Old Glasgow

This is the history of the city through its streets, buildings and people. I'm Michael. Hi!

[oldglasgow]

Catch ye, Versace.

This is, without a doubt, one of the saddest things I’ve ever had to write but before I get into a massive, dribbling missive let me sum it up for those of you with SEO on the mind. As of today, Old Glasgow has come to an end.

There are quite a few reasons for me stopping doing the blog. One is time, between work and home, I don’t have enough time to dedicate to the site any more and rather than see it stagnate and wither away to nothing, I’ve decided to tell you all that it’s going away and then dance gleefully into the sunset. The site has gone from being a wee hobby, to being almost a full time job, and back into a hobby over the last couple of years, and I’ve loved pretty much every second of it.

Over the two and a half years I’ve been doing Old Glasgow I have been incredibly humbled by all the support I’ve received from people who loved the style of the site and what I was trying to do. This site has always been a labour of love, not about making money building a profile and I’m delighted to see people have really connected with its message.

You’ll still be able to read the site in its archive form on oldglasgow.tumblr.com but it will no longer be updated.

To those of you who have taken the time to read the site, like the Facebook page, follow me on Twitter, and all the good stuff which goes along with running a site like this, thank you so much. Each and every one of you is brilliant.

Thanks,

Michael

[oldglasgow]

Happy 4th of July to our American pals. 

Here’s something which isn't entirely American, the rubbish Glasgow Diamonds american football music video.

Any excuse, eh? 🇺🇸

[oldglasgow]

Old Glasgow’s Had An Update!

Hey everyone!

Just a quick note to say that Old Glasgow’s had a bit of an update. I mentioned it on social media but I figured I’d list a couple of the changes you might notice while you’re browsing the site.

Paragraphs! Finally the site displays paragraphs properly. 

Post Previews! You can now read a snippet of the post before you click it.

Titles! The titles actually work now.

Headers! The header doesn’t display on posts to make things cleaner when you’re reading.

Comments! I’ve hooked the site up with Disqus so that you can leave comments on any posts you fancy.

Next and back buttons! You can browse through posts just by skipping about.

About box! The about box slides into the post and makes them all move. That’s not actually an improvement, I just think it’s cool.

RANDOM BUTTON! Click this to enjoy a completely random post from the Old Glasgow Archive. Craziness.

If you notice anything that’s a bit skew-whiff or straight up doesn’t work then please drop me a line!

EDIT: It’s been pointed out that image captions aren’t working on the site which, given that they contained all of the credits for the images, is a bit of a nightmare. I am currently (slowly but surely) working through to add image credits to the bottom of each post. Please bear with me- it’s a bit of a laborious process.

[oldglasgow]

The Anchor Line Building

An anonymous inquisitor who definitely isn’t cn-16c-41 asks:

Hullo Old Glasgow! Have you any information in the Anchor Line building just off George Square in Glasgow? Thanks!

The Anchor Line Building, now a restaurant, is the perfect example of one of those buildings which people walk past every day and don’t even notice. In fact, I’ve been putting this post off for a while because I needed to go and double check it was there. I’d never noticed it before.

More fool me. It’s stunning. 

Built in 1906 to a design by Old Glasgow favourite James Miller (he did the International Exhibition in Kelvingrove, dontchaknow?), it was originally the offices of The Anchor Line- hence the name- who ran liners from Glasgow and Liverpool, sailing to New York. They also went as far as India and “the Far East”

The first thing you notice about the building is that it’s as fresh looking today as it ever was. It’s been faced with white marble which was said at the time to be completely impervious to the ravages of time. That’s turned out to be quite true as it still looks stunning.

Image Sources (Anti-clockwise from top):

[1] Anchor Line Poster (Source: Glasgow Museums) [2] The Anchor Line Building as seen in the 1920s (Source: University of Glasgow)

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[oldglasgow]

Glasgow Cross Part IV: The Tron Theatre

The final part (for now) of our Glasgow Cross series takes us down the Trongate a ways to one of the oldest buildings in the Merchant City. 

The old Tron Kirk dates back as far as the 15th Century. The tower was constructed around 1593 and its steeple was added in the mid-1630s. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that this kirk is old.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Glasgow building without a chequered history. The church itself was destroyed by fire in 1793 and only the tower and steeple survived. This was no ordinary fire though, it was one set by a group of young men ‘of high standing’, who counted themselves among the membership of the Hellfire Club.

