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For other uses, see Glasgow (disambiguation)

Glasgow is Scotland's largest city, located on the River Clyde in West Central Scotland. It is also one of 32 unitary council regions in Scotland, officially known as City of Glasgow. Glasgow had a population of 577,869 at the time of the 2001 census, while approximately 1.2 million people live in the city's greater metropolitan area. The name comes from the Brythonic glas cu (compare modern Gaelic Glaschu), meaning green hollow, and usually romantically translated as "the dear green place". It is popularly referred to as "Glesga" by Glaswegians who are known as "keelies" or "weegies" by other Scots. Scots from the Scottish Highlands and the Western Isles are known as "teuchters" by the keelies.

George Square and Glasgow's City Chambers

Coat of arms

The coat of arms shows Glasgow's patron saint, Saint Kentigern also known as Saint Mungo, and includes four emblems - the bird, tree, bell, and fish. The motto of the city is "Let Glasgow Flourish" and this is part of the arms. Children are taught to remember the arms using the following verse:

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

History

History section needs to be completed

    • Founding of the city
    • The Industrial Revolution
    • Modern Glasgow

Art and architecture

Unlike Edinburgh, very little of medieval Glasgow remains, the two main landmarks from this period being confined to the 14th century Provand's Lordship and Glasgow Cathedral. The vast majority of the city as it is seen today dates from the 19th century, and as a result, Glasgow has an impressive heritage of Victorian architecture; examples of which include the Glasgow City Chambers, the main building of the University of Glasgow, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, and the Glasgow School of Art, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, being outstanding examples. Another architect who has had a great and enduring impact on the city's appearance was Alexander Thompson, who produced a distinctive architecture based on fundamentalist classicism that gave him the nickname "Greek". He was described as a "quiet, stay-at-home Victorian behind whose buttoned-up facade there seethed a kind of stylistic corsair who plundered the past for the greater glory of the present".

Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Glasgow School of Art

The buildings reflect the wealth and self confidence of the residents of the "second city of the Empire". There is even a building facing Glasgow Green, originally Templeton's carpet factory, which was designed as a replica of the Doge's Palace in Venice. It doesn't look out of place in Glasgow. The wealth came from the industries that developed from the Industrial Revolution. The shipyards, marine engineering, steel making, and heavy industry all contributed to the growth of the city. At one time the expression "Clyde-built" was synonymous with quality and engineering excellence.

Of course, there was another side to the picture. The beautiful buildings were built with red or gold sandstone but after a few years those colours had disappeared under a pervasive black layer of soot and pollutants from the furnaces. There were other buildings. Tenements were built to house the workers who migrated from Ireland, the Scottish Highlands, the islands and the country areas to feed the insatiable need for labour. The tenements were often overcrowded and insanitary, and many developed into the infamous Glasgow slums, the Gorbals area being one of the most infamous.

In recent years many of these buildings have been cleaned and restored to their original appearance. Others were demolished to make way for large, barrack-like housing estates, and high-rise flats. The latter were built in large numbers during the 1960s and early 1970s, and indeed, Glasgow has a higher concentration of high-rise buildings than any other city in the UK. The Red Road flats in the north of the city, at 32 storeys were for many years the highest residential buildings in Europe.

Many people feel that this has been less than successful as many of the "schemes" were heartless dormitories well away from the centre of the city with no amenities, and which split up long established community relationships. Many of the high-rise developments were poorly designed, cheaply built and became a magnet for crime. Over time many have become as bad as the slum areas that they replaced. Today the city council has begun a programme of demolishing the high-rises which are in most need of disposal.

File:Wfm science centre.jpg
The Glasgow Science Centre

Modern buildings in Glasgow include the Glasgow Science Centre and the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. Along the banks of the Clyde is the Scottish Exhibition & Conference Centre, and shopping centres include the Buchanan Galleries, the glass pyramid of the St Enoch Centre, and the upmarket Princes Square.

