I’m starting this post on the morning of my last day in Glasgow. Later this afternoon I will move on to my next destination on my month-long Scotland adventure. I will finish this post when I get there. I still have much to cram into my day today before I take the train to Balloch, at the southern end of Loch Lomond.
I’ve found Glasgow to be so much more interesting and fascinating than I anticipated. I could probably spend another full day here and still find much to see and do.
As a measure, I have 300 photos in my album — so far! I might need to go back and pare that down somewhat!
Glasgow Cathedral
I left off with my history and architecture tour from two days ago. After that was over, I went for lunch and then took a walk to the cathedral. Along the way I found more interesting examples of the architecture Eamon helped me understand, and I included a few of those in my previous blog post.
Glasgow Cathedral dates from the 12th century. At the time Glasgow was a small farming village, and it didn’t grow significantly for over 500 years. I honestly don’t understand why such an edifice was built here at that time.
The rest of these photos are mine
All the rest of Glasgow in one fell swoop
I realize if I continue to blog in so much detail, I will fall further and further behind. I’m already in Balloch, on the southern tip of Loch Lomond. So here’s everything else from Glasgow. A little less detail.
Oh, and I broke up my albums into separate thematic groupings. Even so, there are close to 300 photos in my Glasgow album, and that doesn’t include anything from my visits to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum or the Hunterian Art Gallery at the University of Glasgow, or anything related to Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Those albums have an additional 120 photos.
After the Cathedral on Thursday afternoon I visited the St. Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art. It’s a secular museum about world religions. Some interesting stuff.
Then I walked around the Necropolis, a haphazard array of grand tombstones on a hill with nice views back toward the city.
Willow Tearooms
I started my day on Friday with a visit to Mackintosh at the Willow. This is a faithful reconstruction of the original Willow Tearooms on Sauchiehall Street, run by Catherine Cranston and designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The original tearooms at this location opened in 1903. After her husband died in 1917, Catherine sold the business, but it didn’t survive long, and the building was eventually taken over by the neighboring department store. Most all of Mackintosh’s furnishings were destroyed or lost.
Fortunately his designs survived along with a good photographic record. In 2014 the building was acquired by The Willow Tearooms Trust, a registered charity, and over the next four years it was restored to its original designs. Today it operates as a tearoom once again.
Kelvingrove Part One
Next on my agenda was a food and drink tour in Glasgow’s West End. The meeting point was at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. I got there about a half hour early, so I had time to visit the museum. It wasn’t nearly enough time.
West End Wander: Food and Drink Tour
The food tour was fun and varied. Lots of good food, all Scottish (or at least made with local ingredients). Scotch egg, haggis, gin, cheese, whisky, and lots more.
The tour also took us through the University of Glasgow, a stunning urban campus.
I didn’t even have dinner last night after the tour. Went back to my hotel, tried to organize my photos, and went to bed.
Tenement House
I started the day today with a visit to the Tenement House.
Tenements are very common in Scotland. They are, in fact, the primary residential buildings I saw all over Glasgow. Some were quite rundown, but others were — and are — middle-class and even upper-middle-class dwellings. In fact, I don’t recall seeing any single-family detached houses anywhere in Glasgow.
This one below was built in 1902. In 1911, at the age of 25, Agnes Townsend moved with her mother to the apartment on the second story to the left of the open door. Her mother died in 1939. Agnes continued to live there until 1965, when she entered a hospital and spent the rest of her life there. She died in 1975.
Agnes made no updates to the apartment for the entire time she lived there, with the exception of adding electricity in 1960. It remains today as it was when she lived there, and visiting it is like a trip back in time.
Kelvingrove Part Two
Since I didn’t have enough time yesterday before the food tour, I had to go back to the Kelvingrove today to see more of the collection.
This is the oddest museum I’ve ever been to. For starters, it’s huge. It both suffers from and celebrates a delightful identify crisis. There’s sign by the entrance that explains that the Kelvingrove, which opened in 1901, is a museum of Empire. There are rooms full of taxidermy — animals large and small — plus recreations of strange and wonderful ancient creatures. There is art from all over the world. Much of it left me cold, but some of it was stunning, and I was engaged for several hours. Many of the major artists of Europe are represented, and there’s a particular emphasis on Scottish artists. There’s also a large pipe organ, with daily concerts starting at 1pm. I was just leaving when today’s concert began.
I won’t include any photos of the actual art here, but you should really visit my album and look through some of my favorite works from the museum.
Hunterian Art Gallery
My final stop today was at the Hunterian Art Gallery at the University of Glasgow. This is a fascinating gallery, because the pieces are grouped in unique ways. For example, there’s one room where none of the paintings have placards. You just experience the art for its own sake. There’s another room that pairs or groups two or three pieces on a commonality that is in some cases difficult to recognize. One room is entitled “History and Memory,” where the work is “both controversial and far from impartial,” with depictions of “authority and privilege, male heroism and strength, and female beauty and piety.”
Again, I won’t include photos. (By this time I didn’t take that many of the art. It was getting late and I had to start thinking about catching my train to Balloch.) There are a few in my album you can check out.
Mackintosh House
The main reason I wanted to come to the Hunterian Art Gallery was to see the Mackintosh House.
The Mackintosh House features the meticulously reconstructed principal interiors from the Glasgow home of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret, complete with original furniture. The couple lived at 78 Southpark Avenue (originally 6 Florentine Terrace) from 1906 to 1914.
Mackintosh made substantial alterations in 1906. He re-modeled the proportions and natural lighting of the Victorian house. The principal interiors were decorated in his distinctive style, remarkable then, and now, for the disciplined austerity of the furnishings and decoration.
The house was demolished in the early 1960s, but the original fixtures were preserved and reassembled, complete with the contents, as an integral part of the Hunterian Art Gallery.
The architects took pains to ensure that the sequence of rooms exactly reflected the original. The interiors have been furnished with the Mackintoshes’ own furniture, all to Mackintosh’s design.
https://www.gla.ac.uk/hunterian/visit/ourvenues/themackintoshhouse/
More pictures from the Mackintosh House are in my album.
And pictures from Glasgow that aren’t from the Kelvingrove, the Hunterian, or Mackintosh stuff, are here.
That’s it from Glasgow. I’m relieved to be caught up. I’ll try to stay on top of the blogging going forward.
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