‘Fais ce que tu voudras’ - Motto of the Hellfire Club, meaning “Do what thou wilt.”

You might be thinking that this sounds like a satanic cult but the Hellfire Club was really more of a club for those ‘quality individuals’ who wanted to commit immoral acts on the regular. Their membership and practices are difficult to ascertain now, but their meetings often involved much blaspheming, referring to themselves as devils and dressing up as biblical characters to mock religion.

Naughty.

It’s not so simple with the fire at the Tron Kirk. Instead of being some kind of anti-religious political statement, the Hellfire Club’s members were just- to put it bluntly- drunken idiots. 

In an attempt to see how much heat they could stand they stoked up the fire being used by the nightwatchman to keep warm. Eventually they had created a massive fire and if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the... err... church.

They did a runner and the Kirk took alight and burned to the ground. I believe the modern term would be “quality banter”.

Unfortunately the records of the church were kept inside and the original design was lost in the fire. It was rebuilt to James Adam’s (whose brother, Robert, designed Culzean Castle) design in 1795. Arches were added to the tower and steeple in the mid-1800s to accommodate the widening of the Trongate’s pavement but aside from that, the tower and steeple remain largely as they were when they were originally built.

It was finally taken over by the Tron Theatre Company in 1981 and remains their home to this day.

Image Sources (Anti-clockwise from top):

[1] Trongate by William Simpson based on a sketch from 1849. (Source: The Glasgow Story) [2] The Trongate c. 1891 (Source: The Glasgow Story) [3] Glasgow Cross down to the Tron steeple in the early 1900s (Source: The Glasgow Story)

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[oldglasgow]

Glasgow Cross Part III: The Tolbooth

Standing alone at the corner of High Street and the Trongate, the tolbooth steeple at Glasgow Cross is a curiosity of modern Glasgow, being one of the few surviving ‘medieval’ buildings in the city. 

Originally constructed in 1625 at the crossing of Glasgow’s two main streets, the tolbooth housed the Town Clerk’s Office, Council Halls and the City Jail.

Drama and intrigue were the watchwords of the Tolbooth. It was the site of many public summary executions. These things couldn’t wait after all. Murderers, thieves and even witches suffered the ignominy of a short drop and a sudden stop outside the tolbooth.

It wasn’t just a place to bump off troublesome elements in society though. It became the place to see and more importantly be seen. Glasgow’s Tobacco Lords were regularly seen promenading around the ‘plainstanes’ in all their finery.

Of course, the steeple isn’t the tolbooth and neither- unfortunately- is the connected building in the first image. The original tolbooth was sold off in 1814 as the priorities of the city’s elders moved West, leaving the buildings in disuse. The Council moved their chambers to jail square in the Saltmarket and latterly to the City Chambers on George Square.

After its sale, the tolbooth was rebuilt but the steeple was left intact. In the first photo there is a gap at the foot of the steeple which allowed pedestrians to pass through. This has since been blocked off.

The City Improvement Trust took the decision to pull the attached building down as part of their slum clearances and began the process of overhauling Glasgow Cross for the benefit of future generations (supposedly). A number of ideas were put forward, one of which included moving the steeple, brick by brick, across the road to the front of the Mercat Building (you can see the planned move in the third picture). Al Cook has posted the full range of weird and wonderful plans on his blog which you can have a look at here.

All of this leaves the Tolbooth Steeple in a strange isolation, set in the middle of a busy road where it is slowly being damaged by the thundering traffic below. It underwent major renovations in 2008 after cracks were found in the structure and it isn’t hard to imagine it needing more major work in the future.

Image Sources (Clockwise from top):

[1] The Tolbooth in the background, showing the construction of Glasgow Cross Station (Source: Glasgow Museums/The Glasgow Story) [2] A planned elevation of the Tolbooth moved over to the front of the Mercat Building (Source: The Unravelling Of Al Cook) [3] The Tolbooth (Source: Postcards of the Past - Old Stratford Upon Avon)

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[oldglasgow]

Glasgow Cross Part II: The Station

Walking through Glasgow Cross now, you’ll notice a strange hump in the central reservation which now guides traffic over the Cross. Instead of being the sarcophagus of some giant caterpillar, this is the site of the former Glasgow Cross Station. 

Mostly notable for its subterranean tracks and the fact that the station was rebuilt twice in only 69 years of service, the station is now completely unused and the cover which you see today encloses the former ventilation shaft of the station.

