A Glasgow City Walk. How to elevate the Glasgow Mural Trail to a Whole New Level.

                                                   ALL PHOTOS CLICK FULL SCREEN.

 I had a walk round Glasgow recently as I read somewhere it was looking "rather grubby". I'm sure as a tourist parts of Glasgow do look grubby or shabby but having had a walk there recently it doesn't to me seem any different to any other time in the last 30 years. I've seen it looking worse.... Put it that way. Barclays bank complex above.

 

Like any large city it has it's good and bad parts but nothing to the extent it had before... from the 1930s through the 1960s to the late 1990s, the usual grim legacy of outlying failed council estates in most UK post heavy industry, Post Industrial decline cityscapes..... rebuilding into something else.... now that the worst council estates have been demolished or modernized more than a decade ago. So compared to that... it's a lot better. Plenty of green shoots visible. Habitat building above.

 

It depends where you go in Glasgow City Centre as to how it effects your impressions of the place and your mood. I always like to get off at Anderston Train Station as it deposits you from the bowels of the earth , via Charon the boat person and my golden ticket pass, to re-enter the world again at this fair portal. This part of Glasgow I enjoy as it feels very modern and happening, always new buildings springing up in this area.. Moda Living Complex here. Above. Part of the city financial district.

 

Elmbank Street School getting a facelift. This district is the one getting a facelift at the moment. Plenty of traffic cones and road restrictions in this area but once it's stopped being a building site it will look nice again. Modernize a few dated 1960s buildings to complement the rest of Glasgow's financial district as it is expanding in recent years from its traditional base in the city around Bothwell Street.

 Sandman Signature, Moda Living Complex and Malmaison together.

 

Barclays Bank crossed the river into Tradeston to set the foundations for a new financial sector there and now, above, J.P Morgan (new bank/ Global Technology Centre.) has nabbed a prestigious spot on Argyle Street just beside Central Station, an area that can look quite shabby sometimes, underneath the railway bridge, so a big boost to that location one would think. This is the second J.P Morgan building in this district.

 J.P Morgan. Global Technology Centre/Bank/ Financial Institution...

 

So it was mainly a walk around Glasgow to see any new buildings I might have missed and any new murals. The  new 4 star AC hotel here, above. 

AC Hotel near John Street. Brand new building.

 

City of Glasgow College. This district also feels very modern and spacious.

 

But with a few iconic old buildings and some newish murals. Side by side.

 One I'd not captured yet. Still bagging... just different things these days.

 

I also took in several Clutha murals I had not seen before. 

 Mermaid Mural.

This district was ok as well. Not too grubby with an interesting mix of  different architectural styles  from all different time periods from Victorian to modern. Of course sunshine and blue skies always helps lift the mood and this place as well and on this day I was delighted to be here...

A close up of the clutha mural.

 

The former fish market. Like any old city Glasgow has a fine collection of elaborately carved sandstone buildings, among the finest anywhere.  So when you are in the city centre it pays to look up....

 

Glasgow City Chambers. Free Guided tours inside. Well worth a visit. Open Mon to Fri  8:30am  to 5:00pm.  The guided tours at 10:30am and 2:30pm Mon to Fri are really worth going on. A magnificent building inside and out.  Completed in 1888.

 John Street.

 Slightly wonky looking spire. Italia Centre.

 Power lifting for 150 years or so.

The view from the financial district towards the sunlit uplands of suburbia... where you might have a house. I did not like working in an office much so luckily most of my jobs involved being out in the sunlit uplands of the beautiful South... and elsewhere... either working outside, driving vans, going to peoples houses, work sites, etc...learning every street in Central Scotland... almost. A good working knowledge anyway... that came in useful... at times...

I mostly stayed away from the square mile of shopping streets as that did not interest me.

 

The only place where I noticed Glasgow being grubby was along the main waterfront area. Since the pandemic and various lock-downs, (when I suppose the residents of the inner city districts were trapped to this location for months at a time) the night-time darkness and relative quiet of this waterfront walkway became a magnet for graffiti artists I presume. Some are just a mess...

