Glasgow Highlights

Glasgow captured my heart when I was 17, long before it was 'fashionable' or had been judged a 'European City of Culture'. In the spring of 2002 we decided to see if it would live up to those rose-tinted memories.

Flights are now quick, cheap and easy - we went from Bristol with Go, since taken over by EasyJet. You can buy a return bus ticket into the city centre at Glasgow airport - with Go, there was a discount available on this.

Sights

We only had a few days and decided to spend a major part of the time focusing on Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Mackintosh sites include:

The Lighthouse, 11 Mitchell Lane - 'The former Glasgow Herald Building is now home to Scotland's award winning Centre for Architecture, Design and the City. The Mackintosh Interpretation Centre contains original objects, interactive touch screens and architectural models. The Mackintosh tower with its spiral staircase provides magnificent rooftop views of Glasgow.' (CRM Society Web Site)

We made this our first visit and found it gave us an overview of Mackintosh's life, work and the techniques he used. There were also other interesting exhibitions, those rooftop views and an excellent cafe.

The Glasgow School of Art, 167 Renfrew Street - The best known Mackintosh building. Although this is still a working Art School, guided tours are available 11am - 5pm weekdays and 10am - 1pm on Saturdays.

House for an Art Lover, Ballahouston Park, 10 Dumbreck Road - don't miss this! In 1901, Mackintosh entered a competition to design a 'House for an Art Lover'. The house was never built in Mackintosh's lifetime but was finally completed in 1996. The exhibition rooms have been realised by contemporary artists and crafts people from the original designs, requiring a degree of detective work and the re-learning of techniques that had disappeared. Another excellent (but quite expensive) cafe.

We also visited the famous Willow Tea Rooms - one branch is at 217 Sauchiehall Street and the other at 97 Buchanan Street.

You can find information on these and other Rennie Mackintosh sites (we didn't have time for a really comprehensive tour!) on the CRM Society Web Site (click here).

One of the stranger excursions we made was to the Sharmanka Kinetic Gallery, 2nd Floor, 14 King Street. This is part gallery, part performance with sound and light involving Eduard Bersudsky's Mechanical Sculptures. (This link was not working when I tried it, but I did find a current directory listing.)

"Hundreds of tiny carved figures and pieces of old scrap perform and incredible Heath-Robinson-meets-Hieronymous-Bosch choreography to haunting music and synchronised lighting, telling the funny and tragic stories of the human spirit struggling against the relentless circles of life and death." (Leaflet description)

Performances Thurs at 7pm & Sun at 6pm - 40 min show. Tel: 0141 552 7080

There are a number of useful leaflets available from the tourist information centre in George Square, including a guide to the old merchant city, 'The Merchant City Trail'. This made for an interesting city wander.

Eating in Glasgow

We found a wide selection of restaurants and cafes offering excellent food and friendly service. Many offer early evening pre-theatre menus at very reasonable prices. Among our favourites were:

Groucho Saint Jude's, 190 Bath Street, Tel 0141 352 8801 - we had a superb meal here, though rather late as we hadn't booked on a busy Friday night. (At the time of putting this page together, I cannot bring up the web page so it may have disappeared!)

Bouzy Rouge, 111 West Regent Street, Tel 0141 221 8804 - they describe their food as 'an eclectic mix of traditional and contemporary dishes using only the finest Scottish produce prepared skillfully with Mediterranean influences'. When we were there, they offered a pre-theatre menu, though I don't know if they still do.

Additional Links:

SeeGlasgow.com - a general Glasgow web site

Bargain Button - a selection of Glasgow discounts and special offers that you can print off from the web (car rental, museums and attractions, restaurants, etc.)

GlasgowGuide.co.uk - another general Glasgow guide

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