Glasgow Gallivanting: March 2019

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One of the best things that happened in March was that Janet, an old friend from university days, visited for the weekend. We hadn’t met for over 30 years, but it could have been yesterday. Janet was one of my flat-mates the year that I met John – he lived in the flat above us as I’ve recounted before. Apart from lots of chatting and catching up, we braved the terrible weather to visit two museums.

Scotland Street School Museum

Scotland Street School was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh between 1903 and 1906 for the School Board of Glasgow. Now a museum, it tells the story of 100 years of education in Scotland, from the late 19th century to the late 20th century. Amongst other features, it has three reconstructed classrooms: Victorian, World War II, and 1950s/60s. The last one reminded me very much of my own school days. Spot the class dunce!

Drill hall
Stairwell
Tiled pillars
Mackintosh windows
Victorian classroom
World War 2 classroom
1950s/60s classroom
Cookery kitchen
Cookery kitchen
Class dunce!
The jannie (janitor)
Reluctantly to school

I loved the reasons some parents gave for their children to be excused gym when the idea of removing garments became common in the 1930s:

  • My Bertie has never worn underpants, so he is not to take off his trousers
  • Nobody is going to force Marjorie to take off her clothes in public
  • I object to Harry exposing himself

What would they think of the minuscule lycra outfits worn by athletes today?

New Lanark

The cotton mill village of New Lanark was founded in the 18th century and quickly became known for the enlightened management of social pioneer, Robert Owen. He provided decent homes, fair wages, free health care, a new education system for villagers and the first workplace nursery school in the world. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, New Lanark is both a living community and an award-winning museum. Although we go there quite often, it’s usually for a specific exhibition or to take a walk to the Falls of Clyde – our visit with Janet was the first time we’ve been in the museum part for some time, and we’ve certainly never accessed the lovely roof garden before (see above, and below for specific features).

Roof garden
Robert Owen quote

One of the mills has a working loom and its products are sold in the Visitor Centre shop. The mill worker looks tired!

Loom
Loom

We toured Robert Owen’s own house which, although much larger than a mill-workers house, wasn’t spectacularly grand. It can be seen on the left, below, from the Roof Garden.

Robert Owen’s house
Robert Owen’s dining room

I bet the bathroom facilities were better than those for the workers though! Stairheid cludgies (shared indoor toilets) were only installed in the 1930s.

Stairheid cludgie
Stairheid cludgie

It was interesting to see the schoolroom after our visit to Scotland Street the day before. It’s much bigger than the classrooms there, but children of all ages would have been educated in the same space.

Schoolroom
Schoolroom

Finally, we popped into the current exhibition, the Scottish Diaspora Tapestry in which communities across the world document their Scottish connections. We saw this in Paisley a few years ago, but enjoyed a second look. A small flavour:

The Tenement House

We also meant to visit The Tenement House with Janet, but ran out of time, so John and I went ourselves the following weekend. 145 Buccleuch Street in Garnethill appears to be an ordinary red sandstone tenement building from the late 19th century, but inside lies a time capsule.

Shorthand typist Agnes Toward (1886-1975) moved in to one of the first floor flats with her mother, a dressmaker, in 1911 and lived here until her last ten years which she spent in hospital. After her death, it was found that she had made so few changes over the years that the early 20th century interior was intact. When the National Trust for Scotland acquired the property and opened it as a museum in the 1980s, the only major change they made was to replace the electric lighting Miss Toward had installed in the 1960s with more authentic gas. Just looking round these four rooms took me back to my childhood because it reminded me so much of my paternal grandparents’ home, particularly the black range and the bed recess in the kitchen.

Vintage!
Tenement House love
Mrs Toward’s sign
Bedroom
Bedroom
Bathroom
Bed recess in kichen
Kitchen range

Garnethill (the clue is in the name) is quite hilly, so as we left we stopped to admire the view towards Glasgow’s West End.

