Glasgow (2), A Walking Tour: Scotland '22 Part 2

A Wander Around Glasgow with Some Fixed Objectives and Some Lucky Finds

Scotland

Glasgow

Wednesday promised to be cool but dry – at least until lunchtime. With the Cathedral and Necropolis, our main objectives for the morning, about a mile and a half to the east, we set off along Waterloo Street towards Glasgow Central Station, looking forward to fun in the boneyard and whatever else we could find on the way.

Along Waterloo Street towards Glasgow Central Station

Citizen Firefighter

We found Citizen Firefighter outside the station. It is a memorial to those who have lost or risked their lives attempting to save others from burning buildings. I mean no disrespect to firefighters, but to me it looks like a squat, mildly unpleasant alien from Dr Who. Others must see it differently. It was unveiled in June 2001, just months before the appalling events in New York on the 11 of September that year and Citizen Firefighter was where the people of Glasgow chose to come, to leave flowers and pay their respects. The statue is the work of Edinburgh sculptor Kenny Hunter; more than two dozen of his works can be found in towns and cities across the UK and in France and Germany.

Citizen Firefighter outside Glasgow Station

Glasgow Museum of Modern Art

Heading further east we walked towards the ‘Merchant City’, now an area of cafés and restaurants with more than a few grandiose Neo-Classical buildings.

One such building, now Glasgow Museum of Modern Art, was erected in Royal Exchange Square in 1778 as a town house for tobacco magnate William Cunninghame. Just what was he thinking? Fashions change, but a self-important taste-free trumped up prat can be found up in any era. He made his fortune from the labours of enslaved people, and was not above ripping off the slave owners as well. It was not just his taste in architecture that was questionable.

Glasgow Museum of Modern Art

Keep it Coney

The Battle of Waterloo (1815) was a big deal. We had started this walk on Waterloo St, and outside the Museum of Modern Art we encountered a statue of the Duke of Wellington, the victor of Waterloo. In the decades after the battle dozens of such statues were erected, often funded by public subscription. Carlo Marochetti, an Italian born French sculptor who settled in London, is responsible for Glasgow’s version. Marochetti was well respected in his profession and he enlivens a regulation equestrian statue by posing the Duke with a rather camp hand on hip.

The Duke of Wellington outside Glasgow Museum of Modern Art

Marochetti would not have understood that use of the word ‘camp’ (the OED dates it from 1909), nor would he have understood ‘traffic cone’ (first patented 1943). Glasgow's Wellington has worn a traffic cone since 1980. The authorities removed it at regular intervals, and it was always immediately replaced. After 30 years of this, Glasgow Council published a plan to double the height of the plinth to deter all but the most determined cone planters. This would cost £65,000, good value, they said as they were spending £10,000 a year removing the cone. Glasgow citizens, in substantial numbers, pointed out it would save money all-round if they left it there. ‘Keep it coney’ became a hash tag, a popular movement and a campaign to promote Glasgow’s traditionally irreverent sense of humour. The council were made to look po-faced and ridiculous and the cone is now semi-official.

George Square

A short distance to the north is George Square, where eleven prominent men and Queen Victoria stand on plinths for all to admire. I had not heard of every one of them, Thomas Graham (chemist) and Thomas Campbell (poet and historian) may well be worthy citizens, but were two of several who had not come to my attention before.

Sir Walter Scott takes pride of place and stands atop the highest pillar…

George Square, with Sir Walter Scott and the Glasgow City Chambers

… while Robert Burns is there but we did not find him (though the map I now have suggests it should hardly have been difficult).

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert are not the only non-Scots. William Gladstone, three times prime minister, was from Liverpool and Robert Peel, prime minister and inventor of modern policing, was Lancashire born and a Staffordshire MP. The great engineer James Watt was a Scot, from Greenock, but became an adopted Brummie

James Watt

I am unsure whether to applaud their inclusiveness or regret their lack of confidence in Scottish genius. It is also worth noting that the poets, politicians, engineer, queen and consort celebrated here all have their heads spread liberally with pigeon guano

The cenotaph in front of the Glasgow City Chambers was erected in 1924 and was designed by sculptor Ernest Gillick and architect, John James Burnet. It is the site of Glasgow’s Remembrance Day ceremony.

Cenotaph, George Square, Glasgow

We were stopped by a local who asked where we came from. If she was disappointed by our not particularly exotic origins, she did not show it and advised us to walk into the city chambers and have a look at the lobby. So we did. Thank you, madam.

Entrance Hall, Glasgow City Chambers

Glasgow Cathedral and Necropolis

University of Strathclyde

Central Glasgow is largely flat, but the further north you venture from the Clyde the more likely you are to have walk upwards to the next parallel street. We climbed up to Cathedral Street and then continued our eastward progress passing many buildings of the University of Strathclyde. Glasgow’s second oldest university, it received its charter in 1964 and now has 24,000 students, a third of them post-graduates. It rather dominates this part of town.

