To the Dead and Back blog

As you leave Queens Park:

The church in this photo is the Camphill Queens Park Baptist Church, built in 1876. Designed by William Leiper, it has an octagonal spire. Amongst Leiper's other buildings is Templeton Carpet Factory  (see below).

You then pass Glasgow's only Statue of Liberty, which predates the more famous statue in New York:

Going up Langside Avenue you pass the sight of a Greek Thomson church (more info needed) 

and then the Carnegie - funded Govanhill Library.
As you come up Cathcart Road ahead of you is the Caledonia Road church, now derelict. Heres a photo with the Area E housing behind (see below):

As you bear right onto Caledonia Road, you are about to enter the Gorbals. New flats are ahead of you. These replace

Area E – an estate of five-storey deck-access blocks and two 24-storey towers at Sandiefield Road, constructed in 1968. Within a few years the low-rise buildings became badly affected by dampness and condensation (and were nicknamed "The Dampies) and were declared unfit for habitation; and finally demolished in 1987. The two towers were demolished in 2013,

The Dampies

Sandiefield towers

The CHECKPOINT is in the Gorbals Orchard - the only public orchard in Scotland. The checkpoint itself is a memorial to ?

on exiting the orchard the Twomax building is opposite.  The "smokestack" on its roof is actually a sculpture which rotates and acts like a weathervane. 2nd photo was taken in 1956.

On Old Rutherglen Rd just to the east of the orchard were blocks designed by Basil Spence. These became the most notorious of the five schemes built in the Gorbals.  The Queen Elizabeth Square blocks encountered structural problems, much magnified by poor maintenance, and were demolished in 1993

QES

Here's a photo which shows the orchard, with QES to its right and the 4 Riverside blocks beyond, and the Nelson's monument checkpoint across the river.

The photo below shows QES (middle right) and the Dampies/Sandiefield (middle left, beyond the 4 Caledonia Road blocks):

Then (depending on route choice!)  you may go past the 

Now known as the Riverside estate, these four 18-storey blocks– built in 1964 to the distinctive "scissor section" configuration – between Ballater St and the Clyde - still stand, and are widely regarded as the most successful of the Gorbals high-rises.

and then cross the St Andrews footbridge. On the south bank of the river once stood the rather splendid United Co-op Bakery:

On the north bank of the river, just up from the bridge is the Humane Society House. 

(well known as the meeting point for Glasgow Green reps!) :

Or you may go left and cross the Albert Bridge and go past the Mclennan Arch. (also known as Glasgow's Arc de Triomphe !)  The McLennan Arch was originally part of the Assembly Rooms, built in Ingram Street in the 1792.When the building was demolished in 1892 to make way for the new General Post Office, the central arch was preserved. It was moved first to Greendyke Street (as in the postcard below) and then to Glasgow Green in 1922 where it was arranged as a freestanding arch. Then when it began to tilt over, it was dismantled and re-erected in its current position in 1992.

Whichever route you take to cross the Clyde you enter Glasgow Green which dates back to 1450 when the land was gifted to the city by King James II. You then arrive at the CHECKPOINT, Nelson Monument. This was erected in 1807  and so predates the more famous Nelson's Column in London.  The monument honours three of the battles he fought, Aboukir, Copenhagen and Trafalgar. 

Then you will pass close to  David Dale's home was this villa on Charlotte Street, designed by Robert Adam in 1783:

Wise group building

St Andrews by the Green is Glasgow's oldest parish church, built in 1751. Now the hq of GAMH.  

St Andrews in the Square (CHECKPOINT) was built in 1739-56.  Arguably one of the finest neoclassical churches in Britain, Bonnie Prince Charlie's army camped inside the church in 1745, though he wasnt welcomed by the Royalist sympathisers who were in the majority in the city. 

Glasgow Cross was at the heart of medieval Glasgow. The Tolbooth Steeple - on the Cross -was built in 1626. It formed part of a building which served as the Town Clerk's office and city prison. Public executions took place outside the Steeple.  The adjoining buildings were demolished in 1921, leaving the Steeple standing alone. 

Trongate is one of the oldest  streets in Glasgow. It  begins at Glasgow Cross, and goes westward changing its name to Argyle St at Glassford St. 

The Tron Kirk Steeple was built as part of a church in 1529, but members of Glasgow's Hell Fire Club burnt the church down in 1793. The steeple was then incorporated into a new church, designed by James Adam. The building has been a theatre since the 1970s:

The Edwardian Renaissance style warehouse on the corner of Bell Street and Albion St, Designed by A.B. McDonald, built in 1902:

City Halls and Old Fruitmarket is on Candleriggs

Ramshorn Kirk (CHECKPOINT) dates from 1824 (Cat A listed). David Dale is buried in the adjacent graveyard.

next door is the Garment Factory.

400m off the route is The Trades Hall of Glasgow on Glassford Street was designed by Robert Adam and built 1791-4, and still used for its original purpose.

200m off the route is Hutchesons' Hall on Ingram Street was built 1802-5 in a similar style to St Andrews in the Square. 

Strathclyde University's Technology and Innovation Centre

As you go along George st just before High St you pass a mural by the artist Smug. Its a contemporary take on the Glasgow story, showing St Thenue/Enoch cradling her infant son St Mungo/Kentigern (see below). 

