Glasgow

Well, where do I start?! The main reason for going to Glasgow for the couple of days was to meet up with Celeste and Tina, my friends from Sydney, Australia, who are over here in the UK to do some training sessions for teachers on the synthetic phonics system for teaching children to read. This seems to have been deemed the best way for children to learn to read, and I'm all for it! To be honest it's not new by any manner of means, as I learned in a similar fashion and learned to teach this way too, but the difference is that it's a well thought out structured system now, and is fun for the children right from their first day at school. Celeste and Tina used this system in their own classrooms for years and were so enthusiastic about it that they became trainers themselves for Jolly Phonics and now have their own connected business Jolly Discoveries. The phonics scheme has progressed to include Jolly Grammar which is the seminar I saw the girls presenting last year. Speaking to a few of the teachers I found they were really encouraged and inspired by what they had seen and learnt, and were keen to get back to their classrooms to put their new knowledge to the test.

Celeste and Tina were staying in a hotel just off the Great Western Road. The main road is quite wide but does not have houses directly alongside it. Instead there are terraces behind, separated from the street by a narrow garden set with trees. Some of these terraces, like a lot of Glasgow, are pretty spectacular.

This terrace is now pretty nearly all hotel now, though it would have been built in Queen Victoria's day as family houses with large rooms and high ceilings, grand plasterwork cornicing around the ceiling where it meets the walls. There would be ornate arches and niches for ornamental tables. The door surrounds would be very ornate, and stair banisters likewise. with fancy wrought iron posts and dark wood rails. Each entrance would be built like a bridge over the "area" behind which the servants lived and worked. More may have had rooms in the top of the house.

This is the terrace where I found a guest house, just a little along the road and on the other side of Great Western Road, Not quite as fancy but still impressive, wouldn't you say? The guest house still retains some of the old features, though it had been altered a lot inside to accommodate more guests. I particularly liked the iron balconies and the floor to ceiling windows!

My room was above the front door. Originally it would have been part of a much larger room, probably the sitting room, which would have had the bay window and a balconied window on either side. The cornicing is wonderful - what little of it I could see before it disappeared into the next room behind partition walls. I only hope one day it can all be restored to its former glory! Here are a few pics of some of the original features.....

This is a small section of my bedroom cornice, while below is a section of the front hall with its arch and less fancy cornice. There is a niche for a hall table or plant stand adjacent to the front door.

It's a pity that the original interior front door has been replaced with a 1970s style door. The original one was maybe half glazed with stained or etched glass. The exterior doors, or big doors as we call them, are still there though, big heavy wooden doors, to keep out the worst of the weather at any point in the year!

The stairs curved round from the front hall to the first floor, and onwards again to the next. The niche is adjacent to the doorway that would have led to the sitting room (now divided into three rooms!!)

In taking the photo of the front of the house I realise I have really taken the wrong view. The door should be on the left. with two windows to its right, and upstairs with the window above the door, the bay window and another single window on its right. The downstairs windows were in the guest house dining room, which was possibly the original dining room, or maybe the morning room. It had the most wonderful marble mantelpiece, and beautiful cornice, but I was stupid enough to forget to take my camera down to breakfast with me on the second morning, and after breakfast the door was shut again. I should have asked to be allowed back in, but I didn't, so sorry, no photos of the dining room.

Now, the next lot of pictures are all of Glasgow buildings of varied architecture. The old buildings are really stunning and I doubt if many folk actually look up to above shop level! Of course there are also some amazing public buildings too.... and a few that have given the city its bad name! Glasgow was the industrial city compared to Edinburgh's cultural, but it was Glasgow that was awarded City of Culture status some years ago, and it shows now! It's not the city it was 100 years ago - even 50 years ago! Anyway take a look at these!

This is the City Chambers, right in the centre of Glasgow, on George Square, with the Cenotaph flanked by two lions in front.

Leaving George Square on St Vincent Street, these buildings are on your right.

The Kelvin Hall was built in 1929 as an Exhibition centre. During WW2 it was a factory for making barrage balloons. It reverted to concert hall and again an exhibition hall, and now after a major upgrade, is the Museum of Transport and a Sports Arena.

This is Merchant Square in Candleriggs. It was built as the city's fruit market in the 188os and now houses a complex of bars and restaurants.

Glasgow Cathedral stands not far from the top of the old town. It was built to commemorate St Mungo/Kentigern who had set up a religious community here. He died in the 7th century. In front of the cathedral is a monument to David Livingstone, a missionary from nearby Blantyre, who went to work in Africa - he of the well known saying - "Dr Livingstone, I presume!"

The High Street is usually the main street of a town, but this one isn't! Well, it was, way back in medieval times. This pic was taken while I was on the open-top bus tour of the city - before it started raining!!! The Merchant city eventually became the new city centre and this area was neglected. These residential tenement flats are typical of city dwelling. They have a street level door and stair in common but off each landing there will be two, three or even four flats/apartments. By now you must have noticed the amount of red sandstone in Glasgow buildings. While the style is very similar to Edinburgh tenements, these could only be in Glasgow!

The Tron was once where goods were weighed. This tower was once the Trongate church and is now a theatre. In the background on the left you can see another tower with a clock. This is all that remains of the Tollbooth or old townhouse where there was a prison and also a gibbett. It dates back to the 1600s when this area was the heart of Glasgow.

This building, once the premises of a cabinet maker and upholsterer, reminds me of the hotel on Grosvenor Terrace! It is something like a palace alongside theVenetian Grand Canal.

I'll tell you more next time about this particular house designed in 1901 and not built till the 1990s. Suffice to say it was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintsh.

Then we get a bit more up-to-date with an Art Deco building, maybe once a cinema with flats above. Many picture houses were built in the 1920s/30s, in the style of the period.

And one more picture to finish off with - a building from the late 20th century - the Glasgow Central Mosque. The view from the other side is more interesting but I didn't get to see it. I love that onion dome and the minaret.

Talk again soon.