Weekend in Glasgow

Glasgow, Scotland - 
population: 592,820  -  latitude/longitude: 55, 50 N, 4, 15 W

The largest city in Scotland, was the destination of a trip that we took last week-end. The students went there with their Scottish History Professor, Jerry.  Denise, her mother, her mother's friend, and I went too, then the four of us stayed for the week-end.

Only a short train ride away, there are people who commute the roughly one hour distance by train to Glasgow every day. It is a city that we will go to again, as it had a lot to offer visitors. 

It is a 'younger' city than Edinburgh, in that it grew-up to be a "big city" during the industrial revolution from what was a smaller city before that. Where Edinburgh is the political and educational center, it could be called industrial capital.  It has had a number of nick-names over the years, look for those as I try to render a sense of the City on the River Clyde's history and flavor.

I got the history sections from - http://www.glasgow.gov.uk
Another great site is simply Glasgow History.com - or - http://www.glasgowhistory.com/

(to skip a lot of reading and speed to the pictures, follow the green bits - consider coming back later for the reading)

Laying on a mainly volcanic built slab of rock up the river from a wide bay, it made a great fishing village for thousands of years, then  Romans, missionarys, and eventually, kings came and influenced the growing community.

Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city, has a history stretching back to earliest times. Stone Age canoes unearthed along the banks of the River Clyde suggest early fishing communities.

Celtic druids were among the first identifiable religious tribes to inhabit the area. It's likely they would have traded with the Romans who, circa 80AD, had a trading post in Cathures, the earlier name for Glasgow. In 143AD the Romans erected the turf-built Antonine Wall stretching from the Clyde to the Forth to separate Caledonia to the north from Britannia to the south, but the wall was soon abandoned.

In 380AD St Ninian, the great Christian missionary, passed through Cathures, consecrating a burial ground, but beyond then little is known until the arrival of St Kentigern in the 6^th century. St Kentigern settled in Glasgow (or Glas Cu, generally construed as “dear green place”) in 543AD following exile from Culross where his miracle powers had aroused jealousy among his monastic brothers.

In Glasgow, he established his Christian church on the banks of the Molendinar Burn, a tributary of the Clyde, where Glasgow Cathedral now stands. Such was his great popularity among his ecclesiastical community he was named Mungo meaning “dear one”.

Legend has it St Mungo performed four miracles in Glasgow, commemorated on the City of Glasgow’s coat of arms, depicting a tree with a bird perched on its branches and a salmon and a bell on either side.

When Mungo died on 13 January 603, he was buried in his own church, close to the spot  where the only two known Glasgow martyrs of the Reformation were later burned at the stake. Between Mungo’s death and Glasgow’s establishment as an Episcopal seen in 1145, little is known of the city’s history.

They got their bookwork going, studied hard, put some money into colleges and public spaces and really started to become a city.

By the later 12^th century Glasgow’s population had reached around 1,500, making it an important settlement. In 1175, Bishop Jocelyn secured a charter from King William making Glasgow a burgh of barony, opening up its doors to trade. In 1238 work began on Glasgow Cathedral, symbolising the city’s growing role as a major ecclesiastical centre.

In 1450 James II issued a chapter to the Bishop “erecting all his patrimony into a regality”. Glasgow was now a Royal Burgh in all but name. Later that same year Glasgow Green became Glasgow’s first public park. In the following year, 1451, the University of Glasgow was founded by Bishop Turnbull at its original site in the High Street, making it the second oldest university in Scotland and the fourth oldest in the UK.

Fountain in Glasgow on Green

Elevated to an archbishopric in 1492, Glasgow, by the end of the 15^th century had become a powerful academic and ecclesiastical centre rivalled only by St Andrew’s.

Then they flourished in shipping and used their global position to trade with other countries. The invention of the steam engine allowed them to dredge the river out, which really got things cooking.

    



When Scotland eventually turned to the Atlantic, Glasgow, ideally placed on the west coast, came into its own. A dynamic business community seized its golden opportunity. Following the Treaty of Union in 1707, trade with the colonial New World burgeoned, and large quantities were being shipped in from the American tobacco states, especially Virginia. Glasgow’s merchants in turn had contracts to supply Europe.

