Glasgow arrival day: two walking tours

Yesterday I wrote about my two-day trek from Mexico to Scotland and my arrival in Glasgow. I got here around noon, and as I was looking through my guidebooks (I have Rick Steves’ Scotland and Fodor’s Essential Scotland, because they provide two very different and equally useful perspectives), I found two Glasgow walking tours. Yesterday I did both.

Street Art

My first tour was from Walking Tours in…, focusing on street art. It began at 2pm, which gave me time to shower away a bit of my travel fatigue, put on fresh clothes, buy adapters (as I referred to in yesterday’s post), and hit an ATM.

There were about 15 people on the tour. Everyone (except our guide, Liz) was from the USA. I was impressed by Liz’s strong voice; she was able to project over street noise and construction and make herself heard.

There are a lot of murals on the sides of buildings and walls around Glasgow. Many of these are commissioned works; there’s also some unofficial graffiti (and, sadly, graffiti that has defaced some of the fine wall art).

I learned about several of the local artists who have created the work.

Rogue One

Bobby McNamara, who signs all his work as “Rogue One,” is a local artist. He often works with Art Pistol, a local artist collective.

“The World’s Most Economical Taxi.” There are no bricks on the wall; those are all painted. The taxi driver is a self-portrait. Can you find artist’s signature?

Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868–1928), the architect responsible for some of Glasgow’s most iconic buildings. Rogue painted this in 2018 for Mackintosh’s sesquicentennial. I plan to become more familiar with Mackintosh’s work before I leave Glasgow.

Smug

Smug, whose real name is Sam Bates, is originally from Australia. He is known for his photorealistic murals, achieved, astonishingly, freehand, using only aerosol paint cans.

Liz talks about “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.”

A section of “Our Fellow Glasgow Residents” along the side of a car park

Another section of “Our Fellow Glasgow Residents”

James Klinge

Described a “Glasgow’s Banksy,” James Klinge is also known for photorealistic portraits. He is currently at work on a series of twelve portraits of artists associated with The Arches, a popular bar and arts venue that shut down in 2015 after the city refused to renew its liquor license. Six of the portraits are complete.

The one on the right is a self-portrait.

Even from across the street, you can see the realistic detail in the woman’s denim jeans.

This is just a small sampling from the tour. And it seems the tour was just a small sampling of all Glasgow’s street art. I’m hoping to discover a lot more in the next couple of days. It turns out there is a “mural trail,” so if time allows I could probably see them lots more on my own.

Rick Steves “Get to know Glasgow: The Downtown Core” walking tour

In his guidebook Rick offers a self-guided tour through the centre of Glasgow. It focuses largely on architecture. (Today I have a private guided walking tour that focuses on architecture and history, so there may be some overlap, but I don’t mind.)

Incidentally, I mentioned to Liz that I had this architecture tour scheduled, and she started pointing out a number of fascinating architectural details on our walks between murals.

Buchanan Street

A major pedestrian thoroughfare cuts through Glasgow’s centre. Many of the most notable buildings line this busy, upscale street.

Princes Square, an older building with newer ironwork decoration on the exterior

Interior of Princes Square, done up in “Neo Art Nouveau” style. It’s now a shopping and entertainment center.

I know this spells something, but I cannot tell what.

The Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art. This was originally built in the 18th century as a mansion by one of Glasgow’s wealthy tobacco merchants. At its heyday in this era, Glasgow was the sixth largest city in Europe and second in the British Empire.

George Square

The walk led me to George Square, a large open plaza with a number of sculptural monuments and surrounded by some fine edifices. At the top of this post is the Glasgow City Chambers (municipal building), built in the 1880s.

This statue of Queen Victoria shows her appearing much more svelte than I’ve ever seen her. I’m not sure whether this was artistic license or if it was done before she became more ample.

This was formerly the Stock Exchange Building. It dates from the 1840s.

On the facade of the Stock Exchange are these three friezes, representing three industries that made the city prosperous: building, engineering, and mining.

Rick reminds readers on this tour to keep looking up. Most of the buildings have ground floors with modern shops and restaurants, but the best architectural details are retained on upper levels.

This sculpture–a man sharing books with a young boy–is on the side of the Aethenium, built in 1847 as a school and city library. Charles Dickens gave the building’s inaugural address.

Back on Buchanan Street

The tour continues up Buchanan Street. At the top of the hill is the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.

The statue in front is Donald Dewar, Scotland’s first-ever “First Minister” after the Scottish Parliament reconvened in 1999. Since 1707, they’d been serving as part of the British Parliament.

Looking down Buchanan Street from the steps of the concert hall.

Sauchiehall Street

The pedestrian mall turns west on Sauchiehall Street, and its character changes dramatically. There are still some interesting architectural structures, but the area suffered during the Covid-19 pandemic, and shopping is definitely downscale.

A great example of the need to look up for the best architectural details

Dinner

Not needing a big sit-down meal, I went for a falafel at a takeout stand. They self-advertised on their sign that they have the best falafels in Glasgow. I don’t know is that’s correct, but it was one of the best falafels I’ve ever had. The young lady who worked there (in a booth barely big enough for her to turn around) was enormously friendly, and when I didn’t have a 50p coin for my £4.50 dinner, she gave me £6 change for my £10 and said “don’t worry about it.”

A good ending to a good first day in Glasgow!