. Today, more than 14 million journeys are made on the Subway each year.
The Glasgow Subway system is unusual compared to other metro systems around the world as it has never been expanded from its original route in more than 100 years. Many schemes for extending the system have been proposed but none have been implemented, for a variety of reasons. Most recently, Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT, which operates the Subway) approved outline plans for a £290 million upgrade of the Subway, to extend the lines, possibly create an East End line, and replace the existing trains with new driverless trains.
As far as I can tell, the only one accident of note has occurred on the Glasgow Subway. A cable fault on the inner circle caused a car to be derailed at Buchanan Street, limiting service to the Inner Circle. Then, on the same day, a collision between two cars near St Enoch Station caused all services to be halted. This was way back on December 14th, 1896. The day the subway had opened.
The nickname of “Clockwork Orange” is most often used in tourist guidebooks and local literature, as opposed to by locals themselves, who prefer to refer to the system simply as “the Subway”. The name roots from the circular nature of the line and the orange paint of the subway trains, although SPT refers to the colour as “Strathclyde PTE red”.
Glasgow Trivia #14: In addition to the regular pub crawls, Glasgow has its own version of the activity: the Subcrawl. Quite simply, as the subway in Glasgow travels in a circle, you and your friends purchase a Discovery ticket and travel to each of the 15 stops and head to the nearest pub for a drink before continuing. In the end you’ll end up where you began. Curlers, which I mentioned last week, is a popular pub for this on Byres Road, being located right next to the Hillhead subway station where the above photo is from.
[Summer 2010 Poll: Where Are You From?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
BBC Alba at the Pacific Quay
The Pacific Quay area, formerly the site of the Prince’s Docks, on the south bank of the River Clyde, is home to the Digital Media Quarter and the Glasgow Science Centre. The headquarters of BBC Scotland (or BBC Alba in Gaelic), colourfully lit up at night in the above photo, opened in the summer of 2007. The headquarters of BBC Scotland’s main rival, STV, had opened next door a year before the BBC moved in. If you’ve ever watched BBC Scotland, you might recognize Tuesday’s photo as the occasional backdrop for local news.
The Glasgow Science Centre, just next door, is composed of three main buildings: the Science Mall, an IMAX cinema, and the Glasgow Tower. Opened to the public in June 2001 at a cost of £75 million, including £10 million for Glasgow Tower. The crescent-shaped Science Mall houses some 250 interactive science-learning exhibits, a Science Show Theatre and the Glasgow Science Centre Planetarium.
The IMAX cinema is the first and currently only IMAX cinema to have been built in Scotland and screens 3D films as well as standard 2D films in IMAX format. I’ve always thought that the IMAX cinema looked more like an armadillo than the Clyde Auditorium across the river. If you look carefully at the photo above you can kinda make out the distinctive round shape of the IMAX cinema on the right.
The Glasgow Tower is the tallest tower in Scotland at 127 meters (417ft), and holds a Guinness World Record for being the tallest tower in the world in which the whole structure is capable of rotating 360 degrees. Shaped like an aerofoil, the tower is turned by computers into the wind in order to reduce wind resistance. Yes, it’s an aerodynamic building.
Glasgow Trivia #13: Continuing from Tuesday’s Glasgow Trivia, here are a few more Clyde-built ships you might recognize:
PS Waverley. Built in 1946, the PS Waverley is the last seagoing paddle steamer in the world and has been since 1972. She can still be seen in operation on the Clyde.
RMS Queen Mary. Built in 1934, the Queen Mary dominated the North Atlantic routes as the largest and fastest passenger ship around, from 1936 until jet flight brought about its demise. During WW2 she and her sister ship, RMS Queen Elizabeth (built in 1938), were the fastest troop ships in the war, simply too fast for the German submarines to catch. She was retired in 1967 and today she is a floating hotel and museum in Long Beach, California. The Queen Elizabeth was destroyed by fire in 1972 off a harbour in Hong Kong while being converted to a floating university.
RMS Queen Elizabeth 2. The most famous of the Clyde-built ships and often referred to simply as the ‘QE2′, she was built in 1968 and ran transatlantic routes between Southampton and New York, as well as world cruises during active life of almost 40 years. In 1982 she served as a troopship in the Falklands War. She was retired from service by Cunard in 2008, and is currently sitting in dock in Dubai, waiting to be converted into a floating luxury hotel.
