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A Sunday a few weeks ago down The Barras Market with Alan. This will be low on words as I have a keyboard problem to do with predictive text. Probably an auto upgrade or something or I've pressed an F12345678910 etc key by accident on the keyboard and messed it up somehow.
I had a better, longer post than this ready to go a few days ago and one jumbled key stroke lost the lot. Hours of work gone in an instant. Which really pissed me off. So this is a second attempt to see if it will upload this time.
Nowadays The Barras have to compete with Amazon, Charity Shops, Car boot sales etc so it's not the force it once was but it was busy enough on the Sunday we were there. A sunny or dry day helps the atmosphere. Rain does not.
It has a collection of street stalls and undercover areas and it's the undercover areas that are the most interesting. An almost Dickensian warren of passageways through these sheds.
Started by this woman in the early 1920s who hired out carts ( or barrows) in this vicinity between the Gallowgate and London Road centred around Bain Street. Just East of The Saltmarket.
The Bay City Rollers here might help to date this artwork.
A Gazza mural outside The Barras. The Bride....
Traffic cones permanently stuck on certain statue's heads is a Glasgow oddity. The council used to remove them but eventually gave up.
Maybe because of all the other outlets, charity shops etc The Barras these days has had to cater for the unusual. Creepy stuff. WWII memorabilia, clothes, old vinyl records, Film posters, bric a brac etc.
But we also went round some of the period buildings in this area as well, including this church.
Which was nice inside.
Open on Barras time so mainly Sat and Sunday.
Good selection of stained glass windows inside.
Like any street market it sometimes has a slightly edgy feel to it as this mural maybe depicts but even in its current incarnation there still is nothing like it anywhere else in Scotland, especially wandering inside the sheds ( male and female toilets are available inside the main shed area.)
Period style sign. This was the main reason I came here in the 1960s as a child. My mum got fish/ seafood and dishes, plates, cutlery/tablecloths, curtains here and my dad just liked browsing the various stalls for bargains. Nowadays though I go to local charity shops for bargains but it is still interesting here in its own way. For the history and also for the fact very few places like this still exist in the modern world.
It had a few surprises. This yellow doorway led into a large undercover area of the weird and unusual that I've not seen anywhere else.
Movie prop material .... or a goth's bedroom perhaps.
Not really my taste. But creative.
We then wandered along Argyle Street for a tour of several art galleries.
Where Alan noticed some of the homeless had triangular insulated sleeping pouches instead of tents... which would be warmer in winter I'd imagine although you can't sit up in them.
Grey heron here.
Argyle Street Murals.
Robotic Street Entertainer.
Famous Glasgow TV Character. Rab. C. Nesbit.
An old favourite as it might not be here much longer. Looking faded now.
By this time we had been in several art galleries along Argyle Street and Queen Street before we ended up at the GoMA, seen here, above. Gallery of Modern Art. I did like some oil paintings in another gallery but the best one was £45,000 to buy so not for my thin wallet and too big for my walls anyway. I've never been much of a fan of a lot of modern art. Dribbled paint on canvas, unmade beds, or animals sliced in half then pickled leaves me unmoved so most of the stuff in the GoMA over the decades has not provoked much of a response in me. Note the traffic cone at the GoMA, above, which is what the earlier photo was a direct reference to.
I did like this though. There was an exhibition on inside but this was my highlight. Which was only a bare tree to start with that visitors stuck coloured dots on if they liked the exhibition. So they made it themselves in other words. Says something when this was my personal favourite. Elsewhere we also took in a vintage rock/pop photo gallery and paintings by several famous people like Billy Connolly and Bob Dylan. B.C's work I'd seen before on TV but Dylan's Americana paintings were new to me.
And I liked the toilet art in the GoMA. Funnily enough years ago I was in Edinburgh's Gallery of Modern Art and the best thing in there was the colourful toilets as well, which I also took a photo of.
And I've always liked the GoMA interior of the building... rather than the exhibits inside. I used to go here when it was a public library as I've always loved books, films and art, still do, and this place had a very good selection as did Rutherglen Library. Back in the day.
GoMA interior Staircase.
For visitors if you do go to The Barras several other places are within easy walking distance.
Five minutes stroll away is Glasgow Cross and the High Street, seen above. Ten minutes walk up that takes you to Glasgow Cathedral, The Necropolis, Museum of Religious Life etc... The Merchant City District and Glasgow City Chambers ( daily tours inside) is another option nearby... as is Glasgow Green and River Clyde walkway. Also ten minutes from The Barras. As is the Calton heritage trail. So plenty to see, even on a Sunday.
Watching Bob Dylan's biography a couple of nights ago about his early life was interesting. I liked Blowing in the Wind and Mr Tambourine Man but a full album of Bob's strident semi preaching delivery was a bit too much for me as I preferred the gentler tones of Donovan, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, and Melanie Safka. I still have many of their LPs in my collection.
Which brings me to this. A beautiful song and video that mirrors my own feelings about 60 plus winters spent in Scotland although in central Canada winters can easily drop to 40 below. And she did get out... to a warmer climate. So very appropriate for the arrival of a new Spring in 2025.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA2OYBDXXsQ
