It’s been named the coolest place to live. So what makes Glasgow’s West End so special?
DOUGLAS Timmins was enjoying all the trappings of life in LA when he was lured back to Glasgow.
The 70-year-old has led an extraordinary life. He has seen it all, been it all. Survived more scrapes than a schoolboy’s knee. Travelled extensively, too. But Glasgow’s West End always draws him back.
“For a Glasgow boy like me, living and working in Hollywood was a dream come true.”
“Even so, every now and again that feeling would come over me. I’d realise I was thousands of miles from home. All of a sudden it seemed a really, really long way. I missed my friends. I missed the West End of Glasgow.”
Douglas is a legendary figure in these parts. He’s been a fixture here, on and off, since the late 1960s, when he worked as a barman at a local drinking den. There have been many jobs, and many Douglases, since those days. He’s a fascinating group of people. And a good person to chat to if you truly want to understand the bohemian enclave that is Glasgow’s West End.
This part of town has always been a little bit different. The people are a puzzle to the uninitiated. They march to their own drum.
Here is a West End guide in a nutshell.
Booze and womanising
RAISED in Mount Vernon, Douglas hitched up his wagon and followed the trail west after hearing from a friend that glamorous Swedish blondes were in much abundance in this part of town.
No Swedish blondes did Douglas find, though he stuck around anyway, and became a settler. Douglas worked briefly as a journalist. He inserted free gifts in comics. He worked in the metal industry, where he met David Murray, a close friend. He set up a modelling agency, and hired a young unknown called Carol Smillie.
He also opened a West End bar and revelled in booze and womanising. Thus his dosh was squandered, and he nearly lost his life, too, when an unforgiving ex hired hitmen to bump him off.
Opium den
EVEN the local second-hand bookstore, Voltaire & Rousseau, is a joy to visit. Imagine Waterstones after an earthquake, and you’ll begin to understand the special ambience that permeates V&R.
In Waterstones the books stand rigid and regimented. In V&R they sprawl and lounge and hunker in heaps.
These mounds of literature don’t demand to be read, they yearn to be bagged, like a Munro. While browsing in this Aladdin’s bazaar I spot a voluptuous and decadent cushion lying atop a towering babel of ancient Bibles. You can almost imagine a debauched aristocrat resting his head upon such a pillow in some 1920s opium den.
A moment later that same pillow yawns, stretches and purrs. It turns out to be a cat who lives in the shop. His name is B.B. Just another West End hipster. Animals are definitely as exotic as their owners in this neck of the woods. As are their tastes. A local pet store sells Pawseco ‘wine’ for cats and dogs.
Such a buzz
STANDING out from the crowd is exactly what the Ubiquitous Chip on Ashton Lane has been doing since opening in 1971. In many ways it’s the epicentre of the West End, a boho bar and restaurant where the edgier boys and girls hang out, hob knob and raise hell. (Allegedly.)
Gabriel Etchells is marketing assistant at the Chip. The 22-year-old graduated from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen last year. Now settled in the West End, the area reminds her of her days and nights hitting the textbooks. (And bars and clubs.)
“With Glasgow University nearby, it’s very student orientated,” she says. “But the West End’s unique because it’s such a mix of young and old. You have the history, the culture, the art and music. Then there’s the young people coming in, shaking things up, making their presence felt.
“I’d say the West End is always flowing, yet never moving. It’s such a unique place. It really is a buzz to live here.”