[Summer 2010 Poll: Where Are You From?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
The Armadillo and the SECC
What used to be the site of the Queen’s Docks in on the north bank of the River Clyde is now home to some of Scotland’s most modern landmarks. Largely hidden behind the Clyde Auditorium in the photo above, the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, better known simply as the SECC, is Scotland’s largest exhibition centre, hosting concerts, exhibitions and conferences. The Main Building was completed and opened in 1985, with several more halls added later. With concerts taking place pretty much every other night in the SECC’s halls, there’s really no point in listing artists who have performed there. Better idea: who have you seen perform at the SECC? (I’ve only seen Eddie Izzard.)
The Clyde Auditorium, the iconic and modern concert venue seen above next to and reflected on the Crowne Plaza hotel, opened in 1997 to compliment the SECC complex. It is connected to the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre and the Crowne Plaza for easy access and exit for high profile performers.
Out of shot is the newest multi-million pound regeneration project in the area, the centrepiece of which is the tentatively named “Scotland’s National Arena”, a 12,500 seat indoor arena. Upon completion it will be the largest purpose built indoor arena in Scotland and one of the largest in the UK.
Glasgow Trivia #12: The Clyde Auditorium is commonly referred to as “The Armadillo”. Apparently the animal was not the inspiration for the building, nor was the Sydney Opera House the inspiration for the building, but rather the shape was modelled after an interlocking series of ship’s hulls, in reference to the Clyde’s shipbuilding heritage. The Clyde Arc, seen in yesterday’s photo, is commonly referred to as “Squinty Bridge”, presumably because of its rather odd design. The SECC used to carry the nickname of “The Big Red Shed” because of its outward appearance, but in 1997 it was repainted a dull grey. With a name like “Scotland’s National Arena”, it probably won’t take long for the upcoming building to be rechristened by Glaswegians. Other examples of this nicknaming habit include “The Barras” for a market in the East End and “Clockwork Orange” for the city’s subway system, but more on those later. Do you know of any other nicknames Glasgow’s landmarks?
[Summer 2010 Poll: Where Are You From?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Clydebuilt – Glasgow’s Shipbuilding Heritage
‘Clydebuilt’ used to be a byword for quality and productivity in shipbuilding, harking back to the days when Scotland was the world’s largest shipbuilding nation and the shipyards on the banks of the River Clyde were churning out the world’s greatest ships. Initially the Clyde was a narrow and shallow waterway, but through conscious efforts directed by Glasgow’s ambition of becoming an important port the river was transformed to fulfill that ambition.The first shipyard was established on the River Clyde in 1712 and since then over 25,000 ships have been built on the Clyde, and over 300 firms have engaged in shipbuilding on Clydeside over the space of several centuries.
Tens of thousands of men worked the shipyards which dominated the banks of the Clyde from Glasgow to Greenock. Yachts, tall ships, steamers, warships, and ocean liners were all built on the Clyde, corresponding with technological advances. Shipbuilding replaced trade as the major activity on the Clyde, which gained a reputation for being the best location for shipbuilding in the British Empire, and the most technologically advanced shipbuilding area in the world, to an extent that at a time over 100,000 people were working on the shipyards and related industries and the Clyde was producing over half of world’s ships. Glasgow had become a major international industrial city, the Second City of the Empire.
The boom and bust of shipbuilding on the Clyde came as a result of the two World Wars. During both wars Clyde shipbuilders made a huge contribution to the war effort, producing more ships than any other shipbuilding area in the country. World War II and the decades afterwards slowly sealed the fate of the area’s industry. The Luftwaffe had targeted Clydebank and the shipyards, causing heavy damage. Other shipbuilding nations rose and surpassed the Clyde in competitiveness and productivity. The jet aeroplane was developing quickly and taking freight and passenger traffic away from the shipping lines. The 1960s brought the great shipbuilding days of the Clyde an end.
