Glasgow Gallivanting: June 2020

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Martyrs’ School

I’m ashamed to say that I’ve lived in Glasgow for 35 years and there is one Charles Rennie Mackintosh building that I have never seen before, so one sunny Sunday in June we made the Martyrs’ Public School, in Parson Street in Townhead, the goal of our daily walk. It’s one of the earlier buildings Mackintosh worked on, and hasn’t been a school for many years, though unlike others it hasn’t been coverted to housing but is part of the city’s social work department.

Commissioned by the School Board of Glasgow and built between 1895 and 1898, the architects were Honeyman and Keppie, the practice in which Mackintosh was a senior assistant: his strong influence can be seen clearly in the building’s style. At the time it was set in the middle of a densely populated area of tenement buildings which have long since vanished to be replaced by more modern homes (as seen in the first picture below) and a busy dual carriageway. Mackintosh himself was born at 70 Parson Street and a plaque next to the school commemorates this. The black sculpture has an inscription by Mackintosh: Without you, everything has a flatness. I feel as if I’m waiting for something all the time. I guess, but don’t know, that this was addressed to his wife, Margaret Macdonald.

Mackintosh sculpture, Townhead
Martyrs’ School
Martyrs’ School
Martyrs’ School
Martyrs’ School
Martyrs’ School
Mackintosh birthplace plaque

Across the road two other buildings complete this island of tradition amongst modernity. St Mungo’s Church, designed by George Goldie in an Italian Gothic style, was built in 1841, with later work in 1877. Next to the church, to the east, is St Mungo’s Retreat.

St Mungo’s
St Mungo’s
St Mungo’s

On the way to Townhead, we stopped to look at the Orient Buildings in Cowcaddens. Originally a boarding house, then a warehouse, this iron-framed construction was designed by William James Anderson in an Italianate style and completed in 1895. We couldn’t help but notice that we were being spied upon from one of the windows …

Orient Buildings
Orient Buildings and cat
Orient Buildings

Another place we have long known about, but never visited, is the memorial garden on the site of the Stockline Plastics Factory explosion in 2004 in which nine people died. One of our walks took us past it by chance and we spent a few minutes paying our respects. It’s beautifully maintained. The red building in the background of the first shot is the current Stockline Factory.

Stockline Memorial Garden
Stockline Memorial Garden
Stockline Memorial Garden
Stockline Memorial Garden
Stockline Memorial Garden

This next section is not something that happened this month: I’m including it specially for Geoff LePard who has, amongst many other things, been writing about his undergraduate adventures as a law student in Bristol. In one post he included a passage about his grapplings with the law of tort and the case of the snail in the ginger beer. I knew all about this – and I probably first heard about it around the same time as Geoff, because we both went to university in 1975 and my boyfriend in my undergraduate years was a law student. Anyway, enough said about him, he’s history, which coincidentally is what I was studying. Back to the snail …

The case in question originated in Paisley, the town my mum lives in, where a sculpture of May Donoghue, who drank the contaminated ginger beer in 1928, was erected in 2018. The plaque below explains it better than I ever could – and not till I was preparing this post did I notice that the artist is Mandy McIntosh, whom I have met a few times through a project she led at the women’s library.

Dear Duty sculpture
Dear Duty sculpture

Across the road is even more information, at the site of the Wellmeadow Café where Mrs Donoghue’s friend bought the ginger beer. Possibly only Geoff will want to read it, but I include it for him to peruse if he wishes!

I know I said I’d give up photographing the rainbows and teddies which decorated Glasgow during lockdown, but I haven’t – although I have cut down. This month, the Black Lives Matter message has been included in, or replaced, many of them.

And finally, last month I wrote about the virtual Twitter walk that I’d done for the Women’s Library. One of the other guides has done a short video trailer for the same walk, embedded below. Can you guess which voice is mine in the audio description? I’ll leave you with that puzzle – happy July!

West End Women’s Heritage Walk Trailer from Glasgow Women’s Library on Vimeo.

