BOB in the Night
To round off the week of foggy photos, we have Lilybank Gardens and the Boyd Orr Building. By this point the fog had pretty much faded. In my rush to (unsuccessfully) photograph the University Tower in the fog, I missed the opportunity to capture the top half of the Boyd Orr Building completely encased in the fog, with only the lights breaking through.
[January-February 2011 Poll: Which of the University's student media do you follow?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2011 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Towering Library in the Fog
The lights on top of the Mackintosh House and the Hunterian Art Gallery kinda mess with the effect I was trying to go with here, diminishing the ghostly blue and white of the Library‘s windows as it disappears into the fog. Still, kinda creepy but captivating.
[January-February 2011 Poll: Which of the University's student media do you follow?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2011 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Library Hill in the Fog
Of all the foggy photos I’ve posted thus far, this one from Library Hill is probably my favourite, mainly due to the lights reflected of the colours of the Fraser Building to the right, and the Library disappearing on the left.
[January-February 2011 Poll: Which of the University's student media do you follow?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2011 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Reading (Room) in the Fog
The Round Reading Room entrance (although it doesn’t look very round from this angle) on a foggy night. What this photo really needs is a layer of fog covering the ground as well, but the shadows on the trees work too. Oh, and a traffic cone. Gotta have a traffic cone.
[January-February 2011 Poll: Which of the University's student media do you follow?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2011 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
AV Referendum Debate
With the Alternative Vote Referendum coming in May, the Glasgow University Liberal Democrats and the Glasgow University Conservative Association held a debate on the matter in the Debates Chamber of the Glasgow University Union, representing the YES vote and the NO vote, respectively.
From left to right: Sophie Bridger (GULD President), Katy Gordon (Scottish Liberal Democrats), Dr Thomas Lundberg (Moderator, Lecturer in Politics), Ruth Davidson (Scottish Conservatives), and Ross McFarlane (GUCA President).
Update: 67.9% of the voters said NO to AV, and 32.1% said YES. Out of the 440 areas in the UK, only 10 voted YES, of which only 2 were in Scotland. Interestingly the two areas in Scotland which voted YES were Edinburgh Central (which contains the University of Edinburgh) and Glasgow Kelvin (which contains the University of Glasgow).
[January-February 2011 Poll: Which of the University's student media do you follow?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2011 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
North Front in the Fog
The North Front of the Gilbert Scott Building and the Memorial Gates in the foggy night. I’m quite fond of the shadows the lights create onto University Avenue. Shame about the scaffolding covering the eastern side of the North Front (but they should be coming down by the end of the academic year).
[January-February 2011 Poll: Which of the University's student media do you follow?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2011 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Foggy Campus
Ah, another foggy night in Glasgow. Noticed the fog out of my window around midnight, grabbed the camera and tripod and ran over to the University, trying to make it to get a shot of the University Tower lit up in the fog. As you can see, unfortunately, I didn’t make it.
I’ll be posting a few more foggy photos for the next few days. It’s such a rare and interesting event that I might as well make the most of it.
[January-February 2011 Poll: Which of the University's student media do you follow?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2011 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
K is for… Kentigern [ABC Sundae]
![K is for... Kentigern [ABC Sundae]](https://i0.wp.com/farm7.static.flickr.com/6027/5973291274_278e34a92c_z.jpg)
K was a tough letter to find a post for. Last year I covered Lord Kelvin, which was the obvious choice. This year, it’s St Kentigern, or as you may know him better as, St Mungo. I have recounted the story of St Kentigern/Mungo on this site several times before, so instead of repeating myself too much
The feast of St Mungo is on January 13th, commemorating the day on which he died in 614. In addition to having a significant importance to the City of Glasgow as its patron saint, St Kentigern bears connections and an importance to the University of Glasgow too, although he died over eight centuries prior to the establishment of the University.
As I’ve mentioned before, the first years of the University of Glasgow were mainly held in a lower chapter house in the Glasgow Cathedral, quite close to the tomb of St Mungo which lies in the crypt of the Cathedral. In 1460 the University (more specifically the Faculty of Arts) was granted four acres of land on the Dowhill near the Molendinar Burn, an area St Kentigern is described as sitting upon. This is the location upon which the University of Glasgow sat for 400 years before moving to its current location on Gilmorehill.
