Glasgow City of Architecture and Culture

Charles Rennie Mackintosh, outstanding architect, furniture designer, and painter, is one of the most innovative figures of the early 20th century. Fittingly Glasgow is honouring him throughout 2006 with celebrations of his work with over 100 events at over 30 settings.

In reality though, the celebrations started in 1999 when the Lighthouse opened as Scotland's centre for architecture and design. Mackintosh himself had designed the building in 1895 for other purposes but the building has proved adaptable. A tower originally containing a water tank for dousing fires but now incorporating a spiral staircase makes the name ‘Lighthouse’ appropriate.

The forth floor hosts a permanent Mackintosh Interpretation Centre. A viewing platform on the 6th level shows when looked across Glasgow, the city’s just reasons for celebrating its architecture. Galleries in the centre educate visitors on the aims, achievements, and problems facing architects. The centre has an interactive, creative play environment for young children and a dedicated education floor extending to 1000 square metres, including workshop, computer laboratory, gallery space, and an innovative project called the Urban Learning Space. There is also a conference centre, shop, and two cafes. Since opening the centre has welcomed well over 1 million visitors.

Mackintosh pioneered the Modern Movement in Britain. Artistic collaboration with his wife Margaret Macdonald, whom he first met at Glasgow School of Art, extended his frontiers. He took his inspiration from Scottish traditions and blended them with the flourish of Art Nouveau and the simplicity of Japanese forms. By skillful exploitation of natural and artificial lighting and use of detail, his buildings are notable for their elegance and fitness for purpose. Some of his well-known pieces of furniture have become icons.

Mackintosh's died in London in 1928 but his designs gained in popularity in the decades following his death. Born in 1868 near Glasgow Cathedral, he is one of the most celebrated architects of his generation, although not all of his designs made it through to the building stage in his time. His plans for a House for an Art Lover only became bricks and mortar in Glasgow's Bellahouston Park during 1996.

The University of Glasgow helps display Mackintosh work. It rebuilt a terraced house he had designed which now forms part of the University's Hunterian Museum. Inside are displays of his and Margaret's work.

Mackintosh designed the Glasgow School of Art in Renfrew Street when only 28 years old. The outside and interior, furnishings, and decoration of this Art Nouveau building, built between 1897 and 1909, reflect his genius. Architects and designers from all over the world come to admire it.

A block away in Sauchiehall Street is Mackintosh's ‘Willow Tearoom’ designed in 1903 for Kate Cranston who made tearooms fashionable. Restored to its original Mackintosh Art Nouveau design, right down to the decorated tables and chairs gave us an interesting place for a snack. Upstairs we found further displays.
Across the city there are many more examples of his work.

Sitting on the edge of Pollock Park with a prize herd of highland cattle grazing nearby sits a custom-built, ultramodern, building of pink sandstone and stainless steel. With walls of glass, which look onto woodlands, its circular concrete columns complement the acres of wood in walls and ceilings. Encompassing open airy spaces and intimate areas of seclusion, it displays the eclectic Burrell Collection to its maximum advantage. The museum displays a rotating selection of around 3,000 of the 8,000 items at any one time.

The airy courtyard near the entrance is my favourite parts of the building. The Warwick Vase, a Roman marble urn once owned by the Emperor Hadrian, sits in the middle surrounded by sculptures including some by Rodin. On three sides of the courtyard are reproductions of some of the rooms in Burrell's house, Hutton Castle at Berwick-upon-Tweed, furnished in Gothic style. You can see a vast aggregation of furniture, textiles, ceramics, stained glass, silver, art objects, and pictures in the dining room, hall, and drawing room. Their cluttered fussy interiors contrast sharply with the modernity of the building containing them.

The art objects amassed in a lifetime by the Glasgow shipping magnate Sir William Burrell could warrant a full day of examination. The building itself uses some parts of the collection—stone doorways, such as the Hornby Portal, window surrounds and gargoyle type things—in the architecture of the building. Visitors pass through 12th century stone arches to find more delights on the other side. Old stained glass panels are suspended down one side of the gallery, hung on the glass panelled wall of the wood framed building so they can be viewed against the natural light of the green and gracious parkland outside.

Wander round the collections. There's everything from ancient Roman and Egyptian and Chinese ceramics, bronzes, and jade to Georgian porcelain. There's needlepoint and embroidery from Tudor to Victorian age, carpets, huge tapestries and suits of armour. There’s medieval art, alabasters, stained glass, English oak furniture and modern sculpture, including works by Epstein and Rodin. There’s European paintings, including works by Degas ‘The Rehearsal’ and Sir Henry Raeburn's ‘Miss Macartney’.

Sir William Burrell was a shipping magnate, and a collector. He collected art and museum pieces and catalogued the whole thing in school exercise books. He bequeathed the collection to the city of Glasgow in 1944 with the provision that they erect a building for it outside of the grime and soot of the city. It took Glasgow 30 years to decide where to put the building before deciding on Pollock Park.

There is a cafe on site, and you can roam through the surrounding park, 5km (3 miles) south of the River Clyde. You can get there via buses 45, 48, and 57 from Union Street.

This collection is a must see for visitors to the city. Whether its art, history or just a place to relax it is the place to go. Its free!

Imagine owning the whole south side of Glasgow. The Maxwell family did for almost 700 years until well into the last century. Their ancestral home, Pollok House in its 361 acres of park and woodland sits only minutes away from the city centre. In 1966 family member Anne Maxwell Macdonald presented the mansion to the city of Glasgow. The National Trust for Scotland now manages it.

The mansion designed by William Adam in 1752 is now the historic jewel at the heart of Pollock Park. It overflows with collections of Spanish art, antique furniture, silverware and ceramics, and an impressive library. The Country Park itself offers woodland walks and cycle tracks. The mansion shares Pollock Country Park with the Burrell Collection another spectacular compilation of art and antiques. The short walk between, past Highland cattle grazing verdant pastures, is a delight.

There is always something going on in Pollock House. On some Saturdays couples are wed in the library overlooking the garden. The magical quality of the Christmas celebrations at the house offers something special. There are also regular antiques fairs and special children's events. At the weekend staff and family members dress in period costume giving an entertaining glimpse into what life was like in the Victorian era.

The interiors of the house are spectacular with marble and mahogany hallway and period ceramics, silverware and furnishings on display. The numerous paintings on view contain important works by the English poet and artist William Blake, and an impressive collection of Spanish paintings, including works by El Greco and Goya, including the famous ‘Lady in a Fur Wrap’.

Sir William Stirling Maxwell (1818-1878) collected most of the paintings. He became an authority on the art and history of Spain, and published the first reference work in English on the subject. He had the paintings hung to complement the interiors.

The furnishings are mostly eighteenth century and there are several beautiful and interesting rooms to explore, including the “upstairs” quarters of the family. Take a look round the servants’ quarters and you will see the grand scale needed to keep a large family home running. Look for the photograph of the Victorian servants and count the number of people employed. The head housekeeper’s sitting room is now the Trust gift shop, which includes a food shop, and the former dining room for the more “important” servants is now a bookshop.

Once you've built up your appetite head for the Edwardian kitchen. It now forms an award-winning restaurant serving such culinary delights as home made soups and baking. If preferred you can sit outside in a small courtyard.

Before leaving explore the beautifully kept gardens with their collection of over 1,000 species of rhododendrons. Walk also along the White Cart River to the farm buildings to see the heavy draft horses and the water powered sawmill. Although not now including the south side of Glasgow the well-manicured grounds are still extensive and well worth exploring.

The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall officially opened in October 1990 just in time to host events for Glasgow's year as European City of Culture. Built when Pat Lally was Provost the building rapidly fell prey to Glasgow humour and gained the nickname of "Lally's Palais."

Glasgow became UK City of Architecture and Design in 1999. Perhaps the Concert Hall helped it gain this award. Certainly viewed from Buchanan Street it has an imposing frontage. Along side is a massive shopping mall, the Buchanan Galleries, and the city’s bus station is conveniently situated close by. Not so convenient is the city’s subway system although it runs underneath. A massive rubber membrane built into the floor effectively dampens out noise and vibration from the trains.

The two main auditoria can accommodate 2500. A clever design feature is that the seating tiers can be moved hydraulically to suit whatever layout suits the show. Throughout the year the Concert Hall features a diverse programme of events and is also used for non-music events, such as graduation ceremonies for nearby Glasgow Caledonian University.

The Concert Hall is now one of Scotland's most prestigious musical venues, and is a much-accepted landmark in the city centre. It really comes into its own during Glasgow’s annual celebration of "Celtic Connections" during January. It is the biggest winter festival of its kind in the world and features artists from around the globe alongside the best Scottish talent in 12 venues across the city.

We regularly go to events at the Concert Hall and recently attended a performance by the Soweto Gospel Choir. They are touring the world and are a must see performance. Direct from South Africa, the 26-strong Gospel Choir is an awe-inspiring vocal ensemble, performing in eight different languages, in a programme of tribal, traditional, and popular African and Western gospel. Although spiritual anyone can enjoy this show.

In their bright, multi-coloured smocks and swaying interchange movements, fronted by high stepping solo dancers, they resemble a singing kaleidoscope. They draw on the best talent from the many churches and communities, in and around Soweto, performing earthy rhythms and rich harmonies. As they are also celebrating 10 years of democracy and freedom in South Africa the performance seemed especially poignant.

Rhythmically exciting, they fill the Concert Hall with just 20 voices, handclaps, and two drummers. They effortlessly switched between languages and moved from traditional African melodies to more conventional gospel arrangements of familiar songs in English.

Most of the choir have solos, which demonstrate great variety in tone and style. Some are illustrated with dance and the younger men compete in the "I-can-kick-higher-than-you-can" dancing. Most songs are devotional, but there’s nothing straight laced about the booty-shaking dance to a wicked tribal drum-beat.

Pride shines as they sing their rousing national anthem Nkosi Sikele I’Afrika to a standing audience. This Choir proclaims the success of their country since democracy to the whole world during their tours.

The Glasgow Tenement is a time capsule of tenement life at the beginning of the 20th century. Tenements were Scotland’s mass building method of the industrial era. Continual buildings, subdivided into houses and flats, snaked along streets. They developed a language and a culture all their own. A sign of being a better class of person was to live in a "wally close"–a tiled corridor leading into the premise. The "hurley" was the bed on castors, which was kept below the box bed off the kitchen. Many Glasgwegians crammed into such tenements from the middle of 19th century. Many still live in them but with modern mod cons.

Shorthand typist Miss Agnes Toward moved to this Glasgow Tenement with her mother in 1911. She lived here until hospitalised in 1965. During those 54 years she never threw anything out so her furniture and personal possessions present a fascinating picture of domestic life in the tenements.

There is an exhibition on the ground floor documenting tenement life during Agnes’ time. It contains memorabilia from Miss Toward’s life. Her period here extended over two world wars and the break up of Empire so it was turbulent times. The collection includes World War II ration books, letters, bills, tickets stubs and photographs from steamer trips down the Clyde to its holiday Resorts.

Upstairs you have to ring the bell to enter as though you were visiting Agnes. The flat gives every impression of still being inhabited with a cluttered hearth and range, kitchen utensils, recess beds, framed religious tracks and sewing machine all original.

The flat built in 1892 is a typical late Victorian example. Its four rooms retain most of their original features such as the box bed in the kitchen, kitchen range, coalbunker, bathroom, and gas fire. During her period here electric lighting was the only major change to the home. After the house was sold to the National Trust for Scotland in 1982 they replaced the original gas lighting fittings and it is now a museum of home life in industrial Glasgow.

Listen to the hiss of the gaslights and the ticking of the grandfather clock and you’ll be transported back in time. The table is set for afternoon tea. There is also a rosewood piano, which is a sure sign of Victorian gentility.

The guides delight in telling all sorts of tidbits about tenement life in Victorian times–many have lived in tenements themselves, and some still do. This museum is a must-see if you're interested in the history of the city.

You will find the Tenement House at 145 Buccleuch St. in the Garnethill area of Glasgow. There is unfortunately no provision for car parking and the best advice is to park in a city centre car park and walk or get public transport to Buccleuch Street.

Admission is free for National Trust members. Other Admissions: adults £3.50, concession £2.50, family (2 adults, 6 children) £9.50