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47 Comments »

  1. Pingback: Glasgow Gallivanting: May 2022 – The Glasgow Gallivanter
  2. Pingback: Paisley patterns – The Glasgow Gallivanter

  3. I read the whole snail story! I accidentally stepped on a slug that was on my kitchen floor a while back, and the sensation of cold slime between my bare toes was just horrible, so I can imagine how unpleasant it would be to find out you’d been drinking a rotting snail. Blech!
    I’ve read a few books on the adulteration of products and the movements for pure food and drink, and whilst the snail wasn’t an intentional addition, it fits into the same category of holding manufacturers responsible, and knowing how they did anything they could to avoid liability, I really admire Mary Donaghue’s determination. I do have more questions about this snail that the plaques didn’t answer though. I want to know how big it was, and how big the mouth of the bottle was, just to help me visualise it. I could see a slug oozing into a bottle of ginger beer easy, but I reckon it would have to be a fairly small snail for the shell to have fit in!

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  5. Anabel – such fun, the walk and the promo. Did you introduce ‘Big Rachel’? – or maybe ‘the gate’ – I forget the name!
    The window decor is really nice – a way to communicate during stay-at-home times. Thanks for sharing – Susan

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  6. Blue skies in June and plenty of new sites to visit! I still think it’s awesome that there are new buildings or gardens for you to explore after 35 years. Glasgow keeps entertaining – you and us! 🙂

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  7. Hi Anabel – this deserves a longer read through and look around … fascinating – the snail the beer … etc etc … if I ever get to Glasgow again – this is a post I can come back to … take care – Hilary

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  8. An upside of lockdown discovering parts of Glasgow you have never visited before!

    I’d never heard about Mary Donoghue before, what a woman. Four years is a long time to fight a legal battle.

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  11. It’s great that you can still find new discoveries in the place you’ve called home for 35 years (the same time I’ve been here in Durango). I should get out and do a little history walk here! Would make for a few good blog posts. Unfortunately, the tourist hordes have descended and there won’t likely be any shots without people! Enjoyed your journey and the video. What a great project!

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    • Thank you! I hope she doesn’t put the English in quarantine or I might be in trouble 😉😆! Though there is a case for local restrictions to prevent clusters spreading, and if that includes doing something at the border, or part of the border area, I’d support it if it seemed necessary. At the moment, areas of Dumfries and Galloway are more restricted than the rest of the country because of a cluster they are trying to contain there. Today our five-mile leisure travel limit relaxes – and it’s tipping down. Typical!

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  16. A fascinating quote, indeed (Without you, everything has a flatness. I feel as if I’m waiting for something all the time.) Delighted that you were able to tick off your final Charles Rennie Mackintosh building to complete your list.

    How did I miss the news if the horrific Stockline Plastics Factory explosion? What a tragic event. Thank goodness the quick thinking of early responders kept it from being even worse.

    I am captivated by the story of Mary Donoghue #nevergiveup. I don’t even need a picture of Joun to see him smiling at the statement that your undergraduate boyfriend was history. You traded up for a better model.

    The pictures of rainbows and Teddies coupled with Black Lives Matter messages perfectly capture the essence of 2020, …and we are only halfway through the year!!! I am hopeful that the remainder of the year is filled with healing, love, acceptance, and progress toward eliminating systemic racism for good.

    Love the clip of you in the Vimeo. Is that your voice right afterward?

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  17. I would be most put out if I found a snail in my drink, poor woman. Makes for a good story though. Looks like you have discovered more about your city in lockdown. One good thing to come out of it at least. 🙂

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  18. Very interesting post. I enjoyed all of it, including the short video at the end. As for your question, I picked the Glasgow Memorial Gates section as your voice. Probably not, but that’s what I thought.

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  19. The ‘snail in the bottle’ makes interesting reading – you learn something every day – and I love he look of the Orient Buildings 🙂

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  20. That is fantastic. Leaving aside the societal importance of Atkins judgement and the persistence of the people involved, it had a profound impact on me as a young man since it showed a fairness and compassion in the centre of the legal system. Thanks so much for showing me where my snail trail started.

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