Only a handful of shipyards remain on the Clyde. Two major shipyards, in Scoutstoun and Govan, are operated by BAE Systems Surface Fleet Solutions, creating advanced warships for the Royal Navy. A single shipyard remains in Port Glasgow construction car ferries. The shipbuilding heartlands of Glasgow have given way to tourism and 21st century regeneration, giving it a new lease on life. Even so, the glory days of Glasgow’s shipbuilding days are survived by landmarks scattered around the banks of the Clyde, such as the Finnieston Crane, on the left in the photo above and also visible in yesterday’s photo. The cantilever crane was once the largest in the world and only 60 were ever built around the world. Four out of the six built on the Clyde remain to this day to remind future generations of this part Glasgow’s history.
Glasgow Trivia #11: Some quite famous ships were built on the Clyde. Here’s a few you might recognize:
Cutty Sark. Built in 1869, the last clipper to be built as a merchant vessel, she became one of the fastest sail-ships in the world, making record times between Britain and Australia. Now sitting in dry dock in Greenwich, London, she is currently undergoing conservation after being badly damaged by fire in 2007.
Glenlee. Built in 1896, she is one of only five Clyde-built tall ships still afloat. In 1993, 97 years after leaving Glasgow, she was rescued by the Clyde Maritime Trust from being scrapped in Spain. She is now a museum ship known as The Tall Ship at Glasgow Harbour.
RMS Lusitania. The largest passenger ship afloat when built in 1906, she was torpedoed by a German U-Boat off the coast of Ireland when returning from New York on May 7th, 1915. 1,198 lives were lost, including 128 Americans and the tragedy hastened US entry into WWI.
[Summer 2010 Poll: Where Are You From?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
River Clyde
There’s a saying that “The Clyde made Glasgow and Glasgow made the Clyde”. Making both of these statements is quite justifiable, as without the ninth longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third longest in Scotland, as well as its access to the sea, Glasgow might never have grown to become Scotland’s largest city. The Clyde, stretching 170 km (106 miles), started as a shallow salmon river which was transformed over the years by Glaswegians to its current form, allowing ships to sail right into the heart of the city.
Due to the Clyde opening to the Irish Sea and the Atlantic, trade with the Americas made the fortunes of Glasgow. Especially sugar, cotton and tobacco were imported, and by 1772 over half of all tobacco shipped to Britain came into Glasgow. With heaps of natural resources nearby, Glasgow grew into a large manufacturing city and its products were exported in massive numbers. Needless to say, shipbuilding became the city’s bread and butter (more on that tomorrow). Before that could happen, the river, which naturally very shallow, had to be made more navigable for large ships. This was achieved by the late 19th century, in time for Glasgow to become a major industrial city and the world’s largest shipbuilding centre.
With the shipyards now mostly gone, the Clyde is undergoing a massive regeneration from Glasgow Green to Dumbarton. The river has been cleaned, the docks closed, and the riverfront is being taken over by residential development, business centres and recreational facilities. A new Riverside Museum should open next sometime next year, to compliment all of the modern landmarks seen above on both banks of the Clyde.
Glasgow Trivia #10: Both banks of the Clyde at the section visible in the above photo used to look vastly different because of Glasgow’s shipbuilding heritage. On the left used to be the Prince’s Docks, built in the 1890s and closed in the 1970s. The basins were filled for the 1988 Glasgow Garden Festival. A basin from the original docks still remains on the south side of the Glasgow Science Centre. The larger Queen’s Docks on the other side of the river were built in the 1870s and were filled in with rubble from the demolition of St Enoch Railway Station. These were the furthest docks from the mouth of the river. TheGlasgowStory website has an aerial photo of what the area used to look like, in relation to the university, and another of the two docks.
[Summer 2010 Poll: Where Are You From?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
W is for… Weddings at the University [ABC Sundae]
![W is for... Weddings at the University [ABC Sundae]](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4018/4577561967_6f55bc6ab8_z.jpg)
Ever considered getting married at your alma mater? Taking into account the grandeur and the setting of the University of Glasgow, it is no surprise that the University is a very popular venue for both religious and civil wedding ceremonies. Popular enough that the University restricts the availability of the use of the Chapel and the ceremonial rooms for these purposes only to couples where at least one of the pair is a graduate, member of staff, current student or the child of one of the above.
