“Second city of the Empire” (Nineteenth century description of Glasgow.)
In the continuing absence of any opportunity to undertake European travel at the moment, I continue my occasional series reporting on two-day visits I have made to explore particular cities. I’ve previously reported on seven such trips I made to non-UK cities in 2018 and 2019. In 2017, I made two-day visits to both Glasgow and Edinburgh, the first of which is the basis for this post.
Over the past few years I have explored many UK towns and cities by keeping an eye out for ticket sales that train companies have from time to time, usually making a day return trip at a bargain fare. In recent years I had made day trips by train to explore the following towns and cities (some more than once): Colchester, Norwich, Folkestone, Brighton, Portsmouth, Bristol, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Birmingham, Chester, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, York, Durham and Newcastle.
In the autumn of 2017 both Virgin West Coast and Virgin East Coast (as the two train companies were then called) had seat sales offering very reasonable tickets to destinations on their lines. I took the opportunity to make a couple of visits to Scotland. As it takes nearly five hours to reach Scotland by train from London, a day trip was impractical and given the length of the journey, I splashed out and bought first class tickets at a cost of about £30 each way.
As this blog had not been thought about when I made these trips, I took hardly any photographs, so my apologies that this post has limited pictorial illustration.
Wednesday 20th September 2017
To make the most of my time an early start was required, so I left home at about 6am to give me plenty of time for my 0730 departure from Euston. As I had included contingency I arrived in good time, which allowed me to use the first class lounge (included in the price of my ticket) to grab a free cup of coffee and a pastry. Once on board the train, I was served a cooked breakfast. After the catering crew change at Preston, they came round again offering late breakfasts but I declined the opportunity for a second one. Passing over Shap summit and Beattock in Scotland, I was disappointed that the views were obscured by low cloud. The train arrived at Glasgow Central just after noon.
My first stop on leaving Glasgow Central station was the tourist information office a short walk away. There I picked up a number of leaflets including one describing the murals adorning the sides of buildings which can be seen all over the city centre and another pair about the bridges across the Clyde and Kelvin rivers.
I then made may way to Glasgow Green, scene of many political gatherings over the years and containing the 143ft high Nelson Monument. My main purpose in coming here was to visit the the People’s Palace which is now a museum of the history of Glasgow. Also attached to the People’s Palace is a glass conservatory known as the Winter Gardens, which contains a selection of flora and also serves as a cafe for the museum.
After leaving the People’s Palace I took a long walk along the north bank of the Clyde to the other side of the city, stopping occasionally to look at murals on route. One particularly poignant mural was on the Clutha bar, the pub into which a police helicopter crashed in 2013 killing 10 people.
At the end of my walk I reached the Riverside Museum, a museum of transport and technology housed in a modern building designed by Zaha Hadid. The displays here were more extensive than in the People’s Palace and I spent the rest of the afternoon looking round. Outside the museum there is moored on the Clyde a three-masted tall ship (originally called the Glenlee, but now known just as the Tall Ship), which I also spent time exploring before returning to look round more of the museum.
Once I had finished in the Riverside Museum I walked the short distance to Partick station where I caught the Glasgow Subway to the south of the city where my hotel for the night was located. The Glasgow Subway was opened in 1896 and has never been extended since. By the the standards of the London Underground the trains and the platforms seem tiny.
After checking into my hotel, I set off to find something to eat. I had chosen a Persian Restaurant a short walk away. Unfortunately, it had now started raining and while waiting to cross the road at lights just before I reached the restaurant, a vehicle went through a large puddle which sent a wave of water to completely drench me. When I arrived at the restaurant I was dripping wet. I had an an interesting meal, but as the restaurant did not serve alcohol, I afterwards set off to find a pub. I went to a traditional old-fashioned friendly pub, where the landlady observing my sodden state offered to get me a towel to dry myself down.
Thursday 21st September 2017
The weather was much improved this morning, so I decided to walk to my first destination, the Kelvingrove Museum, which is located in the north-west of the city in the main Glasgow University area. I used Google maps to plot a route. It sent me through a modern private housing estate on the south bank of the Clyde to cross the river by the Clyde Arc bridge, which was opened in 2006. On entering the housing estate there were signs saying that there was no access to the riverside path. While it would have been pleasant to walk right by the river, I didn’t take much notice of them as my Google maps route did not use the riverside path, but instead headed straight to the Clyde Arc bridge. When I reached the road leading onto bridge, I discovered that the gate I needed to go through was locked, but to go all the way back and round would be a detour of over two miles, which would eat into my precious time. So I decided to climb over the tall fence by the gate to escape.
The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is a large museum with a wide ranging collection of art and historical exhibits. Unfortunately at the time of my visit Salavador Dali’s Christ of St John of the Cross was on temporary loan to London’s Royal Academy, so the space where it normally hung just had a photograph of the painting. Compensating for the missing Dali, highlights from the Burrell Collection were being exhibited at Kelvingrove, as their normal permanent home to the south of the city was being refurbished at the time. One unusual find in the museum was the sculptor’s model for the statue of Winston Churchill on Woodford Green, less than a mile from my home.
After spending the morning in the Kelvingrove Art gallery and Museum I caught a bus to the city centre, where I resumed the murals trail that I had done some of the previous day. This took me to St Mungo’s Cathedral, which dates from the 12th century and is the oldest building in the city.
When I had finished the murals trail, I went in the afternoon to the south of the city to visit the Scotland Street School Museum. This is housed in a Charles Rennie Mackintosh designed school building which was operational between 1906 and 1979, when it closed due to lack of pupil numbers because of urban decay in the immediate catchment area. The building is one of the foremost examples of the Modern (or British Art Nouveau) Style, with intricate flourishes hidden wherever you look. Mackintosh’s design extravagance got him into trouble as the building project went way over budget. The building now serves as a museum covering both educational practices of the early 20th century and the architectural and design works of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
All that then remained for me to do was to make my way back to Glasgow Central Station to catch my 1640 train back to London – again I had a first class seat, with dinner included in the price. Unlike the previous day, the weather when going through the Scottish Southern Uplands was delightful, with the hills dappled in autumnal sunshine. I remember alternating between looking out of the window at the glorious scenery and watching the live coverage on my phone of the Chess World Cup semi-finals from Tbilisi in Georgia, while being served pre-dinner drinks and snacks, and thinking all was well with the world.
Europe Explored 