By 1730 this trade with America was fully established, and Glasgow’s tobacco lords had cornered the market, becoming in the process Glasgow’s – and Scotland’s – first millionaires.



The swanky Royal Station Hotel



At its height, the cotton industry employed almost one third of Glasgow’s huge workforce, but like the tobacco industry it was badly hit by external factors, especially the American Civil War of 1861, and, closer to home, increasingly tough competition from cities like Manchester.

Ever resourceful, Glasgow turned to a wide range of heavy industries, especially shipbuilding, locomotive construction, and engineering, which could thrive on the abundant supplies of iron ore and seams of Lanarkshire coal to fuel the ironworks. From 1870 until the start of the First World War Glasgow produced almost one fifth of the world’s ships.

As the Industrial Revolution took hold at the start of the 19th century, Glasgow’s new industrialists were expanding their manufacturing bases, particularly in soap-making, distilling, glass-making, sugar and textiles. Textile production used coal in the steam-driven cotton mills and power-loom factories. Other industries included bleaching, dyeing and fabric printing.


Glasgow’s population was also increasing dramatically, as deposed immigrants from the Highlands in the 1820s and thousands fleeing from the potato famine in Ireland in the 1840s provided a vast pool of cheap, unskilled labour. With its growing industrial importance Glasgow also attracted large numbers of other immigrants, in particular Jewish, Italian and East European, who contributed greatly to the economy and local community.

The River Clyde today.

After tobacco and trading got cold, they became great ship and steam locomotive builders, shipping orders all over the world for decades. Industry helped build a city of immigrants looking for work, skilled tradesmen, and some with great wealth built beautiful buildings and parks. This period gave the city its nick-name as "The Second City of the Empire"

The American Revolution, however, delivered a vicious blow, and tobacco investors suffered. However, many shrewd Glaswegians had diversified into trade with the West Indies, importing sugar and making rum, and by the end of the 18^th century Glasgow had become Britain’s biggest importer of sugar.

In 1770, civil engineer John Golborne devised a way to flush the silt layers from the shallow Clyde riverbed by erecting a series of jetties along the banks, so that by 1772 large vessels were able to sail right up the river into the city for the first time, allowing for even greater industrial expansion.

James Watt, one of the pioneers of the steam engine, helped supervise this operation encompassing 19 miles of the Clyde. This radical transformation of the river, assisted by the establishment of Port Glasgow near Greenock, was the catalyst for Glasgow’s “golden age” of shipbuilding and heavy industry.







The steel hulled Glen Lee, a merchant ship, is said to have sailed around the world 5 times. 
That's a well built boat! (a boat worthy of a posting unto itself)

These were heady days, in which Glasgow ranked as one of the finest and richest cities in Europe and acclaimed as a model of organised industrial society. Grand public buildings and a host of museums, galleries and libraries were built. Glasgow had more parks and open spaces than any other similar European city, along with a regulated telephone system, water and gas supplies. Little wonder that Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote in 1857: “I am inclined to think that Glasgow is the stateliest city I ever beheld.”

Glasgow’s pride in these great achievements was openly displayed in two Great Exhibitions of 1888 and 1901, both held in Kelvingrove Park. Glasgow was now unquestionably the “Second City of the Empire”.

Kelvingrove Museum - designed and built by architectural great - Charles Renne MacKintosh
(whose fascinating story is a poting all its own as well)

As time went on, especially after WWI, the world didn't need as many ships and locomotives, so the economy hit the skids hard.

The story of 20^th century Glasgow after the First World War, is in bleak contrast to the previous century, marred by industrial decline of enormous proportions.

Major economic downturn resulted in Glasgow being classed as a “depressed area” in the 1930s, although this era did coincide with the proud launching from John Brown’s yard in Clydebank of the two great Cunard liners, the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth. “Clyde-built” remained synonymous with quality. The hosting of the illustrious empire exhibition of 1938 in Bellahouston Park was another significant event.



