Ever wondered what's inside the Mercat Cross of Glasgow? A carved staircase to the roof! The original cross was removed in 1659 and this replacement was inaugurated on 24th April 1930.
It was designed by Scotland's first practicing female architect, Edith Burnett Hughes. The unicorn and interior animal figures were modelled by Margaret Cross Primrose Findlay.
Pics: Alisdair Woodburn
Greek Thomson's 1865 Grecian Buildings - now to be put on the market by the Scottish Government.
Detail of a Greek Thomson designed panel on the former Roslin Place tenements at 373-387 Sauchiehall Street.
When one side of the building didn't want to pay for stone cleaning.
Maybe they won, the stone that was cleaned started to degrade.
258-260 Renfrew Street.
A young Queen Victoria, safe behind bird netting, above the central door of the former McLellan Galleries. Sauchiehall Street (James Smith 1855).
The strange little balcony you see when looking west from the high altar of Glasgow Cathedral is accessed from inside the tower and would perhaps have been used for the bellringer to see the high altar and know when to ring the bells at the elevation of the host. The large circular opening you can see beyond it was built in c. 1410 as the tower was being constructed and allowed the large and heavy bells to be hoisted into place.
The coat of arms on the balcony is that of the Royal College of Science and Technology (which later merged with the Scottish College of Commerce to form Strathclyde University) - probably indicating that the college paid toward the restoration of the balcony when the roof was remade in around 1900.
Just managed to sneak into the glorious former Bank of Scotland building on Sauchiehall Street. It's finally being done up (as an insurance office and call centre).
Great to see it gain a use again.
A sideways look at the colonnaded attic storey of architect David Rhind's 1853-57 Commercial Bank of Scotland on Gordon Street. One of the most "Edinburgh" buildings in Glasgow in my view - hardly surprising perhaps, given that is where Rhind was from...
He specialised in banks and his main other prominent work in Glasgow is the column with Sir Walter Scott on top of it in the centre of George Square.
(he also designed the street layout of Pollokshields)
This one's on Cambridge Street. Formerly Lord Kelvin's Warehouse, only the façade of Duncan McNaughtan's 1884 "Venetian-style" building remains - everything behind has been redeveloped.
I loathe bird spikes. They make the very things whose appearance they are supposed to be protecting look ugly. Also not a fan of thoughtlessly installed cables - and Glasgow is liberally infested with both.
So every now and then I spend a very satisfying 20 minutes manually removing them from photos...
One of the striking art-nouveau sculptures by Albert Hodge on Caledonian Chambers, Union St (1901).
Glasgow Cathedral 890th Special Exhibition
Date: 7 jul • 13:30
Glasgow's best, and best-sited cottage orné - a style that was all about escaping the city and being Elegantly Rural.
I feel a bit sad seeing this, looks like someone was making a go of it but bit off more than they could deal with (or lost a job or something).
The prominent, single-story Renaissance-style booking office building was designed by the renowned architect Sir J.J. Burnet. It features an acute-angled corner layout, a distinctive hexagonal tower, and unique round and lunette windows
This 150-foot-tall cantilever crane on the River Clyde. Completed in 1907, it was the world’s first giant electrically powered cantilever crane and was crucial in constructing legendary ships like the Queen Mary and the QE2