Glasgow's West End: Kelvingrove, The Hunterian,  The Tenement House and Glasgow Green Museum

A pre-lockdown trip to, and hasty return from, Glasgow statying in the wonderful and unappreciated Park area in the West End. Kelvingrove gallery had a nice exhibition on the Scottish Colourists and at the Hunterian we had an informative and enthusiastic guided tour to illustrate the influence on, particularly, Scottish art of the work of James McNeill Whistler from their permanent collection. See some highlights here. 

The Tenement House is a National Trust for Scotland property left to the Trust by a single middle-class lady, Agnes Toward, who lived in the one tenement apartment for her entire life (1886-1975). The interior reflects the typical way of life of a tenement resident in Glasgow in the 20th century and matches very closely and nostalgically my own experience of housing in the first nine years of my life when I was brought up in an almost identical apartment in a different part of the city. Living in a tenement in Glasgow did not necessarily identify your financial status.  Even within the same tenement block (bounded by streets on each side and containing several entrances from each street), there were 'single end' apartments (called 'houses' in Glasgow) with only one room and sometimes sharing toilet facilities up to very large apartments with several bedrooms and facilities for servants. The different types would have their entrances on different streets.  I grew up in a middle-type (one bedroom, kitchen/living room, parlour/sitting room/extra bedroom, with a cast iron range for cooking and internal bathroom. I had an uncle who was a surgeon at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, who had a 4-bedroom apartment with very spacious rooms, separate kitchen and a maid's quarter. The same range of tenants still exists in Glasgow tenements today. 

Glasgow Green Museum in the city's East End houses exhibits about the city, with typical local authority lack of imagination and visitor comfort.  Nevertheless, it contains some interesting and, again, nostalgic photographs of Glasgow at the time I lived there as a child and teenager.

A composite score for our last break before lockdown: ❤❤❤❤