Thomas Coats Memorial Church

My sister was up visiting from London over the Mothers’ Day weekend. We had family meals on the Friday and Sunday, but on Saturday she and I were free to wander around Paisley where Mum lives. The highlight was a tour of Coats Memorial Church, formerly known as the “Baptist Cathedral” of Europe. It was commissioned by the family of Thomas Coats (1809-1883), one of the founders of Coats the thread-makers, and held its first service in 1894 and its last in August 2018 when the dwindling congregation could no longer sustain a building designed for 1000 worshippers. It’s now owned by a Trust which is raising money to turn it into a venue for concerts, weddings, conferences and so on. As part of the campaign, there are open days every Saturday from 12-4pm.

The interior was every bit as grand as the exterior, though it was the behind-the-scenes parts that I enjoyed most. The splendid Doulton toilet in the vestry was something to see!

Nave
Pulpit
Vestry toilet
Stencilling in vestry
Baptistry
Mosaic floor

The last bit

First a post-script to my Dundee posts, in one of which I expressed the hope that the new V&A wasn’t sucking in visitors from other museums in the city. Quite the reverse! I recently read a report that showed numbers at the Discovery were up 40.5% in 2018, at the McManus 31.2% and at Verdant Works 23.8%. The V&A itself recently hit 500,000 visitors six months earlier than targeted. We visited all of those, so I’m glad to have played my small part in putting Dundee more firmly on the tourist map.

I gave my talk on suffragette Jessie Stephen again, this time at a suffrage event in Govanhill. As part of the associated exhibition artist Ann Vance has created a portrait of Jessie, and two beautiful banners were also on display.

Banner by Helen de Main
Jessie Stephen by Ann Vance
Banner by Glendale Women’s Cafe

I read a lovely article about new Scottish words which have been included in the latest Oxford English Dictionary update: Fantoosh sitooteries and more. However, I’m saving that as a rich seam for future posts and sticking to the word I had originally chosen for this month. You might have noticed that our Brexit deadline sailed past last week and yet we’re still in the EU. “Stramash” is a noisy commotion or uproar, and seems to me to describe recent proceedings in parliament perfectly. Who knows what will have happened by April’s gallivanting post?

Have a great month!

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91 Comments »

  1. Pingback: Paisley patterns – The Glasgow Gallivanter
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  3. What a wonderful March you had. Love the smiles at the start of this post. Always great to connect with friends. And how could you not have fallen for that class dunce :-).

    The company villages in the US from the same time period as New Lanark were far less enlightened than your Mr. Owen’s using tools such as the company store to keep employees indebted for a lifetime. We need more business owners who believe in charity and kindness

    And I love a good sitooterie

    #Longlive #JessieStephen

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  5. It’s always lovely to read these posts Anabel. I enjoy your museum visits especially. I am glad the the V&A is having a positive effect on Dundee’s other museums, and of course that will spin-off to accommodation, cafes, etc.
    I remember learning about Owen in a history paper on Utopian Socialists. He impressed me then, and it’s lovely to know that there’s a museum where people can learn more (and maybe be a bit inspired to think about workers today).
    I’m so glad you took some shots from the Diaspora Tapestry; fascinating project and so beautiful.
    Wishing you a month of fun and adventures ahead.

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  6. oh what a wonderful month you had . . so many wonderful museums. Not surprised though you were too busy chatting to get to The Tenement House!! 😉

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  8. It was interesting to see the reference to Agnes Deans Cameron from my home province of British Columbia, Canada. She was a very accomplished woman — one of the first female teachers in B.C., then she became the first female school principal. She was a strong supporter of women’s suffrage and an opinionated person. After being suspended from her job as a principal (following public scandals as she tried to reform education and get equal pay for female teachers), she took up a second career as a writer and journalist. She was the first white woman to travel to the Arctic, and her book about it was a bestseller.

