Glasgow’s Miles Better…
Who remembers the 1980s marketing slogan “Glasgow’s Miles Better” to encourage tourists to visit and industry to locate there?
I used to visit Glasgow fairly frequently in the late 1980s/early 1990s, but hardly since. That changed this year and I have already been twice to date for photo trips. Unlike Edinburgh, which I find to have an ordered feel to it, Glasgow seems quite haphazard; it’s a wonderfully eclectic mix of designer shops and cafes, industrial buildings and dereliction all within spitting distance of the city centre.
A must-visit location is The Lighthouse in Mitchell Lane, which is Scotland’s Centre for Design and Architecture. It was opened as part of Glasgow's status as UK City of Architecture and Design in 1999. One of its key features is the uninterrupted view you get over Glasgow's cityscape from the Mackintosh Tower at the north of the building. You can almost circumnavigate the whole of the tower on a narrow external walkway. The top of the tower is accessed via a helical staircase from the third floor, which is a bit of a puff especially if you’re lugging a heavy camera bag with you, but it’s worth it. The viewpoint offers endless subject matter for images. There is also another modern viewing platform at the south of the building, on the sixth floor, which I didn’t know about when I visited!
The Lighthouse is the renamed conversion of the former offices of the Glasgow Herald newspaper. Completed in 1895, it was designed by the architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The centre's vision is to develop the links between design, architecture, and the creative industries, seeing these as interconnected social, educational, economic and cultural issues of concern to everyone. There’s certainly plenty to see.
Scattered around the city centre are a number of street murals. They are helping to rejuvenate streets and revitalise buildings and vacant sites that look a bit tired, transforming them with beautiful pieces of public street art. The first art work was produced in 2008 and this portfolio of completed works has expanded since. These works are, however, ephemeral by nature; they are created and then lost as derelict buildings are demolished for redevelopment. There’s quite a mix of subject matter and they even have their own trail!
A city centre is a great place for street photography, if you’re into that, and it’s even better if it has been raining. We encountered quite a number of puddles as we wandered the streets and there were some fabulous reflections to be had. I had waterproof trousers on (prepared for all eventualities) so didn’t mind getting down on my knees occasionally to get a shot. One woman, on asking what we were up to and told, declared that she had now seen everything. It’s a way to get an entirely different perspective, even a pigeon’s eye view!
The River Clyde runs right through Glasgow and offers various locations for photographers. We went to the Riverside Museum at Pointhouse Quay in the Glasgow Harbour regeneration district, which now houses the exhibits from the former Transport Museum. It’s an ultra-modern design by Zaha Hadid and quite distinctive with a tall ship moored alongside. The conditions when we arrived can only be described as manky and it wasn’t long before we decided to try our luck elsewhere. Being of the lazy variety (and, to be fair, it was very cold!), we decided to walk though the museum to get back to the car rather than walk round the building - it’s free entry - and I’m glad we did. We ended up spending a very happy hour or so wandering around taking pictures - being forced inside forced us to get creative and shoot what was available. It’s really quite funky with soaring curves and lines. We only left when we did because our parking ticket had run out.
We spent some time later in the day in the snappily named Clyde Waterfront Regeneration area on the Clyde’s south bank where the BBC Scotland building, Science Centre, Glasgow Tower, SECC and The Hydro are located. Lots of interesting architectural interest and the most demonic bridge I’ve ever seen! The Bells Bridge was supposed to be a temporary structure built to allow visitors to the Glasgow Garden Festival in the late 1980s to cross the river to the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre on the other side. It was also used during the Commonwealth Games in 2014 so seems to be a permanent feature now. It’s a bridge with attitude! A little further along the river is the Clyde Arc or the Squinty Bridge as it is affectionately known. We spent a bit of time waiting for a bus or two to go past to do some light trails as it was dark by now - the inside lights give much higher trails than those from cars. Would you believe, a Saturday night in Glasgow and not a bus to be seen! Hunger eventually won over and we left for pizza. I had to make do with only lowly car light trails.
Our final destination of the weekend was the Glasgow Necropolis, which is a Victorian cemetery on a low, but very prominent, hill to the east of Glasgow Cathedral (St. Mungo's Cathedral). It gives a good view out over the city. Fifty thousand individuals have been buried here with, typically for the period, only a small percentage being named on the monuments. Not every grave has a stone; approximately 3500 monuments exist here. Unlike the residents of the cemetery, I’ll be back!
