A K Type post box on Maryhill Road in Glasgow. Designed by Tony Gibbs and introduced in 1980, they were meant to be the 'post box of the future'. They didn't prove popular and by 1990, the Royal Mail had re-introduced the previous cylindrial version as an alternative. The last K type box was produced in 2001.
This was not the first failed attempt to update the humble post box. The rectangular F Type was introduced in 1968, but only lasted until 1974, when it was replaced by another rectangular one, the G Type. This proved just as unpopular and was soon phased out in favour of, you guessed it, traditional cylindical ones!
The iconic British police box might now be associated with Dr Who more than anything else, but once they were a regular sight on our streets. Now only fourteen are left, six of which are in Glasgow. Well, make that five as one was removed from Sauchiehall Street yesterday as part of redevelopment work.
The one which has been removed from 185 Sauchiehall Street wasn't originally sited there, but it still represents an important part of Glasgow's heritage and its historic street furniture, which seems to be constantly under threat of removal, but which definitely add to the unique feel of the city's streets. Hopefully, this one will be returned once the current rennovations to Sauchiehall Street have been completed, and that no more of them will be removed.
I find these old Glasgow Corporation Water Works access panels rather beautiful in an industrial design sort of way. Unfortunately, they're gradually disappearing from the city's streets as older infrastructure is replaced by newer versions.
A. Waston and Co access cover from University Gardens in the West End of Glasgow. I love coming across these old bits of street furniture as they are a reminder of long-gone businesses. In this case, it's a firm established by Archibald Watson in 1833 which went on to become one of the best known plumbing and gas-fitting firms of its age and was based at 86 George Street.
I love the ornate lamp posts in front of Glasgow Cathedral. They're based on the four symbols from the city's coat of arms, which are, in turn, taken from events in the life of Saint Mungo who founded Glasgow and to whom the cathedral was dedicated when in was consecrated in 1197.
The fact that they're shaped like a bishop's crozier and the use of palm trees rather than the usual oak tree are nice touches for this location.
A rather unusual square post box on Minard Drive on the Southside of Glasgow. This is a G-Type postbox. Made of cast iron, it was introduced in 1974 and was based on the short-lived steel-plate F-Type developed in the late 1960s. Just as unpopular as the F-Type, the G-Type was similarly short-lived and was itself replaced with the traditional oval-shaped K-Type in 1980. This is the first G-Type postbox I've come across on the streets of Glasgow.
One of the rather wonderful lamp posts on Royal Crescent in the west end of Glasgow. I don't think they're particularly old, but they're a great addition to the street.
I think this might be the largest bootscraper in Glasgow. Most are about six to eight inches across, making them just wide enough to scrape the sole of one boot at a time. This one outside Renfield Saint Stephen's Church on Bath Street is about a foot and a half long meaning several people can clean their boots at the same time.
Love this lamp outside Victoria, a pub on Dumbarton Road in the Partick area of Glasgow. It seems old, but it doesn't appear on pictures of the bar taken in the early 1990s.
One of the decorative gas lamps made by William Sugg and Co outside Kelvingrove Art Gallery in the west end of Glasgow, with the towers of the Kelvin Hall in the background.
I think this is one of a number of cast iron gas lamps outside the late Georgian townhouses along Bath Street in Glasgow. Most have lost their tops, but many of posts, with their distinctive bird heads, remain.
Cast iron calling card. This access cover features the name of the plumbing company which installed. I've seen these in Edinburgh before, but this is the first one I've encountered in Glasgow. It's from a back lane in the west end.
Cast iron kerb protectors/wheel guides leading off Canal Street in the north of Glasgow. These originally led into a sawmill situated behind a block of tenements on Swan Street. This pretty much all that remains of both.
This, I think, is a Hyatt Patent Vault Light. Vault or Cellar Lights were used to help passively bring light into cellars and other rooms below street level before electric lights became common. This was done using specially designed lenses or prisms.
While the square Hayward Prismatic Pavement Lights (patented in 1871) can still be found across Glasgow, Hyatt Lights with their round lenses are an older version, being patented in 1845, and are much rarer.
In fact, the 1854 tobacco warehouse on James Watt Street in Anderston where I took this picture is the only place I've seen them so far in the city.
I've walked, run, driven and cycled up Bryres Road in Glasgow hundreds of times, but only noticed this remnant of Glasgow's long-gone electric trolleybus/tram network for the first time yesterday. It's at the junction with Great Western Road opposite Oran Mor.
It looks rather shabby right now, but imagine how this bit of historic street furniture could look cleaned up, painted to highlight the details, like the city's coat of arms and the Glasgow Corporation Transport initials, and with a plaque to tell people a little bit about the network it once served.
Are the lamps on Kelvin Way Bridge the most ornate street lights in Glasgow? I think they might just be!
Sculpted by Paul Raphael Montford between 1914 and 1924, these lamps consist of four allegorial groups of larger than life figures representing eight aspects of Glasgow civil society: Peace and War, Navigation and Shipbuilding, Commerce and Industry; and Philosophy and Inspiration (the pair shown here).
I've posted both of these access covers before, but today I realised they're both part of Glasgow's old Hydraulic Power system.
From a pumping station on High Street, pressurised water was pumped through thirty miles of pipes made of one inch thick steel and up to seven inches in diamter to power industrial equipment across the city.
Going by the presence of access covers like these, the largest remaining part of this system seems to be running from Baltic Chambers on Hope Street down into Robertson Street.