This access cover in Kelvingrove Park has long been a bit of a puzzle for me. Situated near the Park Drive entrance, you can just make out that it's a Fire Point (FP) cover made by Thomas Leadbetter and Co. Based on Gordon Street, with a works on Garnkirk Street, this Glasgow company was a plumbers, lead merchant and brass foundry, which, amongst other things made brass values for fire points (what we'd now call a fire hydrant) in the 1860s.
However, looking back at old maps as far back as the 1850s (when the park was first created) I cannot find any obvious reason why there was a fire point, or even water pipes, at this location in the park. However, it seems to been there for over 150 years, so presumably it had a logical purpose at some point in its history.
Park Terrace townhouses overlooking Kelvingrove Park in the West End of Glasgow. Designed by Charles Wilson in a French Renaissance style, they were built in 1855.
Park Terrace townhouses overlooking Kelvingrove Park in the West End of Glasgow. Designed in a French Renaissance style by Charles Wilson they were built in 1855.
Personifications of Loch Katrine (right) and Glasgow (left), with Glasgow Cathedral in the background on the Stewart Memorial Fountain in the city's Kelvingrove Park. There's also a sneaky little Glasgow Coat of Arms in the bottom left corner!
In March 1941, the neighbouring areas of Clydebank and Glasgow were extensively targetted by German bombers, leading to the death of over one thousand people and much damage. One of the areas hit was the Kelvin Way Bridge in the city's West End where an exploding parachute mine sent two of its four groups of sculptures into the river below, including this one of War (right) and Peace (left).
The statues lay in the river until 1949 when they were finally recovered and at this point it was found War's right arm was missing. This was replaced in 1951 and a plaque was added to mark the occasion. The missing arm was eventually recovered from the river in 1995, but by then replacement had blended in with the rest of the statue and it was decided not to attempt to re-attach the original one.
Peeling 'corpy green' paint on one of the cast iron lamp brackets on the 1894 Prince of Wales Bridge in Kelvingrove Park in Glasgow. This shade of green paint was favoured by the City of Glasgow Corporation, the forerunner of the current Glasgow City Council, and used throughout the city on everything from buses to window frames.
The bronze sculpture of War on the Lord Roberts Monument in Glasgow's Kelvingrove Park. The monument was unveiled in 1916, just two years after the death of Field Marshal Earl Roberts. Created by Henry Poole, it's a copy of an original statue of Harry Bates which was erected in Calcutta in 1898. There's also another smaller version erected in 1924 on Horse Guards Parade in London.
Townhouses on Park Terrace in the West End of Glasgow. Designed by Charles Wilson and built in 1855, these houses sit on a hill overlooking Kelvingrove Park, which had been created just a few years before they were built.
The Kennedy Monument in Kelvingrove Park. Sculpted by A. Cain in 1866, it was presented by the City of Glasgow in 1867 by John S. Kennedy, a Glaswegian who had emigrated to the US and made his fortune there. The statue shows a female big cat holding a peacock which she is bringing back to her cubs, and it was the first statue erected in Kelvingrove Park. There's another copy of this statue in Central Park in New York, Kennedy's adopted home.
Snow on Sunlight Cottages in Glasgow's Kelvingrove Park. Designed by James Miller for the 1901 Glasgow International Exhibition, they're modelled on Arts and Crafts workers cottages from Port Sunlight in Cheshire.
A rather regal-looking lion on the 'crown' of the Stewart Memorial Fountain in Glasgow's Kelvingrove Park. The fountain was created in 1872 from a design by James Sellars with sculptures by the legendary John Mossman.
One of four cherubs surrounding the Stewart Memorial Fountain in Glasgow's Kelvingrove Park. Made by the Cruikshank and Company Foundry in Denny, this same cherub also appears as part of the drinking fountain at the entrance to Alexandra Park in the East End and the Aitken Memorial Fountain in Govan. Each one is painted in its own unique colour scheme. There is also one at Tobermory Harbour on the Isle of Mull.
I love the sunsets in Glasgow at this time of year. Sometimes they fill the whole sky, but at other times, like today, you have to hunt around the horizon to find the best bits.
The Snow Bridge in Kelvingtove Park in the west end of Glasgow.
Built around 1800, it's one of the oldest surviving bridges over the lower reaches of the River Kelvin. When trams were introduced to the city in the 1870s, it was decided that the bend it creates on to Dumbarton Road was too tight for the new means of transport, and it was replaced by the nearby Partick Bridge.