Glasgow Gallivanting: February 2026
John can have the prize for the furthest gallivanting in February – in what is now an annual event he went to Lanzarote with some of his cycling friends. It was not easy receiving pictures like these every day as I shivered in the dreich Glasgow weather!
Culturally, February was a lot quieter after the mad rush of Celtic Connections – just one concert – but I visited a couple of good exhibitions. The first was Café d’Jaconelli: A Scottish Italian Story at Maryhill Halls where I had my exhibition last year. Founded by a family of Italian immigrants, Jaconelli’s on Maryhill Road recently celebrated its centenary. The exhibition centres on the café while also telling a wider story about Italian migration to Scotland. The most intriguing fact I learned was that temperance campaigners regarded ice cream parlours as dens of iniquity, almost on a level with pubs.
The other exhibition was at Street Level Photoworks: Simon Phipps – Brutal Scotland: Scotland’s Post-War Modernist Architecture.
The focus of this new exhibition is Scotland’s post-war modernist architecture, selected from Phipps’ extensive photographic series which embraced 160 buildings across the country. Brutalist buildings in Scotland, emerging from post-war optimism (1950s–1970s), hold immense historical relevance as tangible, concrete symbols of social ambition, architectural experimentation, urban renewal, and in some cases the outcome of rapid slum clearance. While sometimes divisive, these structures—such as St Peter’s Seminary and Cumbernauld Centre—are increasingly recognised as having significant architectural heritage, representing a bold, functionalist era that aimed to improve lives. These once state-of-the-art structures are at a crossroads where some have fallen into disrepair and neglect, whilst some are being repurposed for contemporary use.
It was interesting, but I find most of these buildings hard to love.
I haven’t yet led any women’s history walks myself this year, but with two of the other Women’s Library guides I went to Paisley for a trial run of an audio-trail created by a women’s group there. Next week, we’ll go back to give our feedback though we have already let them know that we loved it. Paisley is where my parents lived so I know it quite well and pictures have appeared here before, though not, I think, of the sites below. It was raining quite heavily as you can probably see from at least one of the pictures.
And finally, some Glasgow street art to finish. As you can see, the Glasgow Penguins were having fun at their own Winter Olympics! (These definitely look better if you click to scroll through the gallery).
Linking to Natalie’s Monthly Wrap-Up and her Public Art theme.
Happy March!
The Glasgow Gallivanter 
Poot John, having to go to Lanzarote without you. 🙂 Did you ever find out who creates these cure penguins and their antics? I keep hoping to switch to monthly wrap-ups on my blog as well, but I’m always so far behind that this seems impossible. For now anyway.
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I’m sure it was very difficult to see John cycling under blue skies in Spain while you were hunkering down under gloomy skies. That town of Paisley looks adorable, and it’s interesting that the Italians that migrated were abused as immigrants. Amazing that people would think of ice cream parlors as dens of iniquity. It looks like you had a very busy and fun-filled February.
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I was especially interested in your account of the Jaconelli’s exhibition. Like you I never knew about the view of ice cream parlours as dens of iniquity. I wonder if that was a particularly Scottish Presbyterian view or more widely held in Britain? My husband’s grandmother came to Newcastle from Italy with her parents as a small child. Like Glasgow, Newcastle was a focus for Italian immigration. Her father worked for another Italian immigrant, Marco Toni, who established an ice cream business that is still a local institution – Mark Toney’s. Later she married a Geordie who also found work with the Tonis, making ice cream cones.
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I suspect it is a very Scottish Presbyterian world view! That’s an interesting family history. Mark Toney rings a vague bell. The Italian name I most remember growing up is Notriani’s, the cafe at Seaburn.
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I don’t really know Seaburn, but there’s also Toney Minchella in South Shields
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I’ve been bombarded with blue sky photos from Australia where my daughter has been gallivanting after finally getting her house sold.
Glad to see the penguins are back.
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It’s nice to see other people’s blue skies but a bit annoying too! Glad your daughter got her house sold, I assume she is visiting her brother. The penguins have been missing in action for a while so when I saw on social media that they were staging a Winter Olympics I went down to look. Most of it had been pinched by then!
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Lanzarote sounds like a great choice for a holiday get away in February! Not sure I understand their sculptures though! I remember Italian ice cream shops very well! When the rationing was lifted after the war our whole family walked to our local shop and had ice creams with chocolate on top!! Never to be forgotten! Did you persuade the viewer in the green anorak to position herself there as the photo is great with colour combinations and style!! Thanks for the tip about scrolling through the photos…wonderful.
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The sculpture seemed rather risqué! My mother had great memories of her local Italian ice cream shop growing up – we went to its 90th party around 2014! I was waiting for the woman in the green anorak to move then it occurred to me that she added to the picture.
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Some lovely photos here Anabel. I’ve never been a fan of dark green Victorian tiling but I love that border in the Paisley building, also the floor mosaic. Some great street art too, the Brutal Scotland exhibition looks interesting and the penguins look happy. You should have gone with John, Lanzarote looks a whole heap better than over here and I’m sure you could have occupied yourself while he was off cycling 😊
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Thanks Eunice. In all the years I visited Paisley when Mum and Dad lived there I had never looked at that tiled doorway, so I was glad to discover it. I could have gone to Lanzarote but i don’t like lying around by pools or beaches and I don’t like shopping which seem to be the main activities on offer! I could go walking of course, but I’d rather do that with John some time.
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