Three days in Glasgow

Three days in Glasgow and there has been much MackIntoshing (of the Charles Rennie and Margaret Macdonald MackIntoshes - artists/designers/architects in the early 1900s - a sort of Scottish art nouveau / arts and crafts style thing...)

The trip up on the train was fun - I had a little cabin all to myself and coffee and croissants were brought to my door at 7am. Found my B&B - Adelaides - in the centre of town - and dropped off my bag and set out to explore! Glasgow town centre is not that large - and I easily found the Willow Tea Rooms on Sauchiehall Street - and then had to wait for them to open before I had breakfast! There are 2 sets of Willow Tea Rooms - both are recreations of CRM's original interiors for Kate Cranston and her tea rooms that she establised in the early 1900s - apparently as part of the temperence movement! They are just gorgeous - all white and silver and purple with stained glass details and gesso painted wall panels - but you can see the photos below...

Went on the Glasgow School of Art tour - a CRM designed building with one of the loveliest libraries I've ever seen - although sadly its only staffed for a couple of hours each day and is now a reference library. The main library for the school is located in another building entirely. GSA is busy setting up for its annual Grad Show - which opens this weekend - so there was much bustle and activity - but we weren't allowed to walk through the studios as there were assessments taking place. What I did see felt very similar to NAS - which was reinforced when I met up with Kathy Molloy & David Buri in the library - and they kindly showed me around and we talked 'art school library' - lots of similarities - only they are larger than us at NAS - collection of about 70 000 monographs, 300 journals (shelved A - Z), dvds, graphic novels....

Later that afternoon I visited the Tenement House - a NAtional Trust property. I always equated the word 'tenement' with slum - not sure why - turns out tenements were three or four story sandstone buildings that housed about 4 flats on each floor. The NT one I visited was pretty much intact from the early 1900s and shows how the middle class would have lived. It was four rooms - bedroom, bathroom , kitchen and parlour - and in the kitchen and parlour were additional bed closests - which are exactly what they sound like - a built-in bed behind a door. So the place could easily have slept 6!

Oh and did I mention that I went back to the Willow Tea Rooms for afternoon tea?

At the B&B I somehow got upgraded to a room with an ensuite and full length bathtub and digital tv - so I had a quiet night in watching tv! But sadly Dr Who is on Sat nights....

On Tuesday I moved rooms at the B&B and met Ted - who has a charming Scottish accent and does a mean Aussie accent too - and wanted to talk to me about State of Origin football... Then I hopped on the 'hop on & off' city bus tour and got a glimpse of Glasgow from the top level of a doubledecker bus.

I visited both the Hunterian Art Gallery & MackIntosh House and the Kelvin Grove Museum and Art Gallery - both of which are in the grounds of (or adjacent to ) the University here. The MackIntosh house has recreated interiors from a house that the M's actually lived in - the original building had to be destroyed due to structural problems caused by the motorway - so they built a replica and recreated the interiors. Original interiors from the Tea Rooms (furniture, crockery, cutlery etc) are in the Kelvin Grove Museum.

The Hunterian and the Kelvin Grove both also house a great collection of the works of the Scottish Colourists - Samuel Peploe, George Leslie Hunter, Francis Cadell and John Duncan Fergusson - 20th C modernists which really caught my eye. Ingrid - you'd love it! And some great paintings by the Glasgow Boys including the one of Anna Pavlova by John LAvery that I am sure was in The Edwardians Secrets & Desires exhibition at the NGA a couple of years ago.

Today I visited the House for an Art Lover (yes! more MackIntosh!). This was built about 10 years ago and is based on plans drawn up by CRM & MM for a competition in 1904 (?). It now also serves as part of the Glasgow School of Art. The house itself is set in parkland about 15 minutes from central Glasgow - and it really is stunning! The music room with its totally wild piano and white carpet and furniture and french windows is really beautiful! (if totally impractical - I'd have coffee stain on the carpet in about 30 seconds...) I also went to the CRM designed Scotland Street School - another impressive building in red sandstone with multi level windows and tower details.

Oh yeah - and I dropped into the Willow Tea Rooms for tea with scones & jam & cream. Real leaf tea too in a pot, with an extra pot of hot water, and a tea strainer that I kept forgetting to use.

And I hopped back on the tourist bus and visited Provand's Lordship - which is the oldest building in Glasgow - dating back to the 1500s.

Back to London tonight - another sleeper. And yes, I dropped in to see the station duty manager and got all the appropriate forms etc and I will be lodging a complaint and getting my money back!

Oh and the water in Glasgow tastes sooooo much better than that in London.

Meeting Naomi tomorrow morning and then we are off to Paris!