PHOENIX BUILDINGS
Exploring Glasgow's old buildings brought back from the brink
If walls could talk, just imagine what some of Glasgow’s most historical buildings might say? Would we hear about the moment a 16-year-old Stan Laurel first took to the stage to tell jokes in the world’s oldest music hall? Or perhaps a tale or two of the different people coming and going in Glasgow’s oldest surviving train station?
Previously known as the ‘Second City of the Empire’, Glasgow is all too often compared with Edinburgh, and unfairly so. Throughout the industrial revolution, Glasgow was an economic powerhouse with much greater wealth and influence in the realms of international trade than its sister in the east. This was largely due to Glasgow’s tobacco lairds, who were Scotland’s first millionaires, and the connections they had throughout Europe and in the American colonies. With great wealth, came great architecture which – unlike in Edinburgh – has faced more than its fair share of challenges. As a result, much of it has sadly been lost along the way. However, there are those that have risen from the ashes, quite literally in some cases, to hold their places as symbols of defiance and possibility, treasured by those people who see beyond their material worth.
One challenge unique to Glasgow was the controversial plan for an innercity motorway, the M8. Beginning in the 1960s, among much protest from locals, areas like Cowcaddens and old Charing Cross were either completely demolished
or altered beyond recognition, taking with them many architectural gems such as the Grand Hotel. Those that survived, had also faced two World Wars, followed by massive industrial decline. Despite overcoming these threats and others, they were all at one point at risk of joining the list of their fallen friends.
A photograph can be a remarkably powerful and poignant reminder of a brief moment in time captured for eternity that we might only appreciate once it has passed. It’s all too easy to fall down a nostalgic rabbit hole when looking at Facebook pages like the massively popular Lost Glasgow, run by Norry Wilson, whether you have a connection to the city or not.
‘Social media has had a massive part to play in stoking the interest,’ said Norry. ‘These pictures have always been there but they are sitting in archives, so I spend my time hunting through a lot of dusty old books and then put the pictures up for people to enjoy and possibly add their own stories to.’
Through a combination of expert preservation work, the passion of local people and assistance from various
organisations and authorities, these ten phoenix buildings were pulled back from the brink of disrepair and duly rewarded with a new lease of life and a chance to continue telling the intricate story of Glasgow’s past.
Much more than bricks and mortar, each acts as a portal to the past and an opportunity to learn about the journey from then until now, long after the first people to walk their halls have gone.
The range of uses for the renovated buildings is inspiring, encouraging and often heart-warming. From a chapel-turned-cancer therapy centre offering help for patients and their families, including a wig-fitting salon, to a distillery working to put Glasgow at the forefront of whisky making.
Of those that remain, few could rival the colourful history of the Britannia Panopticon, the world’s oldest surviving music hall. Campaign founder and director Judith Bowers describes it as ‘a building absolutely rich in love but poor in cash’.
And with over 3,000 found items catalogued, from badges from the Boer War, World War One and World War Two, to a collection of men’s fly buttons from an area of the theatre jovially named ‘prostitute corner’, it offers a fascinating insight into the lives of the audiences who attended.
‘I think our historical buildings are extremely important,’ Judith added, ‘particularly to the people around them so that they can better understand the past, present and future.’
Someone who shares this sentiment is Tim Morrison, chairman of the Clydeside, an exciting new distillery which opened in November 2017. Tim’s great grandfather, Jim Morrison, helped build the very dock that the distillery now sits upon, a fact unbeknownst to him and his team at the time of choosing the site. ‘Whisky is very much a part of Glasgow’s
heritage and realising there was a bigger story to tell about the history of the Clyde was such an important thing,’ said Tim. ‘We want to try and bring things back to the time when Glasgow was a key figure in the whisky industry. You can get whisky from all over the world but there’s only one Scotch.’
The sites brought back to life demonstrate real enterprise and a drive to rediscover the roots of what makes Glasgow such a great city. Many of the projects have created hubs and gathering points for locals, nurturing a sense of community, which many believe to be a thing of the past. As Norry says: ‘Sometimes people need to be reminded of what a beautiful and wonderful city Glasgow is. These images are a warning from history that we need to defend these old buildings.’ It’s a sentiment I’m sure the walls would be happy to hear.
“We need to defend these old buildings