Guestblog

A guest post by David Siwik, MA History:

GLASGOW ARCHITECTURE – “THE SECOND CITY” OF THE EMPIRE

A few years ago, someone told me “the reason why Glasgow’s architecture is so varied and in many ways experimental is because Edinburgh is like a giant museum only forty miles away. This is why Glasgow has been repeatedly ruined architecturally…we still have that giant museum to architecture a few miles away. So, who cares if Glasgow has been laid waste to a bunch of concrete blocks and ugly, incoherent glass structures?” I did not at the time, nor do I agree now, that looking across the city, it has been ruined architecturally. Yes, there are the monstrous council estates that dot the city. And, I will admit, the first time I arrived in Glasgow, looking out the window of the plane as it was on its three mile final, I was dismayed at the preponderance of tall concrete blocks. Yet, to say that Glasgow has been ruined, to say that the concrete block is all that defines Glasgow architecture, and to suggest the city cannot hold its own when it comes to architectural history if it is compared with Edinburgh are all equally inaccurate statements.

Thus, I present to you a visual walkthrough of the important historical structures that, in my opinion, make Glasgow architecture interesting, historical, and significant. Being a historian, I like chronology, so these entries will be chronological, beginning with the Middle Ages and going through the nicer examples (yes, there are plenty) of twentieth-century Glasgow architecture. This visual walkthrough will be presented over several entries, beginning with the Middle Ages and Early Modern period. By the end, we will get to some of the more recent buildings in the city. 

MEDIEVAL/EARLY MODERN GLASGOW

Not a lot of Medieval or early-Modern era architecture in Glasgow remains, this is true. But it is also true that no city in Britain remains entirely as it was during the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages were a long time ago, and most British cities, like Glasgow, experienced their greatest growth from the mid-eighteenth through the nineteenth century. Yet, you do not have to labor to find what does remain of Glasgow’s medieval architecture. And, as it turns out, what remains is really, really…well, old.

Glasgow Cathedral, built ca. late-1100s through mid-1200s with substantial modifications lasting to 1600

Glasgow Cathedral: One of the finest, and few fully in-tact, surviving Gothic cathedrals or churches in Scotland. This church was built between the late-twelfth century and the mid-thirteenth century, with substantial modifications in the centuries that followed. Glasgow Cathedral, like any building that has survived for 800 years and is still used for the same basic purpose it was built, as been modified somewhat. Yet, the transept, nave and exterior stonework are classic European Gothic architecture, and offer the visitor to this fine edifice a true walk back in time. The cathedral was built (and thus still stands) one of the taller hills in the city. While the area around it was built up substantially beginning in the mid-1700s, the Cathedral itself, as well as the Cathedral Close remain one of the few areas of the city that have remained more or less in tact since the Middle Ages. While the view of the River Clyde one would have enjoyed from the cathedral close 800 years ago has long since been obscured by buildings, climb the tall hill behind the cathedral in the necropolis, and you can imagine what the view must have been like when the church was built (minus the 20 storey council towers in the background).

Tron Kirk Steeple – Trongate, 1631

Tron Kirk – The steeple is all that remains of a church originally built in the 1500s. The steeple was incorporated into a newer church built on the same site as the old one in the 1700s. This is located not far from what remains of Glasgow Cross, and is one of the oldest structures in the city. The pastel colours, especially the blue clock, and the incorporation into the early-modern streetscape would have been typical of the narrow streets of Glasgow of the 1600s. Now a days, the Trongate is one of the wide, and busy shopping streets in the Merchant City area of Glasgow’s city centre. And, as you can see in the above photo, the kirk steeple makes for a convenient way of getting out of the drizzle on a gloomy afternoon.

Glasgow Cross – Tollbooth Steeple

The original city centre, if you will, of Glasgow was where what remains of the city’s cross. This is located where High Street and Trongate meet in the Merchant City. The tall structure at the centre of this picture is the Tollbooth Steeple. It was built 1625-1627 and designed by John Boyd. In Glasgow, like other European cities, the town cross was the centre of the action, if you will. Here once stood a debtors prison, the city’s main tollbooth, and this was the location of the many public executions that at one time served as a means of both punishment and entertainment. A fire destroyed most of the building that this steeple was once attached to. With its blue clock and seven stories, it not only matches the Tron Kirk Steeple, but it also provides a most unique parking island in the middle of a busy city.

 Cathcart Castle

Edinburgh and Stirling aren’t the only Scottish cities with a medieval castle. Although not as palace like as the Edinburgh or Stirling Castles, Glasgow’s Cathcart Castle has its own unique history. Perhaps it is Its location in a residential neighbourhood on the southwest side of the city that makes this one of the city’s least known about historical sites. Regardless, it is an historic and important structure worth making the effort to get to. This castle was initially constructed in the 1400s by the Cathcart family and was transferred to the Semple family in the mid-1500s. Supposedly, Mary Queen of Scots stayed in the castle before the Battle of Langside in 1568. What remains of the castle are essentially the foundations, as many of the ruins were torn down years ago by Glasgow City Council. However, as the pictures show, there is still much to see.

This concludes a very brief overview of three of the more interesting buildings in Glasgow. These four are of the handful from the Middle Ages and Early Modern period that survive. My next entry will contain pictures of Glasgow from the early industrial period…stay tuned.