St Kentigern and his miracles are recounted on both the coat of arms of the City of Glasgow and the University of Glasgow, but did you know that the University’s coat of arms predates the City’s? The University arms were set up in 1658, but the original seal of the University, which depicted St Kentigern in the middle, dates all the way back to 1453.
Thus far I have managed to find seven larger depictions of St Kentigern around the University campus, reminiscent of the seal mentioned above, such as the one above on the Hunter Memorial, one on the John McIntyre Building, one in the Memorial Chapel, and another one outside the Chapel. (That’s the ones I’ve posted so far, do you know of any more?)
[January-February 2011 Poll: Which of the University's student media do you follow?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2011 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Spikes and Spires in the Night
There’s something about the University at night which makes it have a completely different character to it, especially the oldest sections of Gilmorehill. It may be the Gothic revival architecture, or the contrasts all over the place, or something else. Here’s one, taken at night in the moonlight, of the University Tower and the spikes on the fence which lines the length of University Avenue.
By the way, how awesome is the moss on the roof of the security gatehouse by the Main Gate?
[January-February 2011 Poll: Which of the University's student media do you follow?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2011 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Joseph Black Hallway
If I get tired of photographing staircases, I might just switch to random long hallways in the buildings on campus, like this one in the Joseph Black Building. Know of any nice long ones?
[January-February 2011 Poll: Which of the University's student media do you follow?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2011 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
City Fox
Ran into this little guy on the way home, just hanging about in the Lilybank Gardens Car Park. It still surprises me how often you see foxes in Glasgow.
[January-February 2011 Poll: Which of the University's student media do you follow?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2011 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Joseph Black’s Stairs #3
The third and final shot of the staircases in the Joseph Black Building. I tried to get one from the bottom up, but it just didn’t work out as I had wanted.
Are there any other interesting staircases around the campus that I have yet to cover?
[January-February 2011 Poll: Which of the University's student media do you follow?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2011 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Joseph Black’s Stairs #2
A slightly different view of the same staircase as yesterday, located in the other central connecting bit of the Joseph Black Building. You can find more photos of staircases around the University here.
[January-February 2011 Poll: Which of the University's student media do you follow?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2011 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Joseph Black’s Stairs #1
Ever since I traversed up these stairs in first year to get to my lectures in the Joseph Black Building I’ve been meaning to taking a few photos of the staircases that lie in the two connecting bits of the three wings of the building.
Although the Joseph Black Building contains the offices and labs for the Department of Chemistry, many first years, regardless of what they study, will get to know the main lecture theatre in the building, as it is the largest on campus with a capacity of 314.
[January-February 2011 Poll: Which of the University's student media do you follow?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2011 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Oilthigh Ghlaschu
There are three ways in which I have seen “University of Glasgow” spelled around campus, the first being in English, the second in Latin, and the third in Gaelic, as seen in the photo above.
The photo is from the alley between the University Library and University Gardens, a mews building (is that the right term?) containing an annex of the Department of Celtic and Gaelic at 3 University Gardens.
The Department of Celtic and Gaelic (Roinn na Ceiltis is na Gàidhlig) at the University of Glasgow, according to their website, “covers the ancient, medieval and modern periods in three Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, Irish, and Welsh, with primary interests in Scottish Gaelic and Irish language and literature, and in medieval Celtic literatures and history.”
[January-February 2011 Poll: Which of the University's student media do you follow?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2011 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Baron Justus von Liebig
Located on one of the central landings in the Joseph Black Building is the above marble bust of Baron Justus von Liebig (1803-1873), a German chemist best known for his discovery of Nitrogen as an essential plant nutrient. Also, he is also credited for the discovery of Marmite. Go figure.
Interestingly, the above bust is one of, if not the only, commemoration on campus to someone not actually formally affiliated with the University of Glasgow (can you think of any others?).