    Jude

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  9. The comparisons between classrooms over the decades is quite interesting. When reading the reasons of objection for less clothing during gym class, I had to think back about my years in Belgium as a teacher at a multicultural school. It was often a problem for Muslim girls (or more than likely their parents) to take swim lessons…

    That Doulton toilet is quite something else! Another busy and social month for you, Anabel, and I’m glad you’re still part of Europe.

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  11. With all our advances, why can’t we have toilets that look as fancy as the Doulton? Perhaps that’s a business opportunity just waiting to be grabbed.

    Your excuses from gym class are funny.

    Did you know that Robert Owen also set up a utopian community in the state of Indiana in the United States? I visited the semi-restored settlement, New Harmony, 40+ years ago. Here’s more information about it:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Harmony,_Indiana

    For the first and what will probably be the only time, my post today has a connection to Glasgow:
    https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2019/04/04/floresville-city-cemetery-2

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  12. How great to meet up with an old friend after so long. 👍
    And great taste in Museums. I’ve seen Scotland Road school from the outside but as it was closed when we visited we didn’t get to see inside. And New Lanark has been on my list for a long time.
    P.s. I always suspected Professors were dunces! 😂

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  13. I feel I know so much about Scotland’s Museums that I could write a book about them. Thanks again for another great post, and Paisley looks to be a delightful town. I loved all the pictures but especially the toilet. The people to whom I sold my old house (one of whom is an American), have been putting all the old Victorian stuff back in my Victorian pile, like fireplaces, toilets and tiled floors, haunting demolition yards both here and on the island to find them. They have sourced two toilets so far and six fireplaces and work is well ahead with the refurbishment. They would just love your lovely blue one.

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  14. I love that photo of John in the dunce cap! That toilet is fabulous too – I always get a kick out of using the old pull chain kind, though it looks as though that one is now for decoration only. And New Lanark looks really interesting, similar to the Lowell complex in Massachusetts.

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  15. I thoroughly enjoyed this post, and have been to three of the places you visited – New Lanark, The Tenement House and Coats Memorial Church. I went to the tenement house with my mum, some years ago and it was a great trip down memory lane – not because she lived in a house like that, but because of all the things in it. As a child I used to go with my aunt and uncle to Coats Memorial Church when I stayed with them, and was fascinated by the baptisms when the person was submerged in the water! I hope they can find a use for the building because it would be such a shame if it was pulled down.

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  16. I love it when museums preserve rooms exactly as they used to be…it is like stepping back in time! What was the purpose of the bed in the kitchen? To sleep where it was warm in the winter? And I’m glad you reconnected with your old friend. It’s so much fun when you realize that you still relate to each other so easily and well!

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    • Partly, also there would just be one bedroom and several children so they would have the bedroom and the parents would have the recess. My Granny and Granda still slept in it in the 60s and 70s. Some tenements – “single ends” wouldn’t even have a bedroom.

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  18. You find the most interesting places to visit! The old stoves and the vestry toilet certainly caught my eye! … and yes, the classroom from the 50/60s looked quite familiar. We too had those desks with the ink wells, although by the time I went to school fountain pens were no longer in use.

    Great picture at the beginning of you with your old school friend. Thirty years of catching up is a lot!!

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  19. I was home in Canada last week for my father’s 88th birthday and caught up with an old high school friend I hadn’t seen in 30 years. Then on Sunday we went to New Lanark, a place I haven’t been since 1992! I was really struck by the coincidences – your post has struck a particular cord today! I really enjoyed walking up to the waterfall and around the beautifully preserved buildings in New Lanark. Your photos are excellent!

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  20. Hi Anabel – I was going to comment yesterday … but got carried away with looking up Agnes Deans Cameron – the British Columbia suffragette tapestry called to me! What a wonderful selection of photos and museums and subjects you managed to cover … so interesting to read about.

    While meeting up with Janet, and then later your sister for Mothering Sunday weekend – a treat for your mother. I shall remember sitooterie and too fantoosh – wonderful words.

