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I needed a set of keys replaced at short notice so after looking online I discovered a Timpson near me at Byres Road in Glasgow. Oran Mor Church above. They cut or repair new keys for house, office, car, garage etc and also do shoe repairs. It was a busy wee shop as there's not that many shops left that do that kind of stuff. I had a quick attempt online which took ages to jump through all the hoops required plus I couldn't ask face to face questions directly about my set of keys so I got steered towards the most expensive products instead.. .and a three day wait to get them back again. After finding out the correct address I turned up in person and got a much cheaper deal face to face with the guy in the shop. It's a shame the internet and smart phones are destroying the High Street approach worldwide as this is one service where it was much better... and cheaper... in person.
I had two hours to wait to get the results so I took a gentle stroll down Byres Road from the Botanic Gardens to the Partick end, intending to visit the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. One of Glasgow's finest buildings and art collections. Traditional period tenements line Byres Road on both sides, above. Before they were built it used to be open ground here, grass fields, and cattle byres, hence the name. The Curlers Bar, beside the underground station, harks back to that time when a popular ice rink formed every winter in a nearby pond and locals would play against each other on the ice.
So far.. so familiar... Yorkhill District here and student flats.
Then the shock of the new happened. I'd completely forgotten the new buildings rising up, phoenix like, from the ashes of the now gone Western Infirmary, leaving a large gap site. As I've not been down this way for at least six months I didn't realise it would be at such an advanced stage. The next set of photos are all buildings for the University of Glasgow.
The ARC building and new plaza, just completed.
This area also has a mural fence, probably to make the place seem more finished as parts of this district still have several gaps with other buildings planned to fit into them by the looks of it. The featured buildings look almost ready for students but nobody around on this occasion.
Red Bird. Might be a Cardinal... a North American bird if it is.
A busy design. I like it.
Two Icons.
Mushroom house.
School of Health and Wellbeing.. apparently. I didn't need to go in however as I got a mental lift just from the shock of the new buildings. One of the many reasons I like living in a big city is the changes that occur in it year by year. Entire districts transformed, almost overnight.
And amazingly I liked all the new buildings. With three separate universities in the heart of the city and a college as large as a university (City of Glasgow College) you could safety say 'the dear green place' is a university hot spot with thousands of student apartments all over the place.
In my own school days, with my rough council estate background, unless you were very clever ( and I was distinctly average) no-one ever considered you as university material in the slightest. Getting a trade was a big step up for the likes of me unless you, your teacher, or aspirational parents suggested a university placement instead but it certainly wasn't the must have essential option on your CV it is today. But maybe that might change again in the future. There was no need for a university education back then either for ordinary folk as people still had good jobs and could earn a decent living without one in heavy industry, or numerous factories/shipyards/steel works etc... pre Margaret Thatcher that is... and no one had ever heard of zero hours contracts. You normally worked from 8 or 9am to 5pm Mon to Fri with most weekends free. And a reliable wage packet with the same amount in it at the end of every week. A much simpler life back then in many ways, although it could still be hard or boring depending on the work involved.
New buildings on University Avenue.
I thought this was a red building at first... from a distance...
Only to find out it was covered in suspended panels. A neat and elegant idea.
And I finally arrived at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. Famous suspended heads.
I just took a few photos of things that caught my attention out of probably thousands of exhibits. Don't know if you can do so but never spotted any signs up saying it was not allowed. Glasgow and Edinburgh are two very different cities with their own unique attractions but entrance fees are one thing that separates them. I put £2 in the honesty box here. Many of Glasgow's attractions are the same. A voluntary or suggested donation into a box. Many of Edinburgh's best attractions are £20 per person or more to get in. Edinburgh Castle £15 to £22, although that is good value nowadays. £38 for family ticket of two adults and two kids so if you see a few paid attractions in one day it can mount up. By comparison Glasgow is a cheap but friendly date.
Most of the time anyway. Demon Mask.
I took this photo of a leopard seal, a fierce polar predator, as I remembered a story about Ernest Shackleton's ill fated Antarctic expedition, when trapped, stranded, and starving on the ice they dressed the smallest man in the company like a penguin in black gear then had him waddle about on the ice beside open water. Leopard seals are around 8 to 9 feet long and love eating penguins so the ruse worked as a large bold adult flung itself out of the ocean straight at him... whereupon the rest of the crew, hidden out of sight, raced forward and clubbed and stabbed it to death before it could escape... or get its sharp teeth into the fake penguin/ very relieved small man. One of the things that saved them from starvation, allowing them to march into the history books later on.
Kelvingrove interior. A magnificent building. Inside and out.
Ancient Egyptian artifact.
Dog and owner presumably...
