Glasgow
Mid-November 2018
We’ve now been here for 3 months and have settled in Glasgow’s West End, in a suburb called Partick. It’s an upmarket student area, due to its proximity to Glasgow University. Nearby suburbs include: Kelvinhall, Hillhead, and Kelvinbridge, which together form an outer city hub, based around Byres Road and Great Western Road. The area is filled with small bars, pubs, cafés and eateries. It has a very similar vibe to Leederville or Mt Lawley back in Perth.
This is my attempt at a virtual walking tour of my new home town. Wish me luck.
Starting at nearby Partick Cross and walking north along Byres road, you quickly come across The University Café, a notable local institution. Having been owned by the same Italian family for generations, it offers a strange mix of delicious homemade gelato and typical Scottish fayre - fish and chips, mushy peas, and fried haggis. Grab an Irn Bru and you’re set.
Continuing briefly up Byres road and then walking east along University Avenue, Glasgow University sits atop a hill overlooking Glasgow proper. Built in gorgeous Victorian tradition, it’s well worth a visit just to see. The university also has a quirky (and free) little museum called the Hunterian within it, which has a wild array of natural history exhibits, medical oddities, and scientific artefacts. If you know your history, the university also has an illustrious honour roll, whose names you can see dotted around campus - Adam Smith, James Watts, Lord Kelvin, James Lister, and James Wilson to name a few.
Clockwise above: Glasgow University interior, Dumbarton road (West), Glasgow University courtyard, Glasgow University Professor's Square, Dumbarton road (East),
Walking further east and downhill from the University’s façade, you enter Kelvingrove Park, which is bisected by Kelvin Way. Nearby is the Kelvingrove Museum, one of my favourite museums in the world. The building is built from stunning sandstone in Spanish Baroque style and dominates the park it is situated in. It has a wonderfully eclectic mix of exhibits, devoted, but not limited to: natural history, Egypt, highland art, local Glasgow and greater Scottish history, Dutch & French art, and sculpture. It also houses Dali’s famous Christ of St. John of the Cross, and has a peculiar, but highly enjoyable, organ recital at 1pm daily – when we were there last the organist performed a Harry Potter, Disney, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones medley.
Above left to right: Remembrance Day marches in Kelvingrove park, Statue of Lord Kelvin.
Travelling east southeast from the bottom of Kelvin Way, you find Argyle road, one of the main streets of Glasgow that travels east to west. A few minutes along you enter Finnieston, a rather hip suburb with a mix of highland-style pubs, modern restaurants, Asian eateries, and a variety of bars – ranging from the Kelvingrove Café, serving high-brow cocktails, to a niche bar called Lebowskis that only serves white Russians. Boho-chic and off-beat, the area reminds me of Fremantle, or perhaps Fitzroy in Melbourne.
Above left to right: The Hidden Lane, Lebowski's, The Hidden Lane courtyard.
Along from Finnieston, and walking down its eponymous street, you reach the Clyde River, which carves the city in to north and south. Following this east for about a mile, you reach Glasgow City Centre.
Bustling, without being busy, Glasgow is a modern, working class city; gorgeous, yet undignified; cultured, yet irreverent; and filled to the brim with attitude.
Relatively small, but somewhat sprawled, Glasgow is set along 3 main streets that link to one another; Sauchiehall, Buchanan, and Argyle. Like any modern city, there is a good mix of eating, shopping, and drinking to be had here. No grand surprises if you’ve travelled through UK or European high streets before.
That being said, the local buskers are top class and come out rain, hail, or shine. A few of the buskers in particular are extremely well-known and are parochially embraced by the locals - Leo the Silent Raver and the Tin Bin Man come to mind. Give them a google.
Notable central locales include George Square, The Glasgow School of Art (which recently burnt down for the second time under strange circumstances), Glasgow Green, St Mungo Cathedral, the Necropolis, and the Provand’s Lordship - the oldest building in the city, built in 1471. I often reflect on how young Australia is as a country - it's hard not to when you come across buildings that were built several centuries prior to Federation.
We’ve spent the last few months making sure we’ve seen all of these sights and if you visit, we’d be more than happy to show you around too.
Regarding us…
We’ve both had success finding work; I’m currently working at a private Physiotherapy clinic called Physioflexx (which is an astounding coincidence since my last workplace was Flex Physiotherapy) and work between clinics in Milngavie, Stewarton, and Prestwick. Amy is currently working in Cross House Hospital in Kilmarnock.
We’ve kept busy trying to make the most of our free time, and have done day trips to: Dumbarton, Culross, and Overtoon House; visited Doune, Blackness, and Midhope Castles; enjoyed a pie, pint, and play at Oran Mor; returned to Edinburgh with friends from Perth, Linda & Pete, to see Scotland vs Fiji in Rugby; ran the Great Scottish Run; and done our best to acquaint ourselves with many of the local pubs.
We still don’t feel too settled, but these things take time. The fact that we now have our own place (Thanks Jo!), a local gym, jobs, and a day to day routine really helps though.
Every day it feels a little more homely in the West End.
JC
“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”
Augustine of Hippo
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