Glasgow: the legendary John Smith & Son Bookshop …
Discover the story of John Smith & Son, Glasgow’s legendary bookshop, and its lasting place in the city’s literary and cultural history.
Continue reading →Category Archives: Glasgow
Miss Toward’s Tenement House .. .. ..
Bonjour Marie-Agnes, Janice et Jean-Claude – Ca va bien? – How are you all today? 🙂 Margaret and I love to read all the letters you send us, so full of kindness and bonhomie! Our readers here at Scotiana may not know that your letters are in fact doubly charming, for they are always illustrated! (As you have often … Continue reading →
Glasgow Necropolis: A Monument to ‘Child Migrants’…
Here fond affection rears its sculpted stone… (from John Henry Alexander’s epitaph – Glasgow Necropolis) “CEMETERIES ARE FOR THE LIVING. Sure, the dead are the permanent residents and the living merely visitors but the Necropolis and every other burying ground in the world were imagined, designed and built for the benefit of other living people. Time, as … Continue reading →
Teatime at Miss Cranston’s Willow Tearooms in Glasgow
Hi everybody ! Try to imagine we’re all sitting on a Mackintosh chair round a Mackintosh table, in the very special atmosphere of the Willow Tearooms in Glasgow, chatting about everything Scotland, our favourite subject ! To begin with, have you read our friends’ second Letter from Scotland? This time, Iain and Margaret have told us a very moving story. … Continue reading →
Art Nouveau Peacock on Princes Square Shopping Center in Buchanan Street, Glasgow
At the end of the nineteenth century, Art Nouveau transformed towns and countryside around the world. Even though its style had gained popularity from just the last ten years or so, Art Nouveau permeated many arts & crafts: jewellery, book design, glasswork, textiles, wrought iron, and architecture, to name just a few, with its high Victorian design and craftwork. The … Continue reading →
Princes Square, one of Glasgow’s Leading Speciality Shopping Centres
Back in 1840, Glasgow architect John Baird was commissioned by Sir James Campbell, to design the large block of business premises in Buchanan Street, known as Prince’s Buildings. The buildings formed a four-storey merchant square in yellow sandstone, named in honour of the birth of the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) A year or so later, the building was … Continue reading →
The Willow Tearoom, 217 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow
If it is pouring with rain, as is often the case in Scotland, and if you are not lost in the midst of nowhere in a most desolate and remote place of the Scottish countryside with only a thermos of black coffee to cheer you up, it would be unthinkable not to be able to find a castle, a museum, … Continue reading →
A Colorful Video Tour of Buchanan Street, Glasgow’s Main Shopping Avenue
. Hey Mairiuna, before we hop unto Princes Square’s inviting blue escalator leading up to it’s animated galleries, let’s stroll a bit longer on Buchanan street, the most popular and well known shopping street of Glasgow. I was so impressed by the urban design that I would happily spend more time in this premier pedestrian thoroughfare housing more than 125 … Continue reading →
Buchanan Street : Up and Down one of Glasgow’s most Popular and Coloured Streets
From our different trips to Glasgow, we came back with a great number of photos and unforgettable memories. We never stayed long enough, alas, to be able to visit all the treasures hidden in the rich and fascinating Scottish metropolis but it did not take long for us to feel the sense of place there and to love it. Glasgow … Continue reading →
Glasgow’s St Enoch Centre, Europe’s Largest Glass Building!
. Oh yes! Mairiuna, it was quite a fun ride we took aboard Glasgow’s Clockwork Orange subway train. Remember this photograph I took of you both just before we escalated down to the ticket booth? At the ticket booth, we had a good laugh when the ticket officer, after we told him that you and Jean-Claude came from France and … Continue reading →
The Clockwork Orange : Embarking at St Enoch Station for a Merry-Go-Round Tour under Glasgow…
We like our Underground. From down below it tells you a lot about what is happening up above. South of the Clyde it is largely deserted. Traffic between St Enoch’s and Hillhead is busier with students and shoppers. Some people only like travelling clockwise or anti-clockwise. It is a subway with a heart. (Glasgow from the Eye in the Sky … Continue reading →