A question to start today: Why is constructing the building on the left be VAT-free, while renovating the historic building on the right and converting it to a new purpose is not? To me, this is completely the wrong way round and such tax rules are undoubtedly contributing to what seems to be the rapidly-accelerating loss of our built heritage.
Just for a bit of background, the building on the right is the B-listed Hillhead Baptist Chuch in the West End of Glasgow which threatened with demolition by developers because they say it's not economically viable to save even its distinctive facade (mostly due to damage caused after they removed the roof and did nothig to it for several years).
Two-tone tenements on Clifford Street in the Ibrox area of Glasgow. Local legend has it this effect is due to the builders running out of one colour of sandstone and completing the building with another. However, it seems much more likely that this was a conscious design choice to use harder red sandstone on the ground flooor, where most wear was likely to occur, and the softer blonde sandstone above.
The same two-tone approach can be seen on many bank buildings constructed around the same time, where ultra hard-wearing granite was often used to face the ground floor walls.
I took it for granted when I was younger, but there's something special about going to a place older generations in my family went.
When I look at myself and everyone I grew up with, we've all basically tried to run away from where we came from. Now as I get older, having experiences like this that give me a positive connection to my history really means something to me.
I had a similar experience when I was in hospital a couple of years ago. The hospital was close to where both my parents grew up. The tenements they grew up in were demolished a long time ago (people called them slums but I don't like that term, they were pulled down to make way for the motorway and move people out of the city centre). In spite of that and having no relationship with most of those family members, I still felt weirdly reassured to be near where I came from!
Aurelius by Malcom Robertson. Positioned on the line of the Antonine Wall behind the Lambhill Stables, this giant head looks out from the site of a former fort across what was once the northern frontier of the Roman Empire and into the barbarian terrritory beyond.
@thisismyglasgow you mean the territory that was so well organised they couldn’t conquer it?
They had a very close call in England with Boudicca and didn’t even attempt Ireland.
They tried to spin a tale about winning at Mons Graupius, but the writer was the son-in-law of the general who must have thought that nobody would discover their lie 2000 miles from Rome.
However they did manage to quote Calgacus, the leader of the Caledonians. (If they had won he would’ve been taken in chains to Rome)
Lambhill Stables on the Forth and Clyde Canal in Glasgow. This was one of four stables built to the same classical design (similar to that used for Canal House at Speirs Wharf) along the canal in the early 1800s. These provided fresh horses at regular intervals for Swifts (fast passenger boats travellig the length of the canal). The other similar stables were at Shirva, Crainmarloch and Easter Cadder near Kirkintilloch.
@thisismyglasgow That's interesting! I suspect the stables pre-date the Swifts proper, which came in from about 1831 (Thomas Graham's original "Swift" was trialled in July 1830) and were a last-gasp attempt to head off the threat from the railways. However, passage boats of increasing speed had run on the F&C for years beforehand, so I'd guess that the Swifts and Hoolets inherited the infrastructure.
Saint Columba of Iona's Church in the Woodside area of Glasgow. Designed by Gillespie, Kidd and Coia in a modern twist on the Italian Romanesque style, it was built in 1937.
This building at 35 Whitefield Road in the Ibrox area of Glasgow has always struck me as being potentially interesting, but rather frustratingly, I've never been able to work out its original purpose.
With the help of people over on Instagram and Twitter, it seems this was built as Saint Michael's Episcopalian Church around 1890, and in 1948 it stopped being a church and became a works of some kind, which is unusual for a former church!
A decorative caryatid on a spandrel between the doors of William Whyte's French 1885 Renaissance style tenement on Queen's Drive in Glasgow. This is one of a number of similar sculptures on the building which are grouped into differet themes, including the arts.
The imposing Classical style entrance to the former Hillhead High School on Cecil Street in the West End of Glasgow. Designed by Hugh and David Barclay, it was built in 1883. It later became Hillhead Primary School and is now flats.
@thisismyglasgow The bench makes an appearance in Bernard MacLaverty’s 2021 short story “Glasshouses”:
‘And there were plaques on park benches. He thought them better than any gravestones. “For Lily and George, who loved to sit here.” Another one had sunrise and sunset dates, in place of birth and death years. Instead of a plaque, a bench was engraved with the words “We’re all on a speck in space for a tick in time.”’
Saint Mungo gazing out across Pollokshaws Road from Saint Ninian's Church in Glasgow, with the fish with the ring in its mouth below him, and the remains of a tram rosette (used to support electrical wires for Glasgow's tram system) just to his left. I've often wondered what people made of these being attached to churches when they were first installed at the end of the 19th Century.
@thisismyglasgow@UndisScot I love the tiles in the tenements. It is funny to observe that they frequently become sparser/less ornate and one assumes less expensive the further you get from the main entrance though..
A late 19th Century tenement with a distinctive corner tower at Albert Cross in Pollokshields. Until about five years ago, this junction, in keeping with the Glasgow tradition, was marked by three distinctive corner towers. Since then, two have been lost to fire, and with the ground floor shop seemingly lying empty, there is a high risk this one will suffer a similar fate.
The lone surviving Alexander 'Greek' Thomson Lamp Standard on Queen's Drive is looking rather sorry for itself at the moment having been vandalised with silver spray paint. Anyone know who to contact to get it cleaned off without damaging the details underneath?