Culture

The city is blessed with amenities which cover a wide range of cultural activities, from curling to opera and from football to art appreciation.

Glasgow boasts a fine selection of museums that include those devoted to transport, religion, and modern art. The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum (currently undergoing major renovation) has an excellent collection of paintings including many old masters, French Impressionists etc, and is reputedly the second most visited museum in the United Kingdom. The Hunterian Museum at Glasgow University has the best collection of Whistler paintings in the world. The Burrell Collection is an eclectic collection of art and antiquities donated to the city by William Burrell (although sometimes acquired by him in dubious title, in colonial times). It is housed in a museum situated in the Pollock Country Park. The People's Palace museum reflects the history of the city and its people.

The Mitchell Library is the largest public reference library in Europe.

The Scottish Opera is based at the Theatre Royal.

Glasgow has a number of parks and open spaces that give the city places to "breathe". Among these are:

  • Bellahouston Park
  • Glasgow Green
  • Kelvingrove Park
  • Victoria Park
  • Maxwell Park
  • Pollock Country Park
  • Queen's Park
  • Rouken Glen

The city was host to the two Great Exhibitions of 1881 and 1901. More recently it was European Capital of Culture 1990, National City of Sport 1995-1999, UK City of Architecture and Design 1999 and European Capital of Sport 2003

Sport

Glasgow is home to Scotland's largest football stadiums: Celtic Park (60,000+); Ibrox Stadium (50,000+); and Hampden Park (50,000+), which is Scotland's national football stadium. Glasgow has four senior football clubs: Rangers and Celtic, who together make the Old Firm, and are the most famous Scottish football teams; Partick Thistle; and Queen's Park. Clyde and Third Lanark used to be two other senior football clubs in the city.

There are major international sporting arenas, such as Kelvin Hall and Scotstoun Sports Centres. In 2003 the National Academy for Badminton was completed in Scotstoun.

Religious rivalry

Strong religious rivalry still exists in certain sectors of the population. The sporting rivalry between the supporters of Celtic and Rangers has an underlying religious basis for some people. Large numbers of Celtic Supporters are drawn from the Irish and Roman Catholic communities, while Rangers supporters are almost exclusively non-Catholics. This division dates from Rangers' historical refusal to sign Catholics as players, a practice continued at the club for 116 years until 1988. Celtic never adopted such a policy, hence a somewhat more diverse support.

At Celtic Park, the national Flag of Ireland has a place of honour and at Ibrox Stadium, it is the Union Jack.The Orangemen of Glasgow (members of the Protestant Orange Lodges), parade annually through the city, playing flutes and drums and singing songs. Most people view this as an irrelevant throwback to more intolerant times and less liberal views, and the size of these parades seems to be dwindling over the years. However, these parades cause much offence to Catholics and are often exploited by religious bigots and anti-Irish racists.

Glasgow has constantly had a ferment of new incoming religious groups, Jews, Highlanders, Irish Catholics, and more recently asylum seekers from a multiplicity of faiths. More enlightened young people see this as an enrichment and revitalising of the city, and regard bigotry as a dark but distant part of this vibrant and modern city's history. However, Glasgow has a long way to go in accepting other religions and faiths, and for many first and second generation immigrants, particularly Irish Catholics who suffered much oppression over the years, Glasgow remains a relatively intolerant city.


People

Section to be completed

Dialect

Glasgow people have a unique sense of humour, and strong loyalty to their own city. The Glasgow Patter is a brand of local humorous Scots dialect which is hilarious to those who understand it, usually only natives of the city.

Billy Connolly has done a lot to make Glaswegian humour accessible to the rest of the world but, inevitably, it loses something in translation. In fact Glaswegian is a rich and vital living dialect which gives a true reflection of the city with all its virtues and its unattractive features. It is more than an alternative pronunciation; words also change their meaning eg "away" can mean "leaving" as in "A'm awa", an instruction to stop being a nuisance as in "awa wi ye", or drunk as in "he's awa wi it". "Canna" means "can't", "Canny" means "careful". "Pieces" refers to "snacks", normally slices of bread. Then there are words that appear to have no obvious relationship to standard English, words like "coupin" which means "face".