The Cathedral

A huge pile of dour, dark grey stone, Glasgow Cathedral was erected between 1136 and 1484 (building a cathedral takes time). Constructed over the tomb of St Kentigern (also called St Mungo) the 6th-century missionary to Strathclyde, the Cathedral is now Scotland’s largest place of worship, though it is outbulked if not outspired by the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, built on slightly higher ground nearby.

Glasgow Cathedral (with the infirmary to the right)

It was a Catholic Cathedral until the Reformation of 1560 saw Scotland sever its links with Rome. After this all images and statues, side chapels, and relics were removed, worship became plainer and in English rather than Latin.

Inside Glasgow Cathedral

In 1663 the Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland voted for the non-hierarchical Presbyterian system of church government, which has no need of bishops or cathedrals. The Cathedral became the High Kirk and the building was divided into three parish churches - a stone building [is] not as holy or sacred as the human hearts in which the Holy Spirit truly dwells (Glasgowcathedral.org).

In the 19th century the Presbyterians lightened up a little (see Greyfriars Kirk in last year’s Edinburgh(1): The Castle and National Museum). In 1835, the High Kirk reverted to serving one parish, renamed ‘St Mungo’s, and was again called a ‘cathedral’. Services involved more ceremony; an organ was installed and stained glass returned to the windows.

Stained glass, a 20th century replacement for the 19th century original

The cathedral now has one weekly service, but to this non-believer it felt like it had lost something over the years and no longer has the atmosphere of a church, let alone a cathedral.

The Necropolis

The 1830s saw both a lightening up of Presbyterianism and a change in burial practices. Hitherto, the law had given churches a monopoly on Christian burials, but with an increasing population and limited churchyard space, change was inevitable. James Ewing, Glasgow’s Lord Provost, was keen for his city to have its own version of Paris’ Père Lachaise, so planning started in 1831, even before the law changed in 1832. The Necropolis opened in 1833.

Situated on what Wikipedia calls a low but very prominent hill behind the cathedral, it is approached across a bridge.

Across the Bridge to Glasgow Necropolis

50,000 are now buried here, and there are monuments to 3,500 of the 'great and good'.

Glasgow Necropolis

The roll of important inmates is, like the participants in Strictly Come Dancing (US: Dancing with the Stars), largely a list of people I have never heard of. David MacBrayne of Caledonian MacBrayne is known to anyone who has taken a Hebridean ferry and there are Dunlops, but not John Boyd Dunlop, inventor of the pneumatic tyre.

The tallest pillar is surmounted by John Knox (d. 1572), the father of the Scottish Reformation. The pillar predates the necropolis and he is actually buried in an unmarked grave in St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh.

John Knox (from the rear!) Glasgow Necropolis

There is also a monument to the poet William Miller (d. 1872). A children’s poet, he is hardly well known. but everybody can recite the first verse (usually in its anglicised version rather than the original Scots) of Wee Willie Winkie, the only work for which he is remembered.

William Miller memorial, Glasgow Necropolis

He died in penury in 1872 and was buried in nearby Tollcross. This memorial was erected later.

Back to our Hotel via the Merchant City

TARDIS

Down the High Street from the Necropolis we encountered a TARDIS.

The first police box was installed in Albany, New York in 1877. A few other American cities adopted them and in 1891 Glasgow became the first British city to install one. Over the next 30 years designs varied but in the 1920s a blue box designed by Gilbert Makenzie Trench, originally for London’s Metropolitan Police, became the norm.

TARDIS, Glasgow

Doctor Who's TARDIS disguised itself as a police box in 1963, at which time they were still common. A telephone line connected directly to the nearest police station was available to police or public via a flap on the outside. Only police could access the inside, where there was a fire extinguisher and first-aid kit. In exceptional circumstances the box could become a temporary cell. Personal radios and mobile phones made them obsolete long ago and this one, as far as I know, is just to amuse tourists like us and to stir a few memories (unless. of course, The Doctor really is here.)

Murals

Glasgow is a city of murals - I included one in yesterday’s post. The mural opposite the TARDIS shows St Mungo, who lived from 528 to 614, in modern dress. Born in Fife, he was conceived out of wedlock by a daughter of the King of East Lothian who made several attempts to kill the mother and unborn child.

They were rescued by St Serf who became the boy’s mentor. At the age of 25, Mungo began his missionary work on what is now the site of Glasgow Cathedral and is regarded as the city’s founder and Patron Saint.

A keen-eyed observer of the Glasgow crest at the top of this post would see the central shield contains a tree with a bell hanging from it, a fish swimming (?!) across the trunk and a robin perched in the topmost bough. All are related to St Mungo and the stories can be found on mediaevalglasgow.org . I will quote the ‘robin story’ as it is relevant to the mural.

St Mungo and a Robin, High Street, Glasgow

A wild robin was tamed by Saint Serf. It was accidentally killed by some of his students who blamed it on Mungo. He took the dead bird in his hands and prayed, bringing it back to life, whereupon it flew back to its master.