The Memorial Chapel is available for marriages celebrated in accordance with the rites of the Christian Churches and can seat a up to 320 guests. Civil ceremonies can be held in the Randolph Hall, the Melville Room, the Turnbull Hall, the Kelvin Gallery, and the Hunter Halls (none of which I have photos of, unfortunately.) In the Chapel the ceremony includes the services of a University organist on the organ or grand piano, the University Chapel Choir may be available at an additional fee and even more interestingly, the ceremony will be streamed online via webcam for those who can’t make it. You can view the Chapel webcam live stream here (if requested, the webcam can be turned off during the wedding ceremony).
The fee for all wedding ceremonies taking place in the University in 2010 the fee is £1050 and in 2011 it will be £1080. Current staff and students of the University are eligible for a 25% discount. During term time ceremonies can only be performed on Saturdays, but outside of term time ceremonies may be held on any day of the week. The wedding reception can also be held at the University, in Randolph Hall, the Hunter Halls, One A The Square and quite temptingly, Bute Hall.
For more information on Weddings at the University of Glasgow, visit the Chapel website.
[Summer 2010 Poll: Where Are You From?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
The large, impressive and imposing red sandstone building in Kelvingrove Park is the most visited museum in the UK outside London and also Scotland’s most popular free attraction. Built in mostly Spanish baroque style for the 1901 International Exhibition, partially with the profits of the 1888 International Exhibition (construction went over budget and ended up costing over £250,000), the building initially housed the Fine Arts Section for the exhibition. The building itself is a work of art, adorned with a number statues, including a large one of St Mungo on the front facing the University of Glasgow. At night the building is one of the most colourful in the city and nicely complimenting the University. I’ve featured that night view of the two buildings previously.
Between 2003 and 2006 the Kelvingrove was closed to undergo a three-year, £28 million restoration, to restore the building’s Victorian interior to its original splendour. The Museum was reopened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on 11 July 2006 and in just six short months overtook Edinburgh Castle as Scotland’s most popular tourist destination. Before the restoration more than 1 million people regularly visited the museum each year and that number has gone up since it reopened.
It’s hard to write about a museum and an art gallery without mentioning what treasures lie within. The Kelvingrove has some 8,000 exhibits on display, up from 4,000 before the refurbishment, with hundreds of thousands of specimens, so I won’t list them all here. Instead of separating the art and museum aspects of the Kelvingrove, the collections are mixed, with one wing dedicated to “Life” and the other to “Expression”, with individual galleries themed. The centrepiece of the vast central hall is a massive pipe organ, built by Lewis and Co., for the 1901 International Exhibition, with daily organ recitals.
Spread around the building are objects from overseas expeditions by such famous explorers as David Livingstone, Charles Darwin and Captain Cook, as well as art and artefacts from dozens of cultures all over the world to which Glasgow traders, missionaries, soldiers and engineers had travelled to. The collections of paintings include works from Italian, Dutch Old Master and Renaissance, French Impressionist and post-Impressionist artists such as Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Monet, Botticelli, Turner and Whistler. One of the top three collections of arms and armour in the world is in the Kelvingrove and contains many rare or unique pieces ranging from the ancient world to present. Late 19th and early 20th century Scottish art, including the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the ‘Glasgow Style’ school of artists are featured, including furniture and other works by Mackintosh. The natural history of Scotland and the records of animal kingdom are displayed, from prehistoric fossils to garden birds. Archeology collections range from the West of Scotland to Ancient Egypt. There is also a temporary exhibition hall downstairs which currently is displaying arts from “The Glasgow Boys” and previously featured a Dr Who exhibition.
Living in the West Court is also the Museum’s much loved star resident, Sir Roger, an Asian elephant who used to tour the country and resided at the Scottish Zoo in Glasgow before eventually becoming too dangerous and had to be shot. Above him, suspended from the ceiling, is a restored Spitfire LA198. The opposite wing of the Museum is adorned with a work of heads hanging from the ceiling, with varying expressions.
During World War the collections were spread around the UK in secret location, which in hindsight was a good idea as a German bomb exploded on the nearby Kelvin Way Bridge during the War, causing a great deal of damage to the Museum.
