Hunters Quay: A Journey

 G L  A S G O W

Engine of Scotland

                                                        Glasgow and her stunning Buildings:                                                             

                                                          The River Clyde and Glasgow City Centre 

             As you approach Glasgow, the Clyde takes many twists and turns. Here the Clyde looks back towards Rutherglen.

         The angel looking over New Gorbals; one of the many striking designs to be found within the redeveloped Gorbals.

                         Another striking designs.                                       Yet another wonderfully idiosyncratic building. The Doge’s Palace

Memorial to James Martin, former councillor magistrate of Glasgow.    as it is still known, or Templeton’s carpet factory as it was, lies to

                                                                                                     the north-east. This must have been the most beautiful and

                                                                                                     extravagant factory in the world when it was built in 1889 to the

                                                                                                     designs of William Leiper.

The Doulton Fountain is the largest surviving terracotta structure in the world. It stands as a paradigm for the British Empire at the date of its construction in 1888. On top sits the monarch, and below are her armed forces. Under that lie the main overseas colonies, and all is supported on a base which represents Glasgow, then the Second City of the Empire and its industrial capital.

                    A good example of Scottish engineering, South Portland Street Suspension Bridge, taking you across

                    the Clyde to the Georgian terrace of Carlton Place. It is the oldest surviving bridge on the Glasgow

                    section of the Clyde, dating from 1853.

 
                             Oldest House In Glasgow                                                                          Donald Dewar 1937-2000

                                                                                                                                   Scotland first ever, FIRST MINISTER.

                                                     Glasgow's version of Sydney Opera House. The Armadillo

                                           Hidden by the bridge over the river Kelvin are the building of Glasgow University

Glasgow boasts not one but three universities: the old and illustrious Glasgow University,  in the Kelvingrove Park area,  Strathclyde University a former Polytechnic and Glasgow Caledonian University.

                                                                             St. Enoch Centre in Glasgow    (Click to see another picture)

Now standing on the site once occupied by St. Enoch railway station (demolished together with the adjoining hotel), in the square of the same name, is St. Enoch Centre, a futuristic shopping centre created from steel, glass and mirrors

Events in Glasgow organized annually include drama and music        Hampden Park Stadium is Scotland’s national football ground

events, Scottish opera (at the Theatre Royal), Scottish National        and home to Queen’s Park Football Club. The final redevelopment of

Orchestra, Scottish Ballet and off course its huge shopping               the modern stadium in 1999 saw it awarded “five star” status By

centres.                                                                                       UEFA, European football’s governing body.

As well as hosting Scottish domestic and international matches, Hampden was chosen as the venue for the Champions League Final in 2002 and the UEFA Cup Final in 2007. In 1927, Scotland’s national football stadium of Hampden Park was the largest in the world. Although overtaken for size in 1950 by the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro, it still retain the European record for the highest attendance at a single game – an incredible 149,415 turnout for Scotland against England in the 1937 British Home Championship.

                                                                       The Winter Gardens & Tea Room 

Always a great place to go shopping, Glasgow has acquired huge new shopping centres, all offer an almost infinite variety of sales outlets, boutiques, eating places and department stores.

                                                                 Dawn over the River Clyde, Around Clydebank

One of the reasons why Scotland is talked about across the world is for the scenery it offers to both its inhabitants and its visitors. Its landscapes and off course the hospitality of its people are why Scotland’s tourism industry thrives.

                                                                                         Glasgow Art Gallery 

Glasgow Art Gallery. The imposing and sedate exterior of the ArtGallery and Museum is softened by its setting: a specious park to which Glaswegians flock on sunny days. Glasgow was also the birthplace of a very prominent architect of the early 1900s: Charles Rennie, Mackintosh, an exponent of Art Nouveau, he left many fine works in the city, to name some of his work; the Glasgow School of Art and Queen’s Cross Church.

                                                                                      Outside Glasgow Art Galleryoom and male guests wear ceremonial dress, with kilts in their

Glasgowis still a symbol of the inventive talents of the Scottish people. In the 18^th and 19^th centuries an extraordinary number of outstanding men lived and worked here: Adam Ferguson (a forerunner of modern sociology), John Napier (inventor of logarithms), James Hutton, Roderick Murchison and Charles Lyell (founders of modern geology), James Clerk Maxwell (who discovered the laws of electrodynamics), Lord Kelvin (main contributor to development of the second law of thermodynamics , whose name is still used as a unit for measuring absolute temperature), William Cullen, John and William Hunter (who revolutionized gynaecology  and  surgery), Andrew Duncan, James Young (who introduced the use of chloroform in operating theatres) and best known of all Alexander Fleming (discoverer of penicillin).

 
                                                                                       Glasgow Buildings
 

                                                                          G l a s g o w   B u i l d i n g s

Glasgow has many eating and drinking places, self-styled café with elegant and original interior décor. Culturally, Glasgow is a very lively city, certainly meriting its nomination as European City of Culture.

Buchanan Street and the Buchanan Galleries are at the very heart of Glasgow’s city centre and are named after Glaswegian tobacco lord Andrew Buchanan.

George Square is considered the heart of modern Glasgow, statues abound here (with figures of the Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, James Watt and the national poet, Robert Burns) but pride of place – high up on the central column – has been given to Sir Walter Scott. Fronting the square is City Chambers, the city hall built in Venetian Renaissance style to a design by architect William Young; the building was opened by Queen Victoria in 1888.

                                                                                     Glasgow City Centre 

Strathclyde, taken from the Gaelic words Strath and Chluaidh, means, literally, “the valley of the River Clyde”, a waterway which rises 1,400 feet above sea level in the south east of Lanarkshire and flows past the towns of Lanark and Hamilton and through the city of Greater Glasgow into the Firth of Clyde below Dumbarton. However, the name also enjoys an additional historic association with a Welsh speaking kingdom which long ago embraced a large chunk of northern Britain. Hence, since the principality of Wales fell within that kingdom, it was discovered from Welsh documentation that around AD 543, a missionary called Saint Kentigern, who in the West of Scotland became known as Saint Mungo, which means “Dear Friend”, was bishop of Gartnwl and built a church. Six centuries later this was transformed into a great cathedral, the focal point of what, in the ongoing passage of time, became the City of Glasgow. Spread-eagled across a wooded area above Glasgow Cathedral is the Necropolis Cemetery which catches the eye from the M8 Motorway as it sweeps through Glasgow’s city centre and over the Kingdom Bridge across the River Clyde to head south. This extraordinary cemetery, which opened in 1832, was the eccentric inspiration of James Ewing, Provost of Glasgow, and was conceived as an ornamental park to enhance the memory of the great and the good of the Second City of the Empire, the cotton and tobacco barons, inventors and shipping moguls who made everything possible.

The Glenlee, or as we know it, The Tall Ship and the iconic red funnels of the paddle steamer the Waverley, still regularly provides day trips on the Clyde and the Firth of Clyde in the summer months. It is the only ocean-going paddle steamer left in the world; still ferrying passengers Doon the Watter.