Glasgow Gallivanting: November 2024

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Eunice and Anabel in Manchester

As I did last month, I open with news of a blogger meetup. John and I spent a week in Manchester at the beginning of November and were delighted that Eunice of Life in the Mouse House was able to come through from Bolton to meet us for a day. Eunice is one of my longest-standing blogger friends – we think we have followed each other since 2015. If you follow her too, you will know that she is an expert at hunting down street art, and she proved an excellent tour guide to some of Manchester’s best mural sites (amongst other things). Here are just a couple of examples to be going on with.

Dogs
Barbie

John and I tramped round Manchester every day but one, when we got the train to Davenport to visit our friend Ted. With him we took to the trains again and did a walk between Middlewood and Disley stations. The highlight was Lyme Park, a National Trust property. The house, which was not open, is famous for playing Pemberley in the BBC’s iconic 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, and the park’s lake is the one from which Mr Darcy emerged in his equally iconic wet shirt. We didn’t see the lake, but we did climb to the Cage, originally built in 1524 and reportedly used in the 17th century as a holding prison for poachers awaiting trial.

Lyme – the house
The Cage
Autumnal oak

Although I have had a city break in Manchester in mind for some years, the specific timing was decided by a big error on my part. We wanted to see Nick Cave on his latest tour and, don’t ask me how I did it, I managed to buy tickets for the wrong city. Definitely a senior moment there! However, it all worked out and we had a great week. Much more to follow in due course.

Nick on piano
Nick centre right amongst the audience

Back in Glasgow, we have been to a couple more gigs. Seasick Steve is 73 and American, while Muireann Bradley is 17 and Irish, yet they have two things in common. They both sing the blues, and they both had their careers boosted by Jools Holland’s New Year Hootenany, Steve in 2006 and Muireann in 2023. Can’t wait to find out who Jools discovers this year!

Seasick Steve was on at the O2 Academy, a former cinema, and Muireann Bradley was at the upstairs venue in Oran Mor, a former church in which the walls and ceiling are gloriously decorated with murals by Alasdair Gray.

Seasick Steve at the O2 Academy
Seasick Steve and band
Part of Alasdair Gray murals
Muireann Bradley at Oran Mor

November has been a very cold month, and we had our first snow of the winter on the 23rd, so I haven’t spent much time looking for things to photograph on my general wanderings. I had a day in Dundee with friends and we spotted a whole street with these metal structures but can’t work out what they are for. Did they once hold lamps or are they purely decorative?

Dundee decoration

Nothing new has appeared at my favourite Stockingfield Bridge, but John took a really good panorama of the Lambhill ceramic mural below its main mast.

Lambhill mural, Stockingfield Bridge

The bad weather hasn’t stopped John going out cycling (though one expedition had to be cut short). Here’s his friend Mark cycling past icy potholes which gives you some idea how daft they are.

Winter cycling on the Greenock Cut

Finally, on the 29th we had a day out to Edinburgh to catch a couple of exhibitions. Women in Revolt! Art and Activism in the UK 1970-1990 is on at Modern 2, part of the National Galleries of Scotland, until 26th January. As you can imagine, this was right up my street. The timescale covers my teens to my early thirties, so it was good to see so many campaigns that I remember or had been a (very small) part of.

Content warning! Look away from the gallery below if you are sensitive to images of Margaret Thatcher. Normally I am too, but I thought that the poster included was very clever. It’s from See Red Women’s Workshop whose members wrote to the newly elected Prime Minister’s office in 1979 claiming to be fans and requesting a formal portrait. They were thrilled to receive one and doctored it with the heading My message to the women of our nation and a speech bubble reading Tough! The portrait is framed by headlines detailing the impact her policies had on women and other minoritised and vulnerable people – policies which I think continue to have a negative impact today. (Other opinions are available, but that’s mine and I’m sticking to it. “I blame Margaret Thatcher” is a common refrain which suits a multitude of purposes).

