Lost Glasgow

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My dad and grandfather were both architects in Glasgow, so I was brought up on stories about the city and its buildings. To trade, I'm a writer and journalist, but I've always been fascinated by old photographs of the city, and the stories they can tell us. O’Connor was so intimidated by the jeering crowd on his opening night that he pretended to faint, having to be dragged off stage by the ankles. Google analytics allows us to see that pretty well anywhere in the world where there’s a Glasgow ex-pat, we have a fan. Now the team behind Lost Glasgow are hosting their own exhibition, sharing their favourite images from Glasgow's history. Sadly, due to its riverside location, the venue witnessed more than just fashion disasters; with one or two well-oiled clubbers deciding to go for a midnight dip in the Clyde, with fatal consequences.

Despite the city council’s ambitions to turn the riverside into a bustling hive of activity, all too soon, the walkway became the favoured al-fresco gathering spot of street drinkers and drug users. This, I should point out, is just a hobby – a Hydra-headed hobby which has grown arms and legs – one which now sees me lead city history walks, stage exhibitions, give talks, appear on TV and radio, and get called in to consult on a variety of history and heritage projects. With the battle for civil rights in the US at its height, Liston said: "I am warm here, because I am among warm people and I feel that and react to it. Some things never change - like the weather. Pedestrians dash across the busy street, one with an umbrella, on a sodden day. Absolutely. Yeah, I’m particularly worried about that at the moment because I’ve been carrying lots of bits and pieces about how vandalised it’s getting worse. It’s interesting. The Queen’s Park bandstand has had things going on, during this time, just very small scale things. And it’s been used for exercise classes and things like that. Whereas the one in Kelvingrove seems to have been really quiet and this tide of of graffiti is gradually enveloping, which is a real shame.Launched in 1990, as part of Glasgow’s year as European City of Culture, the venue breathed new life into the long-neglected vaults which support the rail lines from the city’s Central Station. Once home only to pigeons, rats and the occasional rough sleeper, it was soon thronged; by day, with gallery and theatre goers and, by night, by the first generation of ravers and Ecstasy enthusiasts. Picture: John Devlin There’s some of that with the older followers on Lost Glasgow, who obviously, remember the pre-motoway city, the city of trams, and all the rest of it that we all of course, imagine, there was some kind of golden time, some sort of perfect good old days and pining for it. But of course, there never was the perfect time in Glasgow. I suspect that most folk would probably think of that, like that 1950s post war baby boom generation. Yeah, as being the perfect time in Glasgow. But Glasgow was going through tough times then as well. Absolutely. Eh, it’s one of these strange things because obviously with the rise of the Internet and social media and online dating and all the rest of it, the historic meeting dating game has probably changed beyond all recognition. It certainly has, from my teenage years there’s something I think, to me at least fairly sterile about that, because there’s, there’s nothing beats that sort of magic moment on a Friday or Saturday night when you, you catch somebody’s eye and there’s that awkward sort of dancing around each other. Trying out your best moves and your best part and hoping that you’ll land a lumber.

New Practice has turned our grief into something positive and meaningful to make the streets of Glasgow safer,” says her father John Newman. “Emma’s death is devastating for all of us who loved her and the future is worse for it; [this campaign] helps rectify that, by honouring and continuing her work for liveable cities and neighbourhoods.” In this episode we’ll be talking about historic music venues and ballrooms as spaces of interactions and connection. So how many of your favourite memories are linked to a music venue? And how important are these spaces for our collective memory and who knows about lost memories better than Norry Wilson from Lost Glasgow, Norry is a journalist and social historian with a lifelong fascination with his home city, Glasgow.This Sauchiehall Street watering hole changed names many times over the years, though most would probably remember it as Sparkles. There were also, as always, the usual slew of comments demanding “they” do something about it, that “they” sort it out, that “they” are destroying our city. The “they” are never specified, but usually, “they” means “the cooncil”. Eventually, as my shifts got longer, and pay and conditions got worse, I spat the dummy, handed in my resignation and was hammered out the door by my colleagues. Newspapers were over. Time for something else. I remember being slightly horrified in my early clubbing days, my favourite destination of a Friday night was Maestro in Scott Street upside the Art School. I had my mom who was at the Art School in the 1940s. She said she said, where are you going? I found this really good new trendy night club full of my tribe. And mum said where is it? Scott Street on the side of the Art School, and she said, Oh, we used to go dancing in there in the 1940s. I was absolutely horrified that this exciting underground venue that I discovered, had been my mom’s hangout 40 years previously.