Glesga
Glasgow School of Art
In the Merchant Quarter
Glasgow
It is 350 miles from where I live to Hadrian’s Wall, so after my few days there, I had always planned to visit Glasgow, only a couple of hours further north. I had been to Scotland before, and visited Edinburgh, Perth, Dundee and other places, but never Glasgow. Well, it is a very fine city. Small, centralised and full of beautiful buildings and a civic sensibility with great affinity to art and culture.
Driving north from Northumbria I noticed the climate differences between these parts and where I live. Our daffodils were out at Easter and now long-gone; in Glasgow they are still out and I saw little sign of may-blossom (hawthorn) that here has been about for several weeks. The other side of this is that in mid-summer it is lighter up here later in the evenings - and that sounds quite lovely. It was colder by about 9 degrees Centigrade however… 10 degrees in Glasgow, and two days later 19.5 degrees in Lincolnshire and Norfolk. And also here in Essex- all my potted plants in the garden were wilting when I got home.
Again, the building materials are different. Red and blond sandstone are most common in the nineteenth century buildings- of which there are many, many fine examples, for this has been a wealthy trading city; tobacco, sugar and the Clyde.. ‘the red Clyde’. The shipyards are mostly gone and heritage sites are probably all that remain, but this city is lively, friendly and intimate.
I was very lucky to be taken by a Glaswegian friend on a tour of some important and interesting places on my first evening in the city. This was really good, because the following day, on foot and on the subway, I really found my bearings and had only one instance of getting lost, when I was attempting to return to where I was staying.
I got there in the end, but by a slightly dodgy route involving passing Barrowlands and the Barras market; and getting quite near to Ibrox Park, which really was not on my way home that evening. I was also told lots of interesting stories about the sense and context of the city and the people who live there. It is a culturally varied city with a small Chinese population and larger Italian and Asian groups, plus a long-standing Polish community. These are all things that add to the variety and vibrancy of the city. The Italian community is alleged to have started because some Italians who were hoping to emigrate to America were fraudulently dropped off at Glasgow and told that they were there…..
There are rows of tall red bay-windowed tenement buildings- not so m any as there used to be because a lot were pulled down and replaced by 60’s and 70’s style flats. My friend told me that the rationale was that it was too expensive to update the tenements… but many of these were buildings with beautiful, spacious, high ceilinged interiors, with original tiling and lovely period features. Quite a few still remain in the suburbs, and I saw some of these when I drove round the city getting a bit lost trying to find Pollok Country Park, where the Burrell Collection is. This is a wonderful collection of many types of art, including sculpture, paintings and decorative art. My particular interest was in the mediaeval tapestries, stained glass and furniture. I was not disappointed. This is a truly outstanding collection. http://www.glasgowmuseums.com/venue/index.cfm?venueid=1
There are beautiful civic buildings that reflect the prosperity of the city and the interest of its inhabitants in the arts. The Kelvingrove museum, up by the university is also exceptional, in my view, both in its architecture, position and contents. I looked only at the Scottish artists and the Rennie Mackintosh decorative art and furniture, plus other contemporary Glasgow School work. I could have spent days in there, but I had very little time… http://www.glasgowmuseums.com/venue/index.cfm?venueid=4
(you can even download the Salvador Dali ‘Christ of St John of The Cross’ -and other art- as wallpaper, from the museum site. There is very good accessibility - all of the museums I visited were free and also busy.. people here use these places and that has to be a good thing. I think also that Scottish museums remained free to access during the short period when museums in England began to charge admission- which has discontinued now, thankfully. I feel very strongly that these places must always be free to visit and accessible to all of us.
I also went to the Gallery of Modern Art, which is at the end of Ingram Street, in the city centre. I had a look at some Bridget Riley paintings and liked the ones that turn into waves; reminded me of the patterns in the mud, made by the tide. The thing I liked best, that really made me smile, was the foyer of the GofMA- like a cracked ice stained glass window with mirror glass. It made the whole place light and bright and somehow nicely uplifted with fun. I had also got my new boots on by that time so I felt ready for fun, too.
I walked about looking at art, looking at buildings and had a very happy day.
The last thing I looked at was the Glasgow School of Art, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. This appears to me still a usefully functioning building, although there are more buildings now across the road, as the school has expanded. The interior remains mostly as it was originally, with black painted wooden doors to the studios, some with a niche outside, in which CRM intended a vase with a rose to be placed daily, to remind students as they entered that nature was the source of all beauty. I cannot usefully explain what it all looks like, but I found it very interesting and also very telling that I saw such a great deal in Glasgow that seemed to me to have been carefully preserved over the years, as if there has been a greater extent of awareness of precious heritage than commonly seen in some other places.
Finally, close to Glasgow is the start of Loch Lomond, which is 26 miles long. It is quite lovely, especially with the evening mist and the background of the distant mountains. And I saw no-one in a kilt, although I did see a tartan shop and I did buy some gingerbread men with kilts stuck on called ‘kilted Gingers’ for my friends at work.