Replica of the Queen Mary



The downturn in shipbuilding was matched by the decline in locomotive manufacturing. Glasgow had built one quarter of all locomotives in use anywhere in the world. Many were exported by ship, and a massive crane able to hoist an impressive 175 tons had been erected in 1931 on Stobcross Quay to load these engines onto ships. This Finnieston Crane remains one of Glasgow’s best-known landmarks.

Immediately after the Second World War, the need for the country to replace lost shipping vessels slowed the industrial slump, but, come the 1950s, the demand for merchant and navy ships had dwindled drastically. The heavy industries could no longer compete with much cheaper labour costs of emerging competitors overseas. One final statement of shipbuilding glory came in 1967 with the launching of the Queen Elizabeth 2, but this was the finale of the great industrial days.



A famous market we visited, "The Barras" that showed me there is still poverty in Glasgow

The time for radical change was due, and in a remarkably short space of time a whole new economic base was created, centred on the service sector.

After some rough times through the 60's and 70's Glasgow turned to art, education, and tourism the revive itself, and it has worked very well. Now it's "The Coolest City in the UK!"

The wish to re-invent post-industrial Glasgow in the 1980s led to a number of major initiatives utilising the city’s distinguished cultural heritage, not least the opening of the Burrell Collection in 1983. A magnificent, purpose-built gallery was constructed in beautiful Pollok Park to house millionaire shipowner Sir William Burrell’s stunning and extensive collection of some 9,000 artefacts which he and and his wife, Constance, donated to the city in 1944.

The transformation of Glasgow from its inward-looking, post-industrial slump, to a confident, outward-looking, economically regenerated destination city is significant.

The popular arts scene in Glasgow continues to experience a huge upturn. Filmgoers too can enjoy not just modern multiplexes, but also art house movies and classics at the Glasgow Film Theatre. Flourishing creative writing programmes at both Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities is nurturing new literary talent. Top pop and rock bands play the city regularly, at the SECC, Barrowlands, Carling Academy, and King Tut’s. The recently completed museum of Transport is also a top attraction.

Museum of Transport

Add to that the numerous pubs and clubs offering live music and dance, and you can see why Glasgow was recently voted “UK’s Coolest City” in a poll by The Big Issue magazine.

Eating out in the city has never been more popular.  An abundance of chic restaurants has sprung up in the Merchant City, and south of the river, not to mention Glasgow being proclaimed Curry Capital of the U.K. for the second year running.

It really is a fascinating, energized and eclectic city that has an entirely different feel than Edinburgh. Although it is a comparison that doesn't hold up in many ways, one way to consider it is that, perhaps, Glasgow is to Edinburgh as Minneapolis is to St.Paul.  The comparison breaks down when looking at economic histories, but terrain does work; Glasgow is flat and has more modern buildings than Edinburgh.

What can I say, but that I am very intrigued with this city. I plan to go back and visit The University of Glasgow Strathclyde, the oldest Technical College in Scotland. I learned of it after talking to some of it's students out promoting one of their projects - a race car that they designed, engineered, and built.  They were a pretty impressive bunch of young people.

 

This school has quite an interesting history

In a restructuring of technical education in 1887, Anderson's College merged with the Young Chair of Technical Chemistry, the College of Science and Arts, Atkinson's and Allan Glen's Institutions to form the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College. Anderson's College Medical School became a separate institution at this time. Day and evening courses were offered in science, engineering, weaving, pharmacy, architecture and design and music.By invitation of His Majesty King George V, the College adopted the name Royal Technical College in 1912 and was renamed the Royal College of Science and Technology in 1956, before receiving its own Royal Charter as the University of Strathclyde in 1964.

With some final pictures, I will thank the government of Scotland for all the information.  It may be painting a bit of a rosy picture, but it doesn't hurt to be positive, and it felt like they were doing a lot of things right. So I will wish them the best.

Looking up the River Clyde toward the new Harbor Center

Looking down the River Clyde to the, still working, Shipyards





Botanical Gardens



 

Art Deco Style Coffee Shop (sorry, picture taken from a bus - I'll go there next time)



People shopping like crazed animals on Argyle Street

St. George's Square (Brad Pitt had just finished shooting his latest movie here)



A clock tower waits to toll the future.