As you can see in the third photo, a hop over the railings would have sent you plummeting down to the tracks below, the massive gap was used to ventilate the tunnels which the trains blew through, allowing steam from their funnels to escape.

The original station building was octagonal and incredibly ornate, presumably attempting to bring a bit of life to the neglected Cross. Less than 30 years later it was replaced with the more humble building which can be seen in the first image, taken a year before it was demolished.

As a wee aside, the last image shows Coggans’ which was diagonally across the road from the station. Prior to 1900, the Saltmarket had developed a reputation for its less than reputable drinking establishments but as part of its slum clearances, The City Improvement Trust introduced more habitable drinking establishments as well as new tenements. 

Coggans’ opened in 1909 and was a pioneer of Glasgow pubs- it even had hot running water in the bathrooms. Today, it lives on as the Tolbooth Bar.

Image Sources (Clockwise from top):

[1] Glasgow Cross Station in July 1976, 12 years after its closure and a year before it was demolished. (Source: Eastbank Model Railway Club) [2] The rebuilt Glasgow Cross Station in the 1920s. (Source: The Glasgow Story) [3] Coggans as it appeared in the early 20th Century. (Source: The Glasgow Story) [4] The original and incredibly ornate Glasgow Cross railway station. (Source: The Glasgow Story) [5] Construction of Caledonian Railways' Glasgow Cross Station in the 1890s (Source: The Glasgow Story)

Old Glasgow: Facebook | Twitter | Map | Any Questions?

[oldglasgow]

Glasgow Cross Part I: The Mercat Cross

The incredibly patient (this has taken me ages to get around to) cuteasapinkbutton​ asks:

I pass the Mercat Building almost every day and its a building that I love yet I know almost nothing about it or much of the area if I'm honest, I was curious if you had any articles on it?

I would be remiss in my albeit few duties as a history site if I answered this question and didn’t cover the whole of Glasgow Cross, so consider this Part 1 in a series! It’s exciting; like Broadchurch but nobody dies.

There’s something fairly eerie about the Mercat Building. Perhaps it’s the way that it stands so proudly and imposingly right in the heart of Glasgow Cross without any real purpose. Perhaps even its the name which sounds like that of some exotic explorer. Was it someone who founded vast tracts of land in the New World?

No. It’s the Scots for ‘market’. Sorry to burst your bubble there.

In fact, you’d almost expect a building that grand to have some kind of civic purpose: unfortunately it doesn’t. It’s been home to furniture shops for most of its existence. 

Built in 1928 as part of a dramatic reinvigoration of Glasgow Cross, it might not seem like the most obvious place to start our wee series but strangely enough it’s been there longer than its wee neighbour.

The Mercat Cross which stands in front of the Mercat Building looks for all the world as though it has stood on that spot for centuries, but the truth is very different. It was actually completed a year after the Mercat Building as something of a tribute act to the previous Mercat Cross which was removed from the site in the mid-17th Century.

Mercat crosses originally served as something of a status symbol for a town which had been given the right to hold regular markets by their monarch. Town elders would regularly climb the steps to read out Royal Proclamations and in Edinburgh they still ceremoniously announce things like successions and general election announcements from the top of their Mercat Cross.

Edinburgh, eh? What’re they like?

Image Sources (Top-Bottom):

[1] The Mercat Building & Mercat Cross in the 1960s (Source: Unknown - please get in touch so I can add a credit!) [2] The Mercat Cross Today (Source: A Glasgow Album)

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[oldglasgow]

Hyndland Lines

Summoner of dark things thesummoningdark asks:

Do you know what used to be where Clarence Gardens (just by Hyndland station) is now? There's what looks like an old railway bridge at one end - did a branch line used to come through there?

I think you’re right. I’m afraid I couldn’t find a huge amount of information but it looks like there was a branch line which closed in November 1960 when they moved the station to its current location from Hyndland Road (which was underneath the concrete football pitch next to the newsagent).

The branch line followed the path of what is now Hayburn Lane and once the branch had closed it was used as a maintenance depot until 1987. By the looks of things the disused bridge you mentioned has been out of action for a while and it seems to have gone down to a train shed near Partick Station.

Image Sources (Clockwise from top):

[1] Hyndland Station location prior to 1960 (Source: Glasgow West Address) [2] Hyndland Branch line superimposed onto a modern map. (Source: Google Imagery) [3] Map showing Hyndland branch and Hyndland Station (Source: National Library of Scotland, Ordnance Survey 1888)

Old Glasgow: Facebook | Twitter | Map | Any Questions?