The presumptive link to the University is through Thomas Thomson, Professor of Chemistry at Glasgow. Thomson was a fervent advocate of the ideas of von Liebig, with whom he had studied. More on the Hunterian website.
[January-February 2011 Poll: Which of the University's student media do you follow?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2011 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
John McIntyre and the GUU
Although John McIntyre is nowadays primarily associated with the Students’ Representative Council (SRC), that has not always been the case. When the (male) students of Glasgow University met in Bute Hall in 1885 and decided to establish a students’ union, it was John McIntyre who provided the £5,000 to fund the construction of a dedicated building for the union, a building which would come to house the Glasgow University Union, the Queen Margaret Union, and now the SRC: the John McIntyre Building.
The above bust and plaque can be found on a landing in the main staircase of the Glasgow University Union’s building at the foot of University Avenue. The plaque reads:
This building erected for the use and benefit of the students of Glasgow by John McIntyre M.D., Odinham, Hampshire, a former student of this University, is dedicated to the memory of his beloved wife Anne, daughter of the late Francis Tweddell Esquire of Threepwood, Northumberland. 1887
Come to think of it, isn’t this particular plaque supposed to be in the John McIntyre Building? Or is it a later creation specifically for the GUU? The same text appears on the north front of the John McIntyre Building. In fact, it’s identical to this one.
[January-February 2011 Poll: Which of the University's student media do you follow?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2011 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
No Smoking?
Not the most well thought-out placement of a sign, or the ashtray. The above is located outside the Joseph Black Building.
[January-February 2011 Poll: Which of the University's student media do you follow?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2011 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Daft Friday Ceilidh
Going through my photo archives I found this photo from Daft Friday 2009 at the Glasgow University Union and couldn’t figure out why I hadn’t posted it before. The photo is of the ceilidh in the GUU’s Debates Chamber.
[JanuaryFebruary 2011 Poll: Which of the University's student media do you follow?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2011 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Foundation Stone #2
To the left of yesterday’s photo is the other of the two foundation stones, laid down in 1868. The plaque reads:
THIS FOUNDATION STONE WAS LAID BY
H.R.H. ALEXANDRA, PRINCESS OF WALES
8TH. OCTOBER, 1868.
Now, for the interesting bit. Behind each foundation stone is a “time capsule” in a glass jar, from 1868. Wonder how long they’re supposed to stay in their resting places. (I did find in an old book what exactly was placed in the time capsules, but I’ll wait until October 8th to publish that.)
[January-February 2011 Poll: Which of the University's student media do you follow?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2011 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Foundation Stone #1
I only recently discovered that there are a pair of foundation stones underneath the University Tower. Well, I knew there had to be at least one somewhere in the Gilbert Scott Building.
The above one, located just behind the double-doors to the south of the Cloisters, is on the right when looking back at the Cloisters, and reads:
THIS FOUNDATION STONE WAS LAID BY
H.R.H. EDWARD, PRINCE OF WALES
8TH, OCTOBER, 1868.
Furthermore, I found out something very interesting about the foundation stones, which I’ll reveal tomorrow when I post a photo of the second foundation stone.
[January-February 2011 Poll: Which of the University's student media do you follow?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2011 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
J is for… James II, Bishop Turnbull, and Pope Nicholas V [ABC Sundae]
![J is for... James II, Bishop Turnbull, and Pope Nicholas V [ABC Sundae]](https://i0.wp.com/farm6.static.flickr.com/5289/5383288124_a28e5fd07d_z.jpg)
The University of Glasgow was founded by James II, King of Scots, William Turnbull, Bishop of Glasgow, and Pope Nicholas V. I figured I would write a little bit about the founders. Just a tiny bit, not a full history or anything.
King James II
James II (1430-1460) reigned as King of Scots from 1437 to his death. He ascended to the throne after the assassination of his father, James I. He took up the regency in 1448 at the age of 18, having studied at the University of St Andrews, which had been founded in 1410-1413.
He died in 1460, but unlike his father he was not assassinated. No, the story is a bit weirder. Short story: James II died at the siege of Roxburgh Castle when one of his cannons exploded. Long story: An ardent supporter of artillery, James II was testing his new cannon (which he called Lion) on the battlements when he died. The cannon, as cannons from the era sometimes did, exploded, and he had insisted on standing by when they tested the cannon. The explosion shattered his right leg and he eventually died of loss of blood.