On your right stood The Old College Bar: thought to be Glasgow's oldest pub, with parts of the building dating back to 1515.  It was demolished in 2021 after a fire.

Next to it and still standing is the former British Linen Bank, built in 1895.

As you go up High Street, you pass a Mural of St Mungo also by the artist Smug, he's depicted as a homeless man, cradling a Robin - a reference to the story that St Mungo rescued an injured Robin when he was a young man:

You then pass a boundary wall which is all that remains of the Duke Street Prison which stood on this site. Opened in 1798, it later became a women-only prison, holding some of the Suffragettes amongst others. 12 executions by hanging took place between 1902-28, including the last woman to be executed in Scotland. She was Susan Nevell, hanged for strangling a paper boy. It was closed and demolished in 1958.  

On the direct line to the Necropolis you will pass a statue of William III on his horse. The statue was defaced in 2020 during the George Floyd protests, William having been connected to Edward Colston and the Royal African Company. Its tail was broken off in 2021 in what may have been a sectarian attack.

To your right is an 1890s building on John Knox Street, designed by Campbell Douglas to look like a 16th Century Scottish Tower House. It was originally built as a hostel for the Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society.

To get into the Necropolis you will (probably!) go over the bridge. The main entrance is approached by a bridge over what was then the Molendinar Burn. The bridge, which was designed by David Hamilton was completed in 1836. It became known as the "Bridge of Sighs" because it was part of the route of funeral processions (the name is an allusion to the Bridge of Sighs in Venice).  At the end of the bridge is the ornate entrance, originally designed to give access to a tunnel into the cemetery but this was never built. 

The Glasgow Necropolis  opened in 1833, taking its inspiration from the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris.   Glasgow native Billy Connolly has said: "Glasgow's a bit like Nashville, Tennessee: it doesn't care much for the living, but it really looks after the dead."    

Amongst those buried here are Charles Tennant (of chemical works fame, see EAST blog). He appears slumped !

There's also a celtic cross designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh at the grave of Andrew McCall.  There's a memorial to William Wallace, and near it a small Jewish Cemetery with its Absalom's Pillar, modelled on the one in Jerusalem. 

The actual checkpoint is at the John Knox Statue which predates the cemetery, having been built in 1825. It stands on a 58ft sandstone Doric column. John Knox was a leading figure in Scotland's reformation and founder of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.

The next CHECKPOINT is at the Lady Well. This is an artesian spring and predates the founding of Glasgow. Roman soldiers could well have drunk from it! When most of the city's public wells closed once freshwater was piped from Loch Katrine in the 1860s, the Lady Well remained open for some time longer but then closed.  It was refurbished in 1963.

Going down John Knox St on your left is the Wellpark Brewery founded in 1740 by Hugh and Robert Tennant. Tennent's Lager is Scotland's best-selling pale lager. In 2014 a craft brewery joint venture opened on the site, called Drygate Brewing.  There's a series of murals outside the main entrance on Duke St. 

Duke Street is a major road connecting the city centre to the east end. at 2miles it is the longest street in Glasgow, but not quite the longest in Scotland, that's King St in Aberdeen, 0.2miles longer.

At the bottom of John Knox St ahead of you is the

A rectangular-plan six-storeyed cotton-spinning mill built in 1848 by Charles Wilson. Converted and opened as a hotel for working men in 1908 The conversion involved the removal of all textile machinery.. In subsequent decades, the hotel eventually evolved into a hostel for homeless people, and was finally closed  in 2001.  It is now flats.

The CHECKPOINT, ahead of you on Hunter Street is the Tree that never Grew sculpture. This is a 2010 work by Jennifer Grant that contains the text of a poem by Ingrid Lees which tells the story of Glasgow, and references the story of Glasgow'c coat of arms:

The symbols appearing on the coat of arms represents the life and legends of Saint Mungo, the patron saint of Glasgow, and are often remembered by the following poem:

Here is the tree that never grew
Here is the bird that never flew
Here is the fish that never swam
Here is the bell that never rang

The tree referred to in this poem is depicted as an Oak tree in the coat of arms, but popular versions of the story refer to a holly branch. The story goes that he was once left in charge of watching a holy fire by Saint Serf, but the fire was put out by some other boys jealous of St. Mungo after he fell asleep. Upon awakening, St. Mungo was able to miraculously light a new fire from the tree branch.

The bird referred to in the poem is a robin which was tamed by St. Mungo's teacher, St.Serf which was revived by St. Mungo after it was killed by some of his classmates.

Three fish are depicted in the coat of arms, each with a ring in its mouth. This references the story of St. Mungo being able to retrieve a lost golden ring belonging to Queen Languoreth of Strathclyde from the mouth of a fish fished from the River Clyde.

The bell is an item which may have been given to St. Mungo by the Pope, but in any case St. Mungo's bell was a notable institution in Glasgow, but no longer exists.

Heilen Jessie

Barrowland Ballroom  (400m off route)

Pipe Factory & Barras

St Lukes  (100m off route)

Cut from the cloth sculpture

Templeton Carpet Factory

CHECKPOINT: Doulton Fountain

Peoples Palace - closing in 2024 for major restoration work

CHECKPOINT: sculpture

Malls Mire - whites chemical works (Shawfield)

Third Lanark - Cathkin Park -  Bankrupt in 1967. checkpoint at a stone with a quote from Hippocrates:

Original Scotland ground