[oldglasgow]

Ever Fancied Playing Pacman on Buchanan Street?

For the rest of the day, Google Maps is giving you the opportunity to play Pacman on any map in the world, but I went for Glasgow and promptly remembered that I’m rubbish at arcade games but I love maps so I’m sticking at it.

Give it a go- let me know your high score!

Pacman on Google Maps

[oldglasgow]

An Anonymous fan of Where’s Wally asks: Looking for Wallace Grove Place Glasgow

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, eh? Wait- that’s not relevant. Fortunately the answer to this question’s a bit more straightforward. 

I’ve answered a similar question before related Avon Street, which was nearby. This is another of the streets in Kinning Park which disappeared. It’s now underneath the car park of a small retail park and all of the tenements in the surrounding streets have disappeared too.

Image Sources (Clockwise from top):

[1] Wallace Grove Place in the centre of the picture. [Source: schiehallion on Urban Glasgow] [2] Wallace Grove Place as it appears topographically today. (Source: Google Imagery) [3] Wallace Grove Place as it appeared on the 1892 Ordnance Survey map of Glasgow (Source: National Library Of Scotland)

Old Glasgow: Facebook | Twitter | Map | Any Questions?

[oldglasgow]

Old Glasgow is 2!

Donald Dewar’s delighted because Old Glasgow is 2 years old today! I just wanted to say thanks to all of you who read the posts, like the posts, and share the posts with your friends to give my already wildly inflated ego a boost.

If I could buy you a giant cake I would, because you’re all really cool.

Thanks everyone!

Michael. x

[oldglasgow]

What inspired you to start Old Glasgow?

Thanks for the question!

I always really enjoyed those ‘X Town of the Past’ books as a kid. I used to read them voraciously, even if I’d never been to the town in question, and found them every bit as fascinating as I found them dry as a mouthful of cream crackers. 

I suppose I wanted to do something like those but written a bit more informally. Something which everyone- to nick a phrase- aged 8 to 80 could enjoy.

[oldglasgow]

Lt. Col. (Ret.) Anon. E. Mouse asks:

How can I join this group?

I feel like you may have caught the wrong end of the stick here, my friend. Old Glasgow isn’t really a group- it’s just me writing away and thankfully a lot of really, really nice people read the bits and pieces I put out there.

That being said, you can still be involved in Old Glasgow. It’s all over the internet; on Facebook, Twitter, you can check out the Map right here on the site and you can follow if you have a Tumblr account.

I also do Tours every so often. In fact- NEWSFLASH YOU GUYS- I’m working on the next tour which I’m going to be putting on with those nice folks from Paradise & Moriarty Explorers Club (actually a club... kind of). I’ll have more details on that in the next couple of weeks. Keep your eyes peeled.

Also, don’t forget that you can Ask Me Anything whenever you like by sending me a message through the site.

[oldglasgow]

A very Secretive Squirrel asks: Do you have any old photos of Parliamentary Road?

Parliamentary Road actually combines a couple of posts that I’ve done for the site previously so it’s nice to be able to give it a wee mention. 

It’s one of the roads that got swallowed up in the redevelopment at the top of Buchanan Street which saw the new bus station opened and Glasgow Caley opened in the 1970s- you can read more about that redevelopment and how it changed the layout of the City Centre here.

It was also the road from which you would have accessed the Glasgow City Lunatic Asylum, latterly the Glasgow City Poorhouse which has a wee post of all of its own which you can find here.

As for the road itself, the closest thing you can do to walking its path these days is to enter the Buchanan Galleries through the doors underneath the concert hall and walk up as far as John Lewis since it almost follows the path that Parliamentary Road took.

Image Sources (Anti-clockwise from top):

[1] The route of Parliamentary Road with Buchanan Street at the bottom left. [Source: National Library of Scotland] [2] The Glasgow City Poorhouse was accessed via Parliamentary Road (Source: Mitchell Library Collection/The Glasgow Story) [3] Parliamentary Road's path plotted on a modern map. Thanks, Wikipedia. (Source: Wikimedia Commons) [4] Parliamentary Road c. 1900 (Source: The Glasgow Story) [5] The fork of Parliamentary Road and Monkland Street during the 1970s. (Source: streapadair on Urban Glasgow Forums)

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[oldglasgow]

Were You Aware of It? The Forth Bridge Comes to Glasgow

A building which I’d be happy to name among Glasgow’s most boring has turned out to be interesting: damn you history.

