The Herald - The Herald Magazine
City’s main attractions are built to endure
THE Best of Glasgow is a new book celebrating people and places in the city with neighbourhood profiles, recommendations for things to do, alongside stories from independent shops, cafes, bars, creative businesses, musicians, artists and local personalities. Compiled by Paul Trainer from Glasgowist, the city guide includes a comprehensive list of the top attractions in the city. Here’s the overall top five. You can order your copy of the book at glasgowist.com/best-of-glasgow
5 City Chambers
THE headquarters of successive councils since 1889, City Chambers looms large over George Square. Its marble staircase is reputed to be the biggest in the world and has featured in films as a stand in for the Kremlin and the Vatican. The Banqueting Hall is where figures including Nelson Mandela and Sir Alex Ferguson were given the Freedom of the City. The walls are decorated with murals by artists from the Glasgow School including Sir John Lavery, Alexander Roche and George Henry. George Square, G2 1DU glasgow.gov.uk
4 The Mitchell Library
THE foundation stone was laid by Andrew Carnegie in 1907. A collection of over a million books and photographs is housed across a majestic building with a distinctive copper dome and its 1970s extension with wonderfully kitsch carpets. The Mitchell holds the Glasgow City Archives and Special Collections including hand-written manuscripts by Robert Burns. The theatre here hosts events during the Aye Write! literary festival.
North Street, G3 7DN, 0141 287 2999 mitchelllibrary.org
3 Glasgow Cathedral and Necropolis
THE oldest building in the city marks the site where St Mungo is thought to have been buried in 612 AD.
Its soaring Scottish Gothic architecture took shape between the 13th and 15th Centuries. Sir Walter Scott references the High Kirk in his novel, Rob Roy. It will feature in the forthcoming Batman movie starring Robert Pattinson, alongside the nearby Necropolis. Glasgow’s city of the dead, the cemetery is a remarkable Victorian display “dedicated to the genius of memory”.
Castle St, G4 0QZ
2 Riverside Museum
GET a sense of where the city is coming from, and where it’s going. The transport museum started when someone had the foresight to decide Glasgow’s trams should be preserved after they stopped running. In an odd moment of synchronicity, the
collection opening coincided with a wave of closures at shipyards on the Clyde with some 250 ship models soon finding a new home. Then came hulking locomotives from Springburn representing the city’s railway heritage. You’ll find the oldest surviving pedal cycle and a collection of Scottish-built cars and trucks. A meticulously assembled street scene allows you to step into Glasgow of the past.
100 Pointhouse Road, G3 8RS, 0141 287 2720
1 Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
GENERATIONS of Glasgow kids have slid across the marble floor of the Centre Hall on their knees, beneath the grand pipe organ that is still used for lunchtime recitals. Built in a Spanish Baroque style, there’s a sense of magic to the place, beyond the collection of exhibits that includes outstanding artworks by Monet, Renoir and van Gogh. It opened in 1901, for the Glasgow International Exhibition held in Kelvingrove Park - taxi drivers will tell you the building is the wrong way round but that’s an urban myth. Visit to see a Spitfire suspended from the ceiling above a stuffed elephant, furniture by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, collections of armour and the enigmatic presence of Salvador Dali’s Christ of St John of the Cross. There’s no doubt Glaswegians have a tangible sense of connection to the Kelvingrove.
Argyle Street, G3 8AG, 0141 276 9599