Bishop Turnbull
William Turnbull (c1400-1454), the Bishop of Glasgow, was instrumental in founding the University of Glasgow, and is considered its founder. Having studied at the Universities of St Andrews, Leuven (Belgium) and Pavia (Italy), he befriended James II upon his return and became Keeper of the Privy Seal and Royal Secretary. In 1448 he was appointed Bishop of Glasgow which he held until his death in 1454.
Turnbull believed that a University would increase the status of Glasgow (which at the time had a population of less than 3,000). Although having a history stretching back centuries and several notable ecclesiastical institutions such as the Glasgow Cathedral, it was an inconsiderable town.
Upon the establishment of the University of Glasgow, Turnbull became the first Chancellor of the University and oversaw the first years of the fledgling institution at the Glasgow Cathedral.
Pope Nicholas V
Tomaso Parentucelli (1397-1455) became Pope in 1447. He studied Theology at the University of Bologna. He issued the Papal Bull which granted the establishment of the University of Glasgow, and provided for the foundation of studies in not just law and theology, but also the study of arts for younger students.
The University of Glasgow was to be modelled after the University of Bologna, where the students had an important influence in the corporation. In the case of Glasgow, matriculated students and the Rector (who represents the students) were to be part of the general meetings of the University’s decision-making process.
Considering the three men died within a decade of the establishment of the University, and within five years of each other, it was just the right time in history for the University of Glasgow to be established.
[January-February 2011 Poll: Which of the University's student media do you follow?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2011 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
1451 – Establishment of the University of Glasgow
As yesterday was the 560th anniversary of the University of Glasgow, I’m going to quickly recount the story of the establishment of the University of Glasgow, and its early years.
In the middle of the 15th century William Turnbull, then Bishop of Glasgow, pursued the establishment of a second University in Scotland at the encouragement of King James II, for the purpose of providing . The idea, proposed by James II to Pope Nicholas V, culminated in the issuing of a papal bull, dated January 7th, 1451, establishing a studium generale to provide classes in theology, canon and civil law, arts, and other lawful faculties. The papal bull arrived in Glasgow on June 20th that same year.
The papal bull, the only means of establishing that the university has a historic power to confer degrees, was taken to Paris in 1560 for safekeeping during the Reformation, along with other valuables of the University, including the University Mace. The Mace was returned in 1590, but the papal bull sadly remains lost.
Unfortunately, the University was not blessed with riches and significant endowments in its infancy. The founders of the University passed away very shortly after the foundation. For the first nine years of its existence classes were taught in a chapter house in the Glasgow Cathedral, as well as in the Blackfriars Church, and funds were gathered from certain small fees levied to the students. Thankfully the following decades saw endowments and land been granted to the University by benefactors, allowing the University to eventually build what came be known as the Old College on High Street.
You can read the entire text of the Papal Bull on the University of Glasgow Story website, in both the original Latin and the English translation.
The photo above is of the Memorial Gates on University Avenue.
[January-February 2011 Poll: Which of the University's student media do you follow?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2011 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
560th Anniversary of the University of Glasgow
The papal bull which granted permission for the foundation of the University was signed 560 years ago on this day, January 7th, 1451, by Pope Nicholas V. In other words, congratulations to the University of Glasgow! I once came across a photo of the University’s fifth centenary celebrations in 1951, when they had five spotlights beaming towards the heavens at night from the University, which you can see here. Wish I’d been here then, but being in a University that’s 560 years old is still quite fantastic. The Memorial Gates, which are visible behind the light-writing, were installed in 1951 to mark the 500th anniversary of the University of Glasgow.
The above night-time photo is from the very first time I attempted light-writing, you can see another example of this from a week ago here. I don’t know if it’s any good, but I quite like it. If people think the above is good, I’m tempted to go attempt more sometime soon.
[January-February 2011 Poll: Which of the University's student media do you follow?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2011 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Photos from Glasgow University 