Infiltrating No10: Glasgow’s peaceful gem

Stewart Lloyd-Jones returns to the city of his youth, Glasgow, to enjoy a weekend break and see if the city ever sleeps

You can take the boy out of Glasgow, but you can never take Glasgow out of the boy, or so the saying goes.

While I’m not actually from Glasgow, it has played a very large part in my life; it is where I got my first proper job, where I went to university, where I met my wife and where our son was born. Despite having left the city more than 20 years ago, it remains a special place to me.

It was the place I lived when I was young, carefree and single; where I went driving too fast at night with friends; where I played football in an amateur league and where I spent Friday afternoons, evenings and nights at the Strathclyde students union listening to The Cramps and drinking Furstenburg until Frank Sinatra told us that we were going to make it in the city that never sleeps.

After the excesses of youth, I settled down to a more sedate life in the south side. When I moved to Mount Florida, it had only recently stopped being a dry area and the pub and off-sales chains had not yet moved in. If you wanted to go to a pub you had to go to Pollokshaws Road, where there was the famous Heraghty’s bar, famed for its Guinness and lack of a ladies toilet (women were directed to the nearby Allison Arms), while the nearest off-sales were in Shawlands.

It had been a long time since I had been in Glasgow when the chance came up to stay at the No 10 Hotel, a four-star boutique hotel on Queen’s Drive, near Hampden Park. I thought it would be good to go back after all this time to see how things have changed in my old stomping ground, and to prove to myself that there is life off the beaten track beyond Glasgow’s city centre and West End.

Arriving at the No 10 was not difficult. We arrived early but were welcomed warmly and shown to our suite where we were presented with free macaroons and chocolates. The hotel occupies two Victorian villas overlooking Queen’s Park Recs, just a five-minute walk from the National Stadium. The main building hosts the reception, the function suite and the bar, with bedrooms upstairs, while the neighbouring building, containing bedrooms and suites, is a lot more peaceful.

When we arrived there was a wedding reception under way. We were on our way to the Royal Concert Hall for a 6pm performance of Mozart’s Requiem, so we thought it would be better to have a snack before leaving. The selection of sandwiches was excellent and very reasonably priced. We enjoyed this little feast while sitting at a substantial table in a bay window overlooking the sunlit park.

The extremely friendly staff with their delicious Glasgow accents arranged a taxi to take us to our destination, then called us to let us know when the taxi arrived. We had told the staff that our plans meant we would not be back for dinner until nearer 9pm, which they assured us would be no problem at all. And it wasn’t.

We arrived with a birthday party in full swing in the function suite, with many of the guests milling about outside reception and in the bar. The last to be seated, because we were the last to arrive, we were put at a quiet table where we enjoyed a delicious meal made by chefs who had been busy all day catering for weddings and birthday parties. Just a typical Saturday at the No 10, and despite the late hour, nothing was too much trouble.

Satiated and satisfied, we headed off to our suite for sleep in the comfortable king-sized bed.

Sunday morning came a little too early for me, though. I am a fairly light sleeper and the sudden blast of the kitchen’s extractor fan at 6am was enough to rouse me. My wife was untroubled while our son slept the sleep of the righteous in his own room. It was just me, then. But be warned, if you are a light sleeper, ask for a room on the other side of the building. Alternatively, the hotel could fit a double-glazed window.

Apart from this very minor inconvenience, everything else was perfect. A full breakfast was provided in the function suite with views over the gardens. The staff even prepared a cooked breakfast to take to the suite for our son.

But, I hear you ask, is there anything to Glasgow beyond the city centre and West End? Well, of course there is, although you will have to put a bit of effort in.

After breakfast on Sunday we decided to head to Pollok Country Park, which most people know because it is home to the Burrell Collection (which is closed for refurbishment until 2020).

For those not in the know, it is also a beautiful and very popular park with an elegant William Adam designed 18th Century stately home which was once the seat of the Maxwell family, who donated the house and its grounds to the City of Glasgow in 1966. The house, which is now managed by the National Trust for Scotland, is open to the public and provides a fascinating insight into the lives of the landed gentry.

For those who prefer the outdoors, the formal gardens lead on to a path that follows the White Cart Water to the stables and beyond.

And for visitors of a more energetic disposition, the park boasts a number of mountain bike trails and a golf course.

Our stroll around the park and gardens set us up for our final stop of the day: the Dandelion Café in Newlands Park. This café, which is in a lovingly restored tennis pavilion, was opened two years ago by Mhairi Darroch, a friend of mine from Glasgow University. Mhairi tired of life working in an office and decided to turn her love of baking into a livelihood.

The Dandelion Café is the result. She took the old pavilion, which had been abandoned for years, and turned it into a very popular meeting and eating place.

Mhairi is a wonderfully warm and welcoming person, and her café is exceptionally popular and almost always busy. Everything, from the soup to the cakes, is home made, and the sandwiches will keep you going for a good few hours. The café is particularly popular with dog walkers, who seem to have realised Mhairi’s delicious cakes are the ideal reward after taking Rover walkies.