 

While other panels have merit...

 A concerned citizen...and local dog walker...

 

 Or unexpectedly unusual... or funny.... or not.  The relationship experts mural perhaps?

 But the overall look along here is a mess.

 

I know they are intending on doing something with this waterfront area which has looked like this for years and I know local governments are always cash strapped but I believe I might have a partial solution to this problem.. and a cheap one for any site in the city looking "grubby".

 

And it is simply this... turn it into a proper public artwork for not much money at all. Either open it up as a free mural space or pay good local artists to do something they already love... painting... PS there's more going on in this example than you might think.... I call it... 'the portal'.  Click on it.

Another old building in St Enoch Square looking rather shabby. Not many city centre buildings look like this but a few do exist. Dotted here and there.

 

And this one is right next to brand new hotels  who would probably prefer this look...

 

 

.....With Glasgow as an international arts venue right beside their hotel, several of which  have sprung up in recent years all along this waterfront ....new hotels that is.

 

Only to have this right on the doorstep....

So I suggest a radical... and fairly cheap solution...

This building has been empty for years...

So why can't it look like this? in the meantime?.... Using Mediterranean /sun drenched Italian village influence in both distressed pastel and primary colours, all carefully chosen to match and blend together. Tip.  Save money... just keep the graffiti on it. Incidentally, the black panel tells the story of the biblical fall and rise of Lucifer, the angel of Jet, represented by a head chopped bloody bat/human crawling down the building and a bunch of coloured balloons... going upwards as he/ she/ they.... falls.., to earth...

Or it could be anything... it's deliberately ambiguous. A hint of mystery in it.

Do you not think people would visit the city just to see these new additions to the mural trail. Entire buildings painted. A selected building trail as well as murals but only a few old buildings that look really tired anyway... or are listed.... so around for a while. And buildings that have been painted in the past so no damage to the structure involved. Just slap it on.

 

My eye was also caught by this building. Lion Chambers.  Underrated, underused, derelict, yet still listed. A cracking old building in its day but tired looking now. I'll bet most folk walk right past it and barely know it exists here at all. Never look up at it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_Chambers

I don't know about ownership details, funding etc... I just have a vision of it looking like this instead...

 

Would you look up at it now?.... To save scaffolding costs you could just hang a painted sheet out the windows then tie it on securely, similar to the ones that used to adorn three gable ends at the Linthouse end of the Clyde Tunnel. Be Bold Glasgow! Add a splash of the exotic into Glasgow's already vibrant art world! This could work. Believe me. Or could you adapt a drone for spray painting buildings so you didn't need scaffolding or humans touching/entering them at all.

 

I have a dream people... I have a dream.....

 Even messy looking alleys can be given an upgrade...using this same approach. A couple of guys or gals with paint brushes. Their own ideas. Broad strokes.... or thin ones.

 

We already have a great asset in the River Clyde flowing through the city...

 

 

This waterfront could and should be a fantastic opportunity for developers but so far it's been underused for decades. And this part can look grubby for visitors....passing the graffiti walls... and yet really beautiful at the same time. As seen here.

The Gorbals district. River Clyde near Glasgow Green.

 

....and with so many new hotels along its riverside frontage Glasgow deserves better than the waterfront it has at present... only a stone's throw from this spot.

 

Glasgow is already an interesting city... and popular judging by the dozens of new hotels opened in the last ten years....

 

 

with loads of new architecture, or refurbished buildings as seen here, above.

 

Full of modern glass and steel totems to commerce.

while also retaining a fine collection of period architecture throughout the city.

 That can catch you by surprise sometimes.

 As well as it's famous mural trail...... but on a grey, wet, cold, dark, miserable day in winter....

 

Sunshine colours are the dug's bollocks!!!!!!... Glasgow... You know it makes sense! Feel free... use this idea please....if it's practical to do so.  Pastels are the new pink....