On Tuesday of this week, we traveled by train for an hour out of Edinburgh to Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city (600,000) and the third largest city in the UK. We had a bit of a time finding the I-site to determine how to schedule our day, as the city maps have an old location. Luckily, Bob had taken a photo of a gps map which had the correct location, so we weren’t wandering aimlessly for too long.
We decided that doing some of the walking tour to view works by the Scottish architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, might be a good way to get a good overview of much of the central district. Mackintosh lived from 1868 to 1928 and was the best known representative of Art Nouveau in the UK. He was born in Glasgow and met his wife, Margaret MacDonald also an artist, at the University of Glasgow School of Art. The did a lot of collaborative projects.
We started our walking tour at the Hunterian Museum on the University of Glasgow campus. This is housed in the Glasgow home of the Mackintoshes that he redesigned to better align with his artistic vision. We actually took a tour of the rooms that have his architecture, furniture and design features some of which also include Margaret’s painting or metal etchings. Very cool and reminded us a bit of some of the Frank Lloyd Wright properties that we have toured. Also, along the route we were able to see the Willow Tea Room for which he designed the interior and furnishings, and the Lighthouse which was a building in which he use to work but which has been converted into a Centre for Architecture and Design. The Lighthouse had information on the history of the building, Mackintoshes work in Glasgow, other art exhibits, and a research area. However, one of the features that we really enjoyed was the rooftop terrace that provided lovely views of Glasgow. The biggest disappointment, however, was not being able to see the University of Glasgow’s School of Art library which is considered his masterpiece but which burned in 2014 and is now closed for renovation.
On our walkabout, we also stopped at the Riverside Museum, a part of the Glasgow Museum of transport. It is housed in a stunning building designed by the Iraqi-born UK architect Zaha Hadid, who sadly just passed away a few weeks ago. The museum opened in 2011. It covers all types of transportation from bikes to trams to motorcycles and cars, as well as boats. The sailing ship Glenlee is docked behind the museum and open for touring as well.
We popped into the Glasgow city chambers to look at the architecture in there as well as learn a bit more about the city. The current Glasgow City Council structure only came into existence in 1996 following an Act of Parliament which reorganized the local government structure in Scotland for the third time this century. The motto for the city is “Let Glasgow flourish.” It’s name is derived from Saint Mungo, who lived in the early 6th century AD, who named the area Glasgui which translates as “dear green space.”
Finally, we ended the day with some lovely Spanish tapas at Barcas in the very cool looking Princes Square shopping center.
Peckish Travels 