Burrell Collection

We had friends staying the weekend, and yesterday took them to the Burrell Collection. I’ve shown the Burrell plenty of times here before, but it’s so fab there’s no harm in showing it again 🙂

Whitelee Windfarm

Just south of Glasgow is Europe’s largest windfarm, on Eaglesham Moor. You can find out more about the place here. They welcome visitors and have lots of trails around the turbines – we were here yesterday and saw lots of families with young kids walking or on bikes, and plenty of dogs having a change of scenery too. Highly recommended.

Govanhill Baths

This is also the big pool, taken looking round from yesterday’s spot. All 3 of the pools had glass window roofs (rooves?) meaning that they are lit by natural light. The red paint is a later addition, as are most of the tiles – it was built around the start of the first World War, and the guide pointed out how some of the crests of the original tiling on the walls going all the way round the edge high up were retained but recessed as the new tiling was put on over the old. The plan for the refurbishment, should the Community Trust get the money to do this, would be to remove the newer tiles and restore it to closer to how it looked originally.

That’s another brief break for me from the thesis – back to it (and neglect of this blog) now!

United we will Swim

This is the slogan for the Govanhill Baths Community Trust. I just love that this group, which has existed since the 2001 occupation of the baths, is still going strong and is so well organised, and yet it’s totally focussed on the community good.

This picture features the largest pool of the three at the baths (this is the deep end, obviously). In the top left corner of the pool you can see built in steps.

Doors Open Day – Save Our Pool

This weekend is Doors Open Day in Glasgow and throughout Scotland (a similar concept, called Open Doors, operates down south, certainly in London this weekend too). The last couple of years I’ve been away this weekend, but this year I finally managed to get to the one venue I was really keen to visit, Govanhill Baths. This community facility was closed in 2001, but not without an occupation which lasted between March-August that year – there’s more history about this on the website of the Govanhill Baths Community Trust, who were giving guided tours of the pools. I’ll put a couple more pictures up over the next couple of days.

Water feature

This is one of the water features in Greenbank Gardens.

There’s some information about the house and gardens here.

Greenbank Gardens

On Sunday we had a very pleasant stroll round Greenbank Gardens, which is a National Trust for Scotland (NTS) property in Clarkston, about 6 miles from the city centre. For somewhere so close to the city, it was remarkably calm and peaceful. The gardens are planted formally, but aren’t as rigid and po-faced as some formal gardens can be.

Cubicles?

This is a close-up of a demolition of some more of Glasgow’s high-rise flats. A couple of years ago I showed photos from Stirlingfauld Place, which was blown up in a few seconds. These ones are the Broomloan flats in Ibrox, just over the road from the Rangers stadium. There were three blocks, but they are not being blown up, presumably because they are so close to a railway line, motorway (the M77) and a petrol station. Instead there are a couple of cranes with long arms and cutting gear which are tearing them apart bit by bit. Of the 3, one has already been levelled, this one is the second (this picture was taken a week and a half ago when it was just under half-way demolished, I expect it is nearly there by now), and there’s one more to go.

I was surprised at how flimsy the block looks once those cranes have been tearing away at the front of them. They’re so solid looking when they’re standing there, but this makes them look like they’re made from nothing more substantial than cardboard.

Contrast

This is another one taken from Queen’s Park, the same day as yesterday’s picture. I was really pleased with this one.

[OK, that’s me back on my break now. I think photography opportunities are going to be few and far between over the next couple of months, my thesis is due in September and there are various other things going on so I’m going back in hiding and will hopefully emerge intact soon! Thanks for remembering me and coming to visit the blog again!]

Bluebell carpet

Glasgow has a bit of a gritty image and reputation, but it has so much green space that you don’t have to go too far to find beauty. This is from Queen’s Park a few weeks ago. I was playing with my new camera, and although not all the pictures came out as I’d hoped, I was pleased with this one.