Anyone who’s gone a wander down St. Georges Road recently (no-one?) probably paid no attention to the Q Club, the low profile snooker club which has nestled on the street for the best part of 30 years.

It turns out that it was formerly a cinema called the Norwood and its owner was b-a-n-a-n-a-s. When A.E. Pickard acquired the quaint looking Norwood Ballroom and dancing school in the mid-1930s, the then-owner of the Panopticon decided that he would turn it into a cinema. Instead of demolishing the building and starting from scratch, they undertook extensive remodelling and pulled the building flush with the pavement.

As well as being bananas, Pickard was also king of the publicity stunt. At the cinema’s grand opening, legend has it that he ran full tilt at the door with a wooden battering ram.

Not only that, Pickard decided that instead of making the cinema larger he would draw attention to it another way: by building an enormous scale replica of the Forth Rail Bridge (complete with lights and running trains) on top of the cinema.

Bananas. B-a-n-a-n-a-s.

Unfortunately the model was dismantled when ABC bought the cinema in 1958. Spoil sports.

Image Sources (Anti-clockwise from top):

[1] The Norwood Cinema with the enormous scale model of the Forth Rail Bridge. (Source: Glasgow Film) [2] The Norwood Cinema as it appears today. (Source: Inglis Howie) [3] The Norwood Ballroom in 1930 before it was adapted to become the Cinema, where people could enjoy 'Danging' apparently. (Source: Glasgow City Archives, D-CA 8/2741)

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[oldglasgow]

Bread Party!

The tower of Bilslands' Bakery will be immediately familiar to those coming into Glasgow from the South for being one of the few signs on that route which hasn't been altered to say something a bit naughty.

The Bilslands' Bakery name was already well known in Anderston where James Bilsland had operated a small family bakery for a number of years. It wasn't until he was joined by his three brothers, Alexander, John, and William (who went onto become Lord Provost of the city) in 1872 that business began to boom.

The future Lord Provost possessed a business brain and started acquiring bakeries right across the city. By 1881 they were doing so well and demand was so high that they built a large factory. 

William Bilsland was mainly concerned with the manufacture and distribution of the bread. This was at a time well before the excitingly named Chorleywood bread process came into effect. This created cheap, mass-market, long-lasting bread which could be transported long distances but in the late 1800s and early 1900s, bread came from local bakers.

With this in mind, William went out of his way to acquire vans and horses and carts to ensure that the Bilslands product could be delivered to shops around the city- and eventually around Scotland- as quickly as possible.

In his 1901 book, Captains Of Industry, William S. Murphy details the operation of the Bilsland Bakery:

The employees number about 200 in all; the output averages over 270,000 loaves weekly; 24 vans are daily employed, and 47 horses are required for the work of cartage and van distribution. Mr. William Bilsland is at the head of the concern, but he is ably assisted by his brothers and managers. Mr. James Bilsland is a director of the Scottish Alliance Insurance Company, and Mr. John Bilsland has filled, with conspicuous ability, the office of Deacon in the Incorporation of Bakers. One point is noteworthy. The bakers employed by Messrs. Bilsland enjoy the much-desired eight hours' day, under the best conditions, with the highest standard rate of wages, and have also, in common with all their fellow employees, the inexpressible comfort of serving kindly and considerate employers. 

At one time or another the Bilslands' bakery employed hundreds of people in Anderston but time took its toll on their industry and the bakery finally closed in 1985. 

Usually this would be the end of a building of this type but Soundhaus, the legendary Glasgow nightspot took it over when it opened in 1997. Originally a rehearsal space for bands, it didn't take long for them to be convinced that the space could do so much more for its members and it began to throw huge parties and club nights. 

Unfortunately property development waits for no club and it closed its doors in 2012. The site is due to become part of the Central Quay development- another sad loss to Glasgow's skyline. 

Image Sources (Anti-clockwise from top):

[1] Bilslands' Bakery signage as it appeared in recent years. (Source: Flickr, Tom Donald) [2] Bilslands' tradesmen and delivery men photographed, strangely enough, on the roof of the bakery. (Source: Fifty Years in the Baking Trade 1872-1922 by James Bilsland) [3] 'Motor vans' outside Bilslands' Bakery. (Source: Fifty Years in the Baking Trade 1872-1922 by James Bilsland) [4]  Bilslands' Bakery. (Source: John R. Hume, 1968 - RCAHMS) [5]  Bilslands' Bakery. (Source: John R. Hume, 1968 - RCAHMS)

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