Glasgow IN COLOUR pre 1980

[gap74]

Undated Great Western Road, where the reserved tram tracks ended just before the canal bridge. No date, but this stretch of track only operated between 1949 and 1960.


Elmbank Street, 1965. Baird Hall looks very grey in the background, hopefully to be retored with the latest redevelopment. Note the SNP logo scrawled on the wall on the right.

Eglinton Toll, April 1960.


Dumbarton Rd looking East, with the then Partick Hill Station was on the other side of the bridge from the current one. Hayburn Street is on the right in the foreground.

Cathedral St at the junction with Buchananan St, now utterly beyond recognition. Not dated, but the Five Ways Lounge in the background is the corner where Sainsbury's now sits under the Buchanan Galleries.


Buchanan Street, where the main entrance to the underground now sits. May 1970.

The now pedestrianised part of Argyle Street, with Lewis's and the Buck's Head Building on the right. Date is Sept 1st 1962, last day of normal operation for the trams.


Great Western Road at Anniesland, with the Ascot/Gaumont/Odeon cinema on the right, now of course largely demolished for flats (bastards!). Dating fromt he late 50s, the cinema is showing North by Northwest!

That's all folks, now go buy the book and alleviate my guilt!

Gary

[My Kitten]

you can be guilt free - just ordered my copy

Smashing pics arent they

[james73]

Brilliant pictures Gap74 - I'll need to get a copy of that book methinks.






James H

[john-g]

Wow they're amazing!

I'll check out the bookstore tomorrow, promise!

You probably already know this but http://www.glasgow1938.com have a selection of colour prints from the 1938 Empire Exhibition. Well worth a tenner!


Imagine Glasgow today with the Tate tower still in place, with that inspiration behind us maybe we wouldn't have sank into the mess of the post war years? Maybe people would have been more critical of the council built commieblocks? Tourism would certainly have received a boost, it would have been our Eiffel tower.

[john-g]

Nine copies left!

Good book.

[DMcNay]

Imagine Glasgow today with the Tate tower still in place, with that inspiration behind us maybe we wouldn't have sank into the mess of the post war years? Maybe people would have been more critical of the council built commieblocks? Tourism would certainly have received a boost, it would have been our Eiffel tower.

Remember the Second World War put an end to this style of architecture. In fact, the Exhibition was really the last gasp of this style. The country was already gearing up for war.

[john-g]

Yeah, the exhibition was only ever intended to be temporary, but then so was the Eiffel Tower?

One of the reasons floating around for its destruction was that the tower could be used as a navigational aid by Luftwaffe bombers, which sounds like phish to me.

If you look at the "Bruce plan" drawn up in the late forties, early fifties they made plans for a couple of deco and neo classical towers, (as well as all the concrete boxes).

It wasn't really till the late fifties, sixties and early seventies (by which time they were already largely discredited) That the "International style" boxes took hold. Not so much by design as by lack of competition (all were built by the council) so people had no choice, or anyone to complain to. Financial woes by this point would have ruled out anything fancy too.

Maybe if Tate tower survived though it would have kept civic pride alive in the post war years? Fostered a better organised conservation movement earlier? Given architects something to aim for? I'm just hypothesising here.

[DMcNay]

It would have been pulled down anyway - it was almost entirely made of asbestos.

[aliferste]

Absolutely fantastic pics

[john-g]

You mean like Sighthill

[john-g]

Here's a find... Glasgow subway - premodernisation. In colour!

http://www.trainweb.org/ukrailways/


The carriages looked a hell of a lot better. Note woman lighting fag.


In fact the stations and carriages looked better too, why did the seventies have to be so crap?


Depot.


Eerie passageway.


What station was this?


Antique signage.


Carriage in original livery.


Modernisation underway, must be 1979.

[james73]

What station was this?

Excellent pictures.

Off the top of my drunken napper, I'd hazard a guess at that station being
either Cowcaddens, Kinning Park or Shields Road.




James H

[stunev]

Looks like Govan to me

[gap74]

This is about two thirds of the pics I intend to scan from a book I mentioned in my earlier post in this thread. It's called The Twilight Years of the Glasgow Tram, and as the title suggests, most of the pics were taken in the last few years of operation of the Glasgow tram system - late 50s till 1962. The book contains over 250 pics, of which I'll scan only around 20. The captions under these pics here are my own.

The book was published in 1998 by Adam Gordon, and proceeds from its sale go towards the restoration of a Glasgow tram he owns, currently being stored at Blackpool apparently. It's a fairly interesting collection, being culled mostly from the colour slides of one Douglas McMillan, and with captions by Alasdair Turnbull. The pics cover a fair range of Glasgow, particularly the outer areas that rarely get covered in these sort of things - Springburn, Paisley, Renfrew, Burnside, etc. I've tried to pick pics here which show scenes most people will be familiar with, either in the city centre or on arterial routes.

If anyone is interested, it's 25 quid, but quite tricky to track down - I got it after a couple of weeks waiting from Amazon.


Battlefield Road, with the little bit of reserved track there. Explains why the road is so curiously wide there these days I guess! And Gordon, is that The Mission Bar I see, without that modern building next to it that confused us so??

Stonelaw Road, for the fair few of us who seem to hail from Cambuslang/Rutherglen!


Sauchiehall Street at the junction with Renfield Street - fairly familiar today with Lauders and the Pavilion still there, but what the hell was The Bottle Boutique??


Renfield Street, with the grubby Tramways Department in the foreground, now The Filling Station eaterie. Nice to see both the YMCA/Lyric Theatre and Green's Playhouse in the background!

Jamaica Street from the bridge, with Paisley's where the gargantuan new Jury's Inn is now.


Further up Jamaica Street, with what is now The Crystal Palace dominating the view.

The bottom of Hope Street, from the junction with Argyle Street.

Govan, with the looming auditorium of the long demolished Plaza Cinema in the background.

Another cinema shot, this time the Orient in Gallowgate peeking to the left of the frame. Alas, the Orient is being razed as we speak... I think I'm right in saying that every tenement in this picture has been demolished, apart from the row of shops under them behind the tram. The Bellgrove Hotel is still with us though, for better or worse, visible just behind the tram.

Eglinton Toll, surprisingly little-changed. Anyone any idea what's happening with the Plaza, is it still open??

Bridgeton Cross, although most of the buildings in shot have been demolished. Just out of shot on the left is the also soon to be facade-retained Olympia Cinema.

More in a few days when I get time!

Gary

[johnnyanglia]

Amazing photos. I think i will be another one buying the book. I look at the trams and think "Yeah fair enough". But what really amazes me is the cars. They are absolute works of art. The 50's/60's Fords and Vauxhalls are the epitome of brash flash. They really look incredible. The fashion are amazing too. One of my deep regrets is that it is no longer common place to be able to wear a suit on a daily basis without being accused of being a copper or bouncer !. However i think we have got to remember that the past was not too great. Yeah we had cars, fashion and beautiful building to admire but i think people had a less "worldly" outlook. Bigotry and intolerance were much more commonplace. For all its faults the age we live in generally speaking is more "liberal" and we do appreciate the past more even if it is only little digital snaps held in cyberspace.