1970s poster, Sisterhood is Powerful
Crocheted figures by Rita McGurn
Margaret Thatcher poster
Miners’ Strike banner

Also in the gallery above – a 1970s Sisterhood is powerful poster, crocheted figures by Rita McGurn and a banner from the Miners’ Strike of the 1980s. Rita McGurn, who died in 2015, lived in the building next door to my mother-in-law and we could often see artwork through her window. Her daughter yarn bombs a bench in the Botanic Gardens every year in her memory – it has featured here several times and will no doubt do so again come the spring.

We stayed longer than we expected in Modern 2 and had to race across the city to our next destination, Dovecote Tapestry Studios. We arrived ten minutes before the viewing gallery closed so only had time for a quick look down at the studio below. It’s a shame, because there is a beautiful exhibition of handwoven rugs by Ptolemy Mann on the walls. However, the exhibition we had booked tickets for, Stitched: Scotland’s Embroidered Art, was still open and we enjoyed that. Eighty pieces from the collections of the National Trust for Scotland, spanning the years 1720 to 1920, are on display until 18th January. There are large items, such as ornate armchairs and grand bed hangings, and small ones such as cushions and tea cosies. My favourite was one of the samplers, embroidered by Janet Dalrymple in 1740. I loved that it included a weather report: October 23 Uncommon snow.

Tapestry studio from viewing gallery
Sampler by Janet Dalrymple, 1740

And that’s it for November – I hope yours was a good one too. Whatever, will December bring? It’s a mystery, but I’m sure we’ll find something to do!

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  2. It was lovely to meet up with you and John in Manchester and I’m really pleased you enjoyed your week there. The scenery around the Greenock Cut looks great, that’s some view 😊

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  5. I would enjoy seeing the last exhibition you went to very much. Old samplers are always so beautiful and the one you show is wonderful. Our November was very cold at times too, as we went on an expedition cruise to Antarctica! It was warm in Santiago, brisk in Punta Arenas and Stanley on the Falkland Islands, warm of course onboard the ship but absolutely freezing out on deck. Some of our landings in the Falklands and South Georgia were surprisingly mild but in Antarctica it was icy cold. An amazing experience though.

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  8. Glad you enjoyed your trip to Manchester Anabel, or Manc-hatten as its unofficially known. What do you think of all those towers? I go in about every couple of weeks and it always seems that another one has sprung up.

    I’m lukewarm about Nick Cave but I would have enjoyed the Seasick Steve gig.

    p.s. thank goodness you warned me before I reached THAT image.

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  9. You two ALWAYS find something to do, even in the wintertime. Your November was jam-packed again with many fun elements and trips. Ours was just the same old, same old – drive, work, errands, sleepless nights, a stressed Maya, and – luckily – some fun and interesting moments as well, like wildlife watching and a birthday. We have reached Patagonia. 🙂

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  10. what a fabulous, if busy, November. And thanks for the heads up about Modern2 – it is round the corner from where I am staying at Christmas so will see if I can find a moment to visit

    and what a glorious sky at Greenock Cut

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  11. I visited the National Galleries of Scotland when I was in Edinburgh in October. World-class art and free admission, incredible! I’m interested in murals and popped over to Eunice’s blog. How nice that you were able to meet up. Happy December!

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  12. It’s a shame the house at Lyme Park wasn’t open. The BBC version of Pride and Prejudice was excellent and I’ve been wanting to visit the estate for years. I appreciated the content warning 🙂 It is a great poster…

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  13. What is so odd about Thatcher is that she did so many things that went against her own self cultivated image as a canny housewife. “Selling the family silver” was not a good plan, especially when it was not necessary. It looks criminal in retrospect.

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  15. I wonder if those metal fixtures are meant to hold excelsior baskets of hanging flowers. Not quite sure how high up they were.

    The Thatcher poster was an eye opener. I wasn’t really very aware of her policies, being rather fresh to politics at the time. That sampler is precious! One of my second cousins has one done in Philadelphia in 1756. It’s much faded, but names her living relatives, which is wonderful for genealogy.