An example of the dialect which comes from an anonymous lament by a housing scheme resident for the remembered joys of life in the city before being rehoused in one of the "deserts with windows" that were the schemes:

whaur's the weans that yince played in the street,
wi a jaurie, a peerie an gird wi a cleat,
can they still codge a hudgie or dreep aff the dyke,
play haunch cuddy haunch, kick the can an the like?
The main building of the University of Glasgow

Education

Glasgow is also a major education centre with four Universities within ten miles of the city centre, universities such as Glasgow University (which has one of the highest ratios of students who continue living at home), University of Strathclyde and Glasgow Caledonian University, teacher training colleges, teaching hospitals, and a range of technical colleges.

Media

Glasgow is also home to large sections of the Scottish national media. It hosts:

Television

Radio

Newspapers

A number of major Scottish newspapers are published in the city:

  • The Daily Record - Scotland's best-selling tabloid, based at Anderston Quay
  • The Herald - Scotland's best-selling broadsheet
  • The Sunday Herald - its five-year-old sister title
  • The Evening Times - an evening tabloid distributed in the west of Scotland

As well as Scottish editions of:

Airports

Glasgow has two main airports; Glasgow International (Abbotsinch) is the larger of the two and handles the majority of Glasgow's air traffic, including shuttle flights to and from London and the rest of the UK, and transatlantic links to Chicago and New York. Glasgow Prestwick is located 29 miles south west of the city, and caters mainly for charter flights, low-cost airlines, and freight traffic. Links:

There are also two small airfields in the nearby towns of Cumbernauld, and Strathaven, near East Kilbride.

Railway stations

The city has two main line railway stations. Queen Street station, located on the northern periphery of the city centre connects Glasgow to the North of Scotland, and Edinburgh. Central Station, located on Argyle Street is the northern terminus of the West Coast Main Line, and connects Glasgow with the South, and is the rail gateway to England and the rest of the UK.

Major roads

Glasgow has a less congested road network then Edinburgh, and the argument for congestion charging has not been as great. The city is linked to the rest of the country by the following main roads.

  • A8/M8: Main east-west corridor which links Glasgow to Edinburgh, and Greenock to the west.
  • A82: Dumbarton, Loch Lomond and the North West Highlands
  • A80/M80: Stirling and the North East
  • A77/M77: Kilmarnock, Ayr and the South West
  • A74/M74: Main link to the South and England

The grid-like layout of the city centre makes it relatively car friendly, despite the numerous and confusing one-way systems.

Urban transport

Glasgow is the only British city other than London to have an underground metro system. The Glasgow Underground (or Subway), was built in 1896 and substantially modernised in 1977. There is also a suburban above ground rail system, centred on Central Station. The rail based urban and suburban systems are run by Strathclyde Passenger Transport.

The bus network is deregulated and there are several competing companies.

Suburbs and surrounding district

The City of Glasgow outgrew its borders; many areas officially within surrounding Local Authority Areas are therefore considered part of the city. Areas of Glasgow include:

North of the river: Dalmuir, Clydebank, Knightswood, Bearsden, Milngavie, Jordanhill, Summerston, Maryhill, Partick, Bishopbriggs, Balornock, Millerston, Lenzie, Chryston, Gartcosh, Dennistoun, Riddrie, Shettleston, Easterhouse, Tollcross, Ballieston, Birkenshaw, Uddingston and Woodlands.

South of the river: Braehead, Cardonald, Pollok, Nitshill, Thornliebank, Govan, Gorbals, Govanhill, Pollokshields, Pollokshaws, Cathcart, Newlands, Giffnock, Rutherglen, Castlemilk, Bothwell and Cambuslang.

See also:
Glasgow City Chambers

Famous Glasgwegians

Twinned cities

Glasgow has been twinned with various cities around the world including:

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