    So much to comment on … schools – love the tiled pillars … but it looks like a very good recreation … and the excuses for no gym; the tenement house … and the two museums; New Lanark Mill … so glad it’s being put to good use … Robert Owen would be happy; the Coats’ church – impressive red sandstone.

    Wonderful area – and you’ve shown us so much … loved the post – cheers Hilary

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  21. That school museum looks so interesting, Scotland seems to have so many hidden treasures like that. Might have to put it on our list for our stay there in May.

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  22. Hi, Anabel – I love meet-ups with old friends where conversations easily continue as if no time gap existed. Being able to share museums and exhibitions together sounds like perfect icing on the cake.
    BTW – Stramash is a very useful word to know – I can think of many, many uses for it!

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  23. I hated gym class in middle school! As I recall, we actually had really awful gym uniforms we had to wear. The museums look so interesting – we have very few anywhere near here. As far as your concern about the V&A, one thing I learned in marketing is that it’s good to have a bunch of similar companies in one area; it increases business for them all. This is why you usually see lots of car dealerships in one area, for example.
    Nice that you had a good visit with Janet after 30 years. Fun!

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  24. A range of great museums. It was a surprise to find Cilla Black in Scotland Street School. I was born not far from there so I might have been a pupil if we had not moved to the outskirts.

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  25. That is one jam packed month! I quite fancy visiting a tenament house and I loved the tapestry that you got a second look at. Nice that you got to see your friend after a gap of thirty years….and you still got on so well. X

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  27. So many great adventures! I will admit to similiar misgivings about the effect the Dundee V&A might have on the city’s other museums; and I am glad to hear that it has only enhanced their visitor numbers! Have a great April!

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  28. Stramash seems like the perfect word to describe the whole Brexit catastrophe. Part of me is grateful that our idiot (U.S.) government isn’t the only one making headlines. On the other hand, I can only shake my head at the state of the world in general.

    Now, about that Vestry toilet… I’m not sure I’d ever feel comfortable sitting on something so pretty 🙂

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  29. You always manage to fit so much in and how lovely to include a visit with your friend. It’s always great how, even though you don’t see each other for so long, everything just picks up again. That’s true friendship.

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  30. I remember visiting Scotland Street School about 20 years ago when it used to host the Macmillan charity art exhibition. It was well worth it, to see the artworks and the school itself. The hall was covered in paintings, from floor to ceiling and I’ve never seen so many paintings by well-known Scottish artists in one place!

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  31. you’ve been busy and the piccies are splendid. There’s a bit of a toilet theme too, which may b a metaphor for Parliament just now I suppose…

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  32. Excellent post. To my eternal discredit, I haven’t been to New Lanark or Coats Memorial though I’ve been past the latter many times. The language I tend to use about politics tends to be rather sweary but stramash is quite a good one to describe scenes in the House of Commons at the moment!

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  33. I loved your post. I remember studying New Lanark at school in desks much like those in your photo. I am against Brexit but have no idea what will happen. I expect we will muddle through as usual.

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  34. Anabel – what a nice bunch of wanderings. Good luck with votes. We have had our own troubles with voting over here. Meanwhile, I keep my crochet hook and a bunch of yarn close-by. All the best – Susan

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  35. That’s so nice to have a great visit from an old friend. I know one that, we don’t talk often, but when we do, we just pick up where we left off. I love that. It sounds like you had a great time in the museums and that school looks so beautiful. The classroom from the 50’s and 60’s reminds me of my time in school and those seats! How often I squirmed in them:) I love the museum with the roof garden. the bunnies are funny and that man has a true heart. Too bad there are not more around like him. Love the quote. Brexit doesn’t want to be resolved eh? We got hit with the carbon tax…more tax..ughhh

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  36. You had a very busy March, Anabel. I love the reasons parents gave for their children opting out of gym class. Also, the word “stramash” which does seem to describe the Brexit debacle. I wonder what is finally going to happen? Do you think it will absolutely go through? I know so many Brits who are opposed to it. Just like people are opposed to our current administration here. Happy April.

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