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    • Could be! That’s definitely more likely than lamps. They are top of the door level.

      Thatcher was very divisive and destroyed a lot of British industry and services for ideological reasons, as well as demonising minority groups. I could go on and on! Like some more contemporary figures you loved her or you hated her, there wasn’t much in between.

      I loved the sampler too.

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  16. What a shame you missed out on Lyme Park, Anabel. I managed a visit when I was over there in 2011 and absolutely loved it. Such a beautiful place and so relaxed. You could go anywhere without anyone bothering you.

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  18. Always like seeing other city murals. I prefer You Tube for finding new bands I like as with Jools the last few years I’m like, No…. no…. Hell no… Boring… meh…and not enough Wow! That’s brilliant….. But maybe I’m too picky. Bob. BSS.

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  21. Heavens above …do you ever stop! Everything in your post looks interesting and colourful. Lots of names I’ve not heard off so it’s off to Wiki again!! Thank you.

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  22. Street Art has so many stories attached to them, some are more refined than others. Our council are now actively looking for artists to brighten up various city walls. Good finds. You’re an inspiration with your gallivanting, Anabel 🙂

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  25. I’d like to have joined you in Manchester. It was my university town, but it’s changed so very much since the 70s I can barely pick my way round the city. I’d like to have met Eunice too, since Daughter Number One and family live in Bolton too . At the moment, I’m going to resist following her, as I have way too many blogs to read these day. And ‘I blame Margaret Thatcher’? Definitely. A repeated theme in our house.

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    • John did a Masters at UMIST in the late 70s and was disappointed to find the main building looking very neglected and the institution almost airbrushed from history. I don’t seem to read quite as many blogs these days, quite a few people seem to have given up. And the Thatcher mantra seems popular so far!

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      • Well, people who don’t like the Thatcher mantra can be quietly given the push! Yes, poor old UMIST seems to have died the death. In fact I’ve just looked it up. It died in 2004. I wonder why? And my blogging pals soldier on. Why do you kill yours off?

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        • It merged with Manchester but in such a way that both institutions were dissolved and a new one created apparently. I guess there must have been quite a large overlap of courses. I haven’t killed anybody*! Some announce they are no longer blogging and others just seem to run out of steam.

          *Yet.

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  26. “Later With Jools Holland” used to be carried by a cable channel in the USA. I watched many episodes. I love that show. That channel stopped carrying Jools five or more years ago. I miss the show a lot.

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    • That’s a shame. For years we’ve discovered new (to us) music through Jools, though either he’s not finding so many good new acts or I’m getting past it because I don’t enjoy it quite so much anymore! The annual Hootenany is always good though, and we’ve seen his show live a few times. He sometimes seems a bit bumbling on screen but I think that’s just a persona he puts on because on stage he’s very obviously in command.

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  27. Another full on month I can’t say a week in Manchester thrills me, but you obviously made the most of it. And so many music gigs! Thatcher was responsible for so much that is wrong with the country, not least the narcissistic, me, me, me generation. Her attitude towards single parents (I was one) was dreadful. The scourge of the country.

    That sampler is impressive. Imagine the hours of work that went into it.

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  28. Another good month for you with music, exhibitions and a blogger meet-up! Sounds like the Nick Cave mix-up was meant to happen as it gave you the excuse for a city break and get-togethers with friends 🙂 I love the story behind that Thatcher poster – I too blame her for much (when I’m not blaming Boris Johnson or Liz Truss!!)

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  29. You’ve been busy and given me some ideas for my own excursions. I’m glad I’m not the only one getting lost/confused. I’m looking forward to see what you’re doing for December. I feel a draw to photographing the North Star in Argyle Street, but I need it to be darker

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  30. Lovely Anabel, made me laugh about the wrong city. It’s something I would do, but with a hotel booking. At least you figured it out. Sounds like you’ve been busy. Have a great December

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