Kelvingrove Park and Garnethill

Kelvingrove Park was originally created as the West End Park in 1852 by noted English gardener Sir Joseph Paxton, Head Gardener at Chatsworth House, whose other works included The Crystal Palace in London. This statue of Lord Roberts looks out from the edge of the park towards the University of Glasgow to the south. Roberts distinguished himself in many of the theaters of war in British colonies such as India, Afghanistan, Burma, and South Africa and helped, I suppose, sow the conflicting seeds of organization and domination so characteristic of the British Empire a hundred years ago.

His statue backs up to the Park District of the West End of the city, an area located around Park Circus, which sits atop a hill beside the park. The area is bordered by the City Center. Many of the area’s large townhouses, converted to offices during the latter half of the twentieth century, are being returned to residential use. It is now generally considered one of the most prestigious residential areas in Glasgow, with several high-end developments and historical architecture.

Though not as prominent or well known as the circus we were to see later in Bath, this one contains the essential elements of the form – row houses with consistent facades, an oval or round street pattern, a central (private) park, and variations to suit individual purchasers of what was a kind of early condominium arrangement. Other streets contained similar architecture, though in more straightforward urban forms, with the variations coming in accommodations to the geography and slopes of the site.

Some developments in the area present a distinctly less organized approach. I suspect that this housing was tucked in around the church to provide a social service and also development support for the parish.

In any case, it seems like too much happening on too small a site with not enough gestures to the scale of the historic neighborhood.

The east side of this hill flows down to a small winding valley and a modern reality of urban life.

The M8 ring road effectively cuts center city Glasgow off from Kelvingrove Park but undoubtedly moves a lot of vehicles south across the River Clyde. It would be a real contribution to deck portions of it over and knit the city back together. Once on the east side we climbed up Garnethill, the west edge of center city, through a mix of quite new and older buildings.

The older housing here strongly resembles that next to Kelvingrove Park.

And this general route leads almost directly back to the district around the Glasgow School of Art.

As you can see, except for the area near the river Clyde, Glasgow climbs up and down – much like Seattle. At the end of our day we discovered a pleasant surprise between our hotel and the School of Art, a group of buildings providing ancillary services to the school in the form of galleries, studios, office space and – more to the point for us – a first-rate but casual student-run restaurant. We happened to enter from a hillside street which led to a balcony level. It was pretty clear that these were the backs and sides of three buildings; but the skylight so effectively united them that it almost felt that they had been designed this way.

We came back for dinner, entering from the lower level this time, where the restaurant is located.

From this vantage you can see the upper entry, and below it the bar and serving area. A kitchen behind the bar turned out a nice range of food choices – definitely pub food as opposed to high tea. A very pleasant way to wrap up a gray, rainy visit to what we found to be an interesting and vibrant city.

University and Kelvingrove Park

Leaving the Botanical Gardens, we worked our way casually through the university district, crossed the River Kelvin through Kelvingrove Park, re-entered the west end through Garnet Hill, and finished the day back at the School of Art.

The University of Glasgow  the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland’s four ancient universities. The university was founded in 1451 and is often ranked in the world’s top 100 universities in tables compiled by various bodies.

In common with universities of the pre-modern era, Glasgow educated students primarily from wealthy backgrounds, but was also, with the University of Edinburgh, a leading center of the Scottish Enlightenment during the 18th century. The University became a pioneer in British higher education in the 19th century by also providing for the needs of students from the growing urban and commercial middle classes. Glasgow served all of these students by preparing them for professions: the law, medicine, civil service, teaching, and the church. It also trained smaller but growing numbers for careers in science and engineering. Alumni, or former staff of the University, include philosopher Francis Hutcheson, engineer James Watt, economist Adam Smith, physicist Lord Kelvin, surgeon Joseph Lister.

The University’s initial accommodation was part of the complex of religious buildings in the precincts of Glasgow Cathedral at High Street. Consequently, in 1870, it moved to a site on Gilmore hill in the West End of the city, around three miles west of its previous location, enclosed by a large meander of the River Kelvin. The new-build campus was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the Gothic revival style. The largest of these buildings echoed, on a far grander scale, the original High Street campus’s twin-quadrangle layout.

The local Bishopbriggs blond sandstone cladding and Gothic design of the building’s exterior belie the modernity of its Victorian construction; Scott’s building is structured upon what was then a cutting-edge riveted iron frame construction, supporting a lightweight wooden-beam roof. The university and the district that has grown up around the campus reflect the twists and turns of design styles of the late 19th and 20th centuries.

In this case there was a reach back to Classical times for inspiration.

In other cases, rather ordinary mid-20th century modern buildings have been recently tuned up.

 

 

In a gray northern climate a lot of glass makes sense – would have been effective to use some stone with it.

In some places, earlier row houses had clearly been adapted to either student housing or university-related offices, keeping the solid 19th century fabric of architecture in place.

And luckily for those working at or attending the university, there are still some charming and efficient commercial streets and developed alleys to bring the scale down and fend off the automobiles.

East of the university we passed through Kelvingrove Park and made our way up to the “circus” development that, along with this British Empire equestrian statue, overlooks it.

 

Botanical Garden

A short bus ride from the Transportation Museum took us through the university district to the Glasgow Botanical Garden, an Arboretum and public park located in the West End of Glasgow, Scotland. It features several glass houses, the most notable of which is the Kibble Palace.

The gardens were created in 1817, and run by the Royal Botanic Institution of Glasgow (founded by Thomas Hopkirk of Dalbeth), and were intended to supply the University of Glasgow. William Hooker was regius professor of botany at Glasgow University, and contributed to the development of the Botanic Gardens before his appointment to the directorship of Kew Gardens in London. The gardens were originally used for concerts and other events, and in 1891 the gardens were incorporated into the Parks and Gardens of the City of Glasgow.

Kibble Palace is a 19th-century wrought-iron-framed glasshouse, covering 2137 m.² Originally designed by John Kibble for his home at Coulport on Loch Long in the 1860s, the components were cast by Walter Macfarlane at his Saracen Foundry in Possil park. Eventually brought up the River Clyde by barge to the Botanic Gardens, it was fully erected at its current location in 1873 by Boyd of Paisley.

The building structure is of curved wrought iron and glass supported by cast iron beams resting on ornate columns, surmounted on masonry foundations. It was initially used as an exhibition and concert venue, before being used for growing plants from the 1880s.

Benjamin Disraeli and William Ewart Gladstone were both installed as rectors of the University of Glasgow in the palace, in 1873 and 1879 respectively – its last use as a public events venue, before becoming wholly used for the cultivation of temperate plants. The main plant group is the collection of New Zealand and Australian tree ferns (above), some of which have lived here for 120 years and which now form the national tree fern collection.

In 2004 a £7 million restoration program was initiated to repair corrosion of the ironwork. The restoration involved the complete dismantling of the Palace, and the removal of the parts to Shafton, South Yorkshire for specialized repair and conservation. The plant collection was removed completely for the first time ever and the ironwork was rebuilt over a rearranged floor plan, giving the Palace a prolonged life. It re-opened to the public in November 2006.

Some of the plants show off.

But then, so does the building.

My understanding was greatly enhanced by Wikipedia at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Botanical_Garden

It still wasn’t much of a day for outdoor sightseeing so we decided to indulge in a high tea lunch, not something with which we were familiar. For us it was an odd experience, though undoubtedly we didn’t truly appreciate its finer points.

Jane’s look of bemusement expresses it all.  Guess we’re just pub food people.