A detail of a panel. Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, a fine artist in her own right and wife of that tall chair guy I'd rather not mention. He gets all the credit, usually.
Museum interior.
Ancient walking fish. Note the extra limbs.
Stags fighting...
And on the floor below.. a wee wild haggis. With heather being a foot tall this wee fella can scuttle around in it, almost invisible, which is why I've only ever seen a few in the wild. Just a blur really and a tail. As it's very tasty to eat it is understandably timid and shy of humans.
Kelvin Hall in the sunshine.
University of Glasgow. Gallery of Modern Art and Library.
Kelvingrove Art Gallery from the outside. My head stuffed full of culture and learning I wandered back up to get my keys. They worked fine again. I never missed a university education though or a health and wellbeing certificate. My old mum was my teacher and adviser. " The world's yer apple Son! Go out and peel aff aw the layers to find your fortune... or a pearl inside."
She was a font of wisdom in matters of the heart as well. " Never trust a women Son. They are slippery creatures and you are too gullible for them. Women are like spiders! They will easily trap the likes of you in their web of lies then proceed to eat you alive , bit by tiny bit... until you vanish completely."
So I took that advice to heart... as she should know. She was a woman after all...................... I think.
Well....It was a long time ago.
8 comments:
I like Timpson’s and have used that branch for keys, watch batteries, passport photos, shoe repairs etc. They also have a branch Morrisons at Anniesland with a dry cleaner which I used to use until opened a counter in Tesco Maryhill where i can drop it off. Staff members are always friendly and the company is ethical giving employment to ex-offenders. What’s not to love?
I like the impression of new campus in general but I’m less keen on the individual buildings. The Health and Wellbeing one in particular looks like an orange biscuit tin to me. but it’s named after a woman so I forgive it! And I do take issue with your mum’s description of us!
I take photos in Kelvingrove all the time, I don’t think there are restrictions. The national galleries / museum and City Art Centre in Edinburgh are mostly free apart form some special exhibitions (for which Kelvingrove also charges) so you an have a cheap day put in Edinburgh if you try!
And now my comment is nearly as long as your post 😉.
Mums always know best Anabel :o)
Timpson are very good - we even have two of them in our small town but one is in a booth outside Tesco.
I used to live along Hyndland Drive off Byres Road but very much doubt if I would recognise that area now.
I had heard about the heads but thought that they were white. However, they look to be a terracotta colour - are they made of clay?
I too am a fan of Margaret's work, but it is typical that the wife only gets to play second fiddle.
I didn't know you had Gaelic names on some of your churches in Glasgow (Oran Mor - Great Song or singing)!
What are those suspended panels on that building for?
I think it's almost always quicker to go in person to a Bank, Building Society, shop on the High Street etc than it is to b*gger about online! Much easier too and a better service.
Your Mum's quote
" " The world's yer apple Son! Go out and peel aff aw the layers to find your fortune... "
do you/does she not mean an onion?
Hi Rosemary, you would still recognize the Byres Road district as most of it is unchanged since the 1960s just the new university buildings are recent additions. 50 plus floating heads by artist Sophie Cave. They are white but different coloured lights shine on them. Can't find out what they are made of but it looks like some kind of hard solid plastic, or maybe hollow plastic (if one ever fell off that would be less dangerous to the folk below.)
Hi Carol, I would go to my bank if it wasn't on the other side of the city, miles away. They shut my local branch and Morrison's supermarket, my local branch, are now card only- no cash allowed. A sign of the times.People don't seem to realise in a cashless society you are a potential slave with all your assets and freedoms available to be taken away at the push of a button. The current Post Office Scandal shows you do not have to be guilty of anything. If I.T. says you are in the wrong then you are... or take years trying to prove otherwise... unless you are computer whizz kid Sandra Bullock in the film The Net (made in 1995). An early warning of what could happen.
I think the hanging panels are just decorative... or maybe not.
Do not think that was the original name of that church. When it became an acting, theatre, entertainment, music venue then it changed. It was Kelvinside Parish Church when it was a church.
that makes sense about the church name.
I haven't used cash since Covid - I never liked it and now just think of it as dirty and risky - as well as being a nuisance and damaging all my pockets while weighing a ton! Didn't mind so much when there were pound notes but won't use those pound coins at all unless it's to put in a carwash machine (and, thankfully, one of ours locally has now changed to cards!
Everyone is different. I just like the feel of it and using cash to pay for things, even though I've never had very much of it and on the odd occasion I have got a lot of it something always seems to take it away again ( car repairs, bills, electrical goods replacement etc) so I treat it like the treasure it is, placing it out on my bedside table at night to admire it in all it's golden glory, fagin style, to bask it its shiny warmth. Can't do that with a card.
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