Rumor has it that once the building was completed, one of the architects of the building committed suicide by jumping from one of the building’s towers upon noticing that the building had been built backwards, with the back doors facing Dumbarton Road. This, however, is not true, as the museum was built to face the 1911 International Exhibition, not the street. It is because of this most people enter the Museum from the back, so to speak.
Admission to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum free for all, like most of the city’s museums, which is even more reason why it is a must visit for everyone who visits or lives in Glasgow.
Glasgow Trivia #9: By far the most famous of the items in the Museum is a painting by Salvador Dali, Christ of St John of the Cross. Dali created the painting in the summer of 1951 at in his home town of Port Lligat in Spain, the harbour of which is represented in the painting. It is a reworking of a drawing of the Crucifixion believed to have been made by Saint John of the Cross, a 16th century Spanish saint.
The painting was bought by the curator of the Kelvingrove after meeting with the artist in 1952. At the time the purchase created some controversy as many people felt that the price was too high, but apparently Dali had initially asked for £12,000 but the price was negotiated down by a third to £8,200, with Dali also ceding copyright of the painting to the city of Glasgow. Guess he needed the money. Ceding copyright was unusual as it gave away the reproduction rights to the purchaser (think giftshop products, books, postcards, etc…).
The painting went on display in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum on June 23rd, 1952, and today it is one of the best-loved works of art in the city. The painting is currently away from Glasgow as it is on loan to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, USA, where it will be on display from August 7th, 2010 until January 9th, 2011, as part of the exhibition Dali: The Late Work.
[Summer 2010 Poll: Where Are You From?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Kelvingrove Park
Scotland’s first purpose built public park, Kelvingrove Park provides a fantastic Victorian backdrop to the University of Glasgow and the West End of the city. Glasgow’s city planners in the 19th century had the wisdom to create green areas around the city to contrast the rapid urbanization of the city and in 1852 the City purchased land for £99,569 (around £8million today) to create this green jewel in the West End. One of several such public parks, Kelvingrove was the first and was designed by Sir Joseph Paxton (who also designed the Crystal Palace in London).
There are a number of events which take place within the Park, most notably parts of the biggest event in this part of the city, the West End Festival. The Park plays host to the opening parade and the Glasgow Mela during the last two weeks in June. The above photo is from this summer’s opening events of the Festival on June 13th. The Park has seen several quite a bit larger events in the past, which I’ll get to in the end.
34 ha (85 acres) in size, the Park holds within it a large number of features, the most notable of which is the grand building at the south-west corner of the Park, the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, and worthy of its own post. In addition, there are five bowling greens, a croquet green, four tennis courts, a children’s play area, a skateboard park, a duck pond, the Stewart Memorial Fountain (erected in 1872), a garden, various statues and monuments, and a bandstand. The bandstand and the adjoining amphitheatre was built in 1924 and was a popular location for outdoor music until it became neglected and vandalised around 1995. Numerous local bands have expressed support for the restoration of the bandstand and there are some proposals for its renovation.
A charitable society, Friends of Kelvingrove Park, looks after the wellbeing of the Park. There are several heritage trails planned out for visitors, one by the society and another by the City Council.
Glasgow Trivia #8: Kelvingrove Park has played host to two International Exhibitions (in 1888 and 1901) and the Scottish National Exhibition (in 1911). Far from merely decorating the Park’s existing facilities, large, impressive buildings were constructed in the Park for the Exhibitions, which have unfortunately since been demolished. Some relics of this part of Glasgow’s history still remain scattered around. The large terracotta Doulton Fountain at Glasgow Green was originally situated in the park for the 1888 Exhibition but was later relocated to its current location. The idealised Elizabethan Port Sunlight Cottages, donated to the city after the 1901 Exhibition, and now used as park workers’ housing, sit south of the University. A small stone circle close to the Gibson Street entrance to the Park roots back to the 1911 Exhibition, when a Highland Village, with some genuine Highlanders, was recreated at the spot. One of the stones is marked with the words “An Clachan 1911″. The most astonishing and famous relic of the Exhibitions is the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, which I will feature tomorrow.
TheGlasgowStory.com has a plethora of images from the International Exhibitions available for you to visualize what the Kelvingrove Park used to look like.
[Summer 2010 Poll: Where Are You From?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Kelvinbridge and Great Western Road
Commonly referred to as Kelvinbridge, the name of the surrounding area, the Great Western Bridge is the third bridge to cross the River Kelvin. The oldest bridge was built in the early 19th century and a second bridge was added in 1840 to carry the Great Western Road across the river. On the east bank of the river at the end of the first bridge was a cottage built for the tollkeeper. Both of these earlier bridges were removed when the third and current bridge, one of the most picturesque in Glasgow, was erected in 1889-1891.
The Great Western Road, at 5km (3 miles) Glasgow’s longest and straightest road, runs from St. George’s Cross by the M8 in the east, to Anniesland Cross in the west. It was originally built as a toll road and now marks the southern end of the A82. Lining the sides of it are some of the city’s finest terraces, and a number of interesting boutiques to spend hours at. The boulevard was serviced by trams until the 1950s.
The site of the former Kelvinbridge Railway Station and the tunnels is just behind where this photo was taken from. The Kelvinbridge Subway Station sits to the right behind the trees, roughly at the location of the old tollbooth cottage. The small seating area on the left, which is always packed on sunny days, is part of The Big Blue restaurant, and the spire of Lansdowne Parish Church is in the background.
Glasgow Trivia #7: The depth stick in the bottom right-hand corner of the photo isn’t just to measure the depth of the River Kelvin, but to remind people of the height of the waters during the December 1994 flood, according to a friendly and talkative local my friends and I met whilst out taking photos along the River Kelvin. The flooding was unprecedented and had a peak flow of 191 cubic meters per second, somewhere along the lines of a 1 in 200 years flood. Because of the abandoned underground Central Line which crosses the Kelvin at Kelvinbridge, the flooding river continued down a secondary path south in the underground tunnels.
[Summer 2010 Poll: Where Are You From?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
River Kelvin
Reaffirming Glasgow’s nickname of Dear Green Place, the city’s second river offers a leafy and vibrant streak to the bustling city as it meanders down from the Dullatur Bog north-east of Glasgow to meet up with the River Clyde in Yorkhill. By all standards Glasgow’s second river is quite short, flowing for only 35 kilometers (22 miles). Even then, it holds within it one of the West End’s hidden gems, the River Kelvin Walkway, part of which is seen in this photo taken from the Queen Margaret Drive Bridge, hidden under the trees.
The current state of the River Kelvin ecosystem, after years of regeneration, is thanks to a society called Friends of the River Kelvin (FORK). Formed in 1991, they work to build public awareness and commitment to the care and maintenance of the Kelvin and its tributaries. FORK’s headquarters are at the Ha’penny Bridge House just a little further up the river from where this photo was taken. Their website offers some details on walks one can take along the River Kelvin Walkway.
The Kelvin used to be littered with paper mills, the ruins of some which can still be walked among by the River Side. Most of the mills on the Kelvin have been demolished or left to complete ruin. The easiest to reach remains of a mill within Glasgow are the remains of the North Woodside Flint Mill, which closed in the 1960s. The preserved remains are just behind where the photo was taken from. There are more remains of a mill just across the Kelvin from the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. One still remains in operation, the Scotstoun Mill operated by Rank Hovis, south of Partick Bridge on Thurso Street. You’ll recognize Thurso Street from being the home of the Glasgow University Archives.
Glasgow Trivia #6: Because of the refuse from the mills, just fifty years ago the River Kelvin was by definition dead or dying. Decades on, wildlife has returned in large numbers to the ecological corridor, including (according to Wikipedia) the grey squirrel, magpie, grey heron, cormorant, blue tit, great tit, chaffinch, snipe, great spotted woodpecker, blackbird, redwing, carrion crow, kingfisher, mallard, goosander, roe deer, red fox, otter, water vole, mink and brown rat. Salmon and brown trout also inhabit the water of the river, and can be fished (with permit). If you look carefully at the photo above, you can spot a grey heron sitting on a branch in the foreground. All this just a few hundred meters north of Byres Road.
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