Which is all fine and dandy (if a tad unlikely), but while my eyes saw the mural, my head saw….

St Mungo and Robin

…and I can’t unsee it.

Through the Merchant City

We turned west through the Merchant City where we encountered several more murals in Ingram Street.

After a saint looking at his lunch, we have a fox inspecting his dinner, Ingram Street, Glasgow

Rain started to fall so we ducked into a café opposite the mural. It was too early for lunch so we had a late coffee and waited for the shower to pass,

We did not have to wait long. We plodded on and by the time we reached Waterloo Street lunchtime had arrived and The Smoking Fox looked a reasonable place for a beer and a snack. Our ‘sharing plate’ exceeded expectation; the pile of nachos (seemingly freshly made), melted cheese, guacamole and slices of chilli was dismantled with pleasure.

Being old, we retired to our hotel for a brief nap before our afternoon exertions.

To the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

The Kelvingrove Art Gallery was a mile and half to the west, a 30 minute walk, according to Google. It would take much longer.

The pedestrian crossings and roundabouts above the M8 were once the centre of Anderston, a weaving village (and before that hunting forest) absorbed into Glasgow in 1846.

There has been much redevelopment since Billy Connolly was born here in 1942 and it still continues. Anderston and adjacent Finnieston are ‘being improved’ but too many buildings and businesses along the main Argyll Street look uncared for.

We had plenty of time to examine the place in detail, a shower kept us penned in a doorway for ten minutes. The rain stopped, we moved on and a couple of hundred metres later had to resort to another doorway, this time not for a shower but for a major cloudburst.

Kelvingrove, when we eventually arrived, is a very different place. The gallery sits beside Kelvingrove Park, which slopes upwards to the main campus of Glasgow University. Like St Andrews it was founded by Papal Bull in 1451, making it Scotland’s joint oldest university. Glasgow has produced three British Prime Ministers, two Scottish First Ministers and a list of scientists and doctors who revolutionised their fields. It now has 32,000 students.

Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery

The original museum opened in the latter half of the 19th century, but the current building, dating from 1902, was financed by the 1888 International Exhibition of Science, Art and Industry held in Kelvingrove Park. The building is vast; my photograph shows only the central section which houses the pipe organ commissioned for the 1901 Glasgow International Exhibition.

Pipe organ, Kelvingrove Musuem and Art Gallery

The 22 galleries cover everything from art to animals, Ancient Egypt to Charles Rennie Mackintosh (Glasgowlife.org.uk). Arriving tired and bedraggled we made no attempt to see all 22, but concentrate on Charles Rennie Mackintosh, as very much a local, and Egypt - always an area of interest.

We took a good look at the furniture of Mackintosh and his circle.

Furniture by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and contempories, Kelvingrove Art Gallery

Dark wood furniture is out of fashion at the moment, but these seem very elegant, and no doubt the wheel of fashion will turn.

Furniture by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and contemporaries, Kelvingrove Art Gallery

The Last Turning, James Peterson (Thanks Wikipedia)

We spent some time with paintings of the Glasgow School who thrived in the 1890s and 1910s, so roughly contemporary with Mackintosh. They were not quite to my taste and as the grouping is ‘geographic as much as artistic’ picking an example to stand for them all is tricky. They also split into ‘Glasgow Boys’ and ‘Glasgow Girls’ though the names do not particularly imply youth.

One slightly earlier painting that caught my eye was View of Glasgow and the Cathedral by John Adam Houston. Painted in 1840 his viewpoint is from high on the Necropolis. My photograph was from lower and zoomed in on the cathedral. Glasgow changed between painting and photo; though I did not show them there are taller buildings now - and fewer (or no) smoking chimneys.

Glasgow and its Cathedral, John Adam Houston, Kelvingrove Art Gallery

The Egyptian section is interesting, but like all such collections outside Egypt, the provenance of at least some of the artefacts is probably a bit iffy.

We were tiring and failed to do the museum full justice. Once through the mummies we headed back.

En route we encountered Charles Rennie Mackintosh himself. I have been (gently) taken to task for failing to adopt the pose of the great man (thank you, Jacki) but I had my back to him and the photographer remained silent.

Chares Rennie Mackintosh and me, Anderston

The sculpture is the work of Andy Scot, who was also responsible for the magnificent Kelpies we detoured to Falkirk to see last year.

We plodded back to the hotel and settled for dining in their bar because we lacked the energy to go out.

Scotland 2022

Part 1: Glasgow (1) Irn Bru, The Clyde and La Lanterna:
Part 2: Glasgow (2): A Walking Tour
Part 3: The Battle of Culloden and Cawdor Castle
Part 4: Fraserburgh and Portsoy
Part 5: Huntly and Fyvie
Part 6: Findochty, Portknockie and Cullen
Part 7: Stirling