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A collection of photos mostly set around 'waste ground.' I noticed during the various recent Covid 19 lockdowns that several areas of waste ground in my own quarter of the City of Glasgow, after lying derelict for years, sometimes decades, had construction and building projects occurring... all at once in a rush. This was probably to keep the economy going when most indoor jobs had to stop or work from home.
One stretch of so called 'waste ground' I've cherished since moving to this side of the River Clyde is this one, above, lying between The Renfrew Ferry at Yoker and the Docks at Clydebank.
Cyclists crossing the River Clyde at Renfrew. The last remaining ferry on the upper Clyde where once a dozen or so operated when factories and shipyards lining both banks needed tens of thousands of workers to travel the shortest distance between tenement flats to construction sites. Some came by bus, train or underground but thousands more used the numerous ferries, winter and summer, to cross the river. Generations of tramping lines of foot soldiers travelling to work or returning home turned the streets and river black and wore down the hundred year old stone tenement stairs visibly thin in the middle with multi generational metal clad feet. I have dim memories of that time before the age of ten in the early 1960s and it wasn't swinging in any way. Working class Glasgow was a very black city then. The buildings were black with 100 years of constant Industrial Revolution soot and grime landing on them every day. The workers were mostly black as well but white underneath... caps, boots, trousers, jackets and faces not yet joined the musical London trend for vibrant colour and individuality. Thousands of them looked identical in either dark well used overalls or hard wearing donkey jackets. Muted shades of coal, oil, and dirt the uniform appearance in work wear for factory and shipyard males. The 4:00 pm darkness of the winter months only heightening the effect of an army of shadows passing half unseen through an often misty, or smog ridden chimney dependent smokestack city. Flat capped vampires of the 7:00am to 5:00pm treadmill setting off in the cold dark then coming home by the moon and stars. Only large football crowds, pouring out after a game, mirror that human entry and exodus now in 2023 when each factory gate then employed similar numbers.
With the abandonment of most of the shipyards, manufacturing factories, and other works large areas of empty ground on both banks of the River Clyde had decades to change into something else. Waste ground. As seen here.
Yet it's not really wasted, especially in summer. This area is awash with red clover, gorse, dog rose, thistles and vetch. In short it's a nature reserve within the city and unlike most of the man made strips of sown wild flowers, trendy in recent times, this large patch comes up like this every year whereas the sown strips last one single summer before getting smothered out by competing non flowering weeds.
It also has plenty of places for animals to hide.... rabbits, mice, stoats, weasels, shrews etc... and not many people come here.
In high summer it's alive with insects and bees going about their business... A cricket or grasshopper is in this photo, bottom middle. A green lung in an area that does not have a local park close by, within walking distance.
So in it's own small way it's a jungle paradise in the heart of a built up area.
Meet the animals. I cheated here slightly as this mural is from another walk around nearby Drumchapel on another day of waste ground adventures. A different kind of jungle... obviously.
It's a soft play barn but in an area of no longer used, run down buildings near Drumchapel Shopping Centre, an outlier of that complex being demolished so I captured it just in case it vanished as well in the general clear out of this area as it made me laugh. The eyes have it.
Back in the Yoker waste ground area with a variety of wonderful wild weeds.
I mention this because the new million plus swing bridge is to be built across the River Clyde here not far from this path so I hope they will keep some of this wild land exactly as it is now. Some of it has already been bulldozed and covered over where the bridge will run but it would be nice if they left this middle section as it is now. For wildlife.
At the moment, being abandoned and wild, few people walk in this area, mostly adult males and very few women or children come here unless they have a large dog for protection so a proper safe riverside path leading to the new bridge would open it up to the many and not just the brave few but I hope they keep the wild interior section intact, seen above.
I for one and I'm sure many locals would miss it if it disappeared. For me it's as good as any public park in the city and as a recent report found out the risk of mental illness or dementia type onset is lessened in built up areas if they have frequent access to green areas, parks and water a short walk from the house so maybe they could balance both. New bridge and footpath(s) but save the wild open space as well.
Derelict shed at Yoker gets a new look. Apprehensive face.
New bridge construction goes ahead. Late summer 2022.
Construction works and ground clearance advances further into 'waste ground' clover meadows.
The cleared route of the new road carving through woodlands on the Renfrew side of the river.
Male Goosander.
Wild Rasperries on waste ground.
A colour splurge.
Spring catkins in a very mild February. 2023.
Winter sunshine on crocus. Moments of Pleasure.
