Spring Nostalgia Trip # 9: Glasgow on My Mind

When I first travelled to Scotland in 1975, I planned to spend several days in Edinburgh, but allotted no time at all to Glasgow. Glasgow was firmly reputed to be a grimy, industrial city, and of no interest to visitors. I was gallivanting around on a BritRail pass, and I remember going over to Glasgow on the train just to say I’d done it. I came out of Queen Street Station, wandered around George Square a bit, took a couple of photos, and headed right back to Edinburgh.

Times have changed. Glasgow is a thriving commercial centre, and now has a great deal to offer to a visitor. Ideally, I should have given the city more time, but I did give Glasgow one full day of my time. As luck would have it, I only got a chance for one good morning walk around the city centre before a drenching rainfall moved in to ruin the rest of the day. But even that one morning had me sold on the idea of visiting Glasgow again.

The new and sleek hotel I was staying in was just a block off George Square, and two short blocks’ walking distance from Queen Street Station, so I was right back where I’d started almost fifty years ago!

Glasgow Queen Street is one of those lovely historic old stations with an arched glass-and-iron greenhouse roof over the train platforms – and it’s now all hidden behind a dramatic front concourse which shows a very modern face to George Square.

The station itself is actually quite a modest size – just seven platforms in the upper level area. Down below are two more platforms, passing crossways under the “High Level” station. The Glasgow Queen Street Low Level platforms serve only local commuter trains. Glasgow Queen Street High Level is the station for all main-line services to all the other major Scottish cities, to the Highlands, and all the way to the far north.

The other major Glasgow station still in use today, Glasgow Central, is the terminus of the West Coast main line from London, Birmingham, and Manchester. It also serves local service trains to southwestern Scotland, the southern local service routes to Edinburgh, and the vast majority of Glasgow’s bustling commuter rail network. It’s much the bigger station. It also shows a façade which appears to have nothing to do with trains, since Glasgow Central hides behind a large hotel originally built by the railway company.

A block south of the front entrance, the next cross street (Argyle Street) passes under the tracks, giving a view of part of this station’s “greenhouse” roof overhead – and what’s that even more startling sight on the street corner to the right? Well, startling to Canadians at any rate. It’s hard to find good Scottish food in Toronto, but there’s Canada’s best-selling coffee and donuts in Glasgow! The two rail stations are about a ten-minute walk apart.

At any rate, George Square outside Queen Street station was where I headed first on my morning walk. It’s a large, impressive urban space, with the towered City Chambers the most impressive building present.

 

The Square also includes a sizable collection of a dozen or more bronze statues and monuments. These, according to one’s historic sensibility, might be regarded as either a Hall of Fame or a Rogue’s Gallery. In fairness, both terms are probably equally important at one point or another.

Heading south from George Square brought me into a district called “the Merchant City.” The name’s appropriate on more than one level. The lively business merchants of the past built some imposing buildings here for their headquarters, as did the banks and law firms that served their needs. Their wealth also played a role in supporting the building of public museums, theatres, and halls. Today’s merchants run a dazzling array of shops of all kinds in the street fronts of the buildings. And to aid the customer in reaching those premises, several of the streets – including this broad stretch of Argyle Street, are now pedestrian-only zones.

Here’s one business that does it all on site, and at a grand scale. Slater’s Menswear on Stockwell Street is the largest menswear store in the world, according to no less an authority than the Guinness Book  of World Records. Tailoring, made to measure, formal wear rentals, suit rentals and purchases, kilts and  accessories can all be found here – and all get done right here too.

 

In the next block south of Slater's you come to the oldest pub in Glasgow, the Scotia, dating back to 1792. The Scotia is the place for authentic old pub atmosphere, but even more for music, with bands several days a week plus the possibility of impromptu jam sessions that spring up inside from time to time.

 

And then you come to the banks of the River Clyde. This is Glasgow’s river, but perhaps even more it’s the river of Greenock and Bowling, of Dunoon and Clydebank, of all the other ports from the downstream reaches and the Firth of Clyde whose docks and shipbuilders alike made “the Clyde” a watchword in the world of merchant shipping for the best part of a century.

 

 

Dignified bridges of the past cross the river here, including the historic old South Portland Street Chain Suspension Bridge. Built between 1851 and 1853, it still spans the river on its massive steel chains, although it’s now limited to pedestrians only.

A bit farther west (and visible behind the South Portland Street Bridge's suspension chains) are the multiple trestle bridges carrying all the trains into Central Station, which lies just a couple of streets north of the river.

The waterfront along Clyde Street features many new and striking office buildings, but in between two of them you come on the older features of St. Andrew’s, the Metropolitan Cathedral of Glasgow’s Roman Catholic diocese.

 

 

Don’t admire the church without also admiring the striking reflections in its neighbour’s glass wall.

Or, if you prefer (as I do), the entire picture at once....

On the way back up from the river along Jamaica Street, Union Street, and Renfield Street (it’s all the same street BTW), you’re now passing a much greater number of mass market shops and takeaways. These businesses are aimed at a whole different population than the higher-end shops not far to the east. Most striking is a near-endless parade of vaping shops, three or four (or more) of them in every block. It seems that a large percentage of Glasgow’s population has taken to vaping with a will.

 

Turning east again onto George Street, you come face to face with the Georgian/neoclassical elegance of St. George’s Church. Literally, you come face to face as it’s been plonked down in the middle of the street, forcing the traffic to go around it on either side. The unfortunate light-coloured splotches on the photo are the first raindrops to land on the lens – they ruined a couple of other pictures as well.

 

So you do that – and suddenly you’re back on familiar turf, with George Square and the Queen Street Station appearing ahead.

 

I know I could and should give Glasgow much more of my time – there are so many fascinating parks and museums and other attractions which I need to take in. This was an appetizer course for coming delights.

 

Blame it on the weather.