by gap74 » Sat Jun 26, 2004 11:17 am
The last wee batch I'll scan from the aforementioned The Twilight Years of the Glasgow Tram. As I mentioned with the earlier pics, and as suggested by the title, these all date from about 1960-1962.
As for why it seems to be only transport pics from this era that are in colour - I dunno, are the wee men from those days who were fascinated by trams and buses any different from us wee men (and gals!) who are fascinated with tunnels and derelict buildings? And just like those of us nowadays who come to this forum to feed our mildly eccentric cravings for abandoned hospitals and the like, you tend to find that such wee men from the past were fairly technologically savvy. They didn't have the net, but they did have colour photography, which I imagine was still fairly expensive to do back then. Just my thoughts on the matter, but then I happen to like the look of old trams and buses too, so I ain't complaining!
So, without further ado....
By the way, the next lot of photos I have are from a Douglas Corrance book, whom someone was asking about recently in another thread. They're from 1981, but that's close enough to pre-1980 to me!
St Georges X, with the old Empress Theatre in the background. Opened in 1913 as The West End Playhouse, it changed it's name to the Empress Variety Theatre and Picture Playhouse the year after. It suffered a bit of a fire in 1956, changed it's name to The New Metropole in 1962 and was eventually bought by Jimmy Logan. Unfortunately, the blight of the M8 and the redevