slightly weird, always sweet, and definitely imperfect. my life as an urban explorer
18-21 August, 2019
Glasgow, you’re quirky! And I like that about you.
The quirkiest stuff is in the east end. It’s a rough area with no compromises. This is the Glasgow they tell you to avoid but, if you do, you’ll miss the very heart of this eclectic city.
And speaking of feeling Canadian, over by the university we found this! A really good belly laugh – even though we knew Glasgow had two of them.
18-21 August, 2019
Glasgow wasn’t close to London in how much street art it has but some of the pieces were quite lovely. Before arriving, we checked out the Mural Trail Map, but decided that we would see what we would see in the natural course of our day.
So see them we did. By chance and occasionally by design. Can you guess which ones I love the best?
Oh, yes, my favourites were the girl stepping out of the Van Gogh, and St Enoch cradling St Mungo (second from bottom). A close third was the depiction of Charles Rennie Mackintosh with his roses, at the site of the Clutha Bar, where a helicopter crashed in 2013. And I got a kick out of the two pieces featuring Tunnock’s Teacakes, Krish’s favourite snack. In a narrow alley, I could only take badly angled views.
I can’t label all of these but maybe with time… Oh, to have better legs to see all that Glasgow had to offer in the way of street art.
18-21 August, 2019
I was born into what was really a slum in the east end of London. The house, on Lessada Street (now covered by a park) was one of several terraced houses that ran down each side. At the end of the street were prefabs (prefabricated buildings meant to be temporary) and I assume built over age- or bomb-damaged other houses. The house was simple, three rooms downstairs plus a tiny step-down scullery, three rooms upstairs. Downstairs in the scullery was a sink with cold running water, upstairs there was no plumbing so water had to be carried up to the makeshift kitchen on the landing. Every room had a fireplace for burning coal. The toilet was attached to the house in the back yard.
At the end of the row of houses where Lessada Street hit Roman Road, was a large bombsite, where we played and discovered artifacts (and once a dead cat…etched in my memory!).
Enough about my childhood home for now but it forms the basis of why I have always felt comfortable in areas others think of as dirty, derelict, crowded or rundown. That’s how I also fell in love with Liverpool, back in 1964 when the city was so ravaged.
When I tell people I’m going to Scotland, their eyes light up. They imagine glens, highlands, heather and country dancing. When I tell them I’m going to Glasgow, their first reaction is puzzlement, their second is to ask ‘Not Edinburgh?’ (the prettier of the two cities). No, Glasgow! It’s more urban and far more gritty than its pretty near-neighbour to the Southeast.
At first glance, the buildings of central Glasgow are often dirty and grim. I look beyond this and see the beautiful carving and structure. On my first visit I stared at one structure and said, ‘If this were in Europe, people would marvel. In Scotland it’s considered ugly.’ In fact, while I haven’t researched this as much as I could, the Italian influence in Glasgow architecture is everywhere. Sometimes I imagine myself in Florence or Rome.
One of my favourite places, which also evokes Italy, is the Princes Square shopping centre. There are a few very modern shopping malls. True to nature, I photographed none of those! However Princes Square is an amazing building. There’s a fantastic metal structure on the inside, a great esclator entrance, and the most beautiful interior with small boutiques and airy restaurants that spill onto the landing.
Continue reading “Glasgow’s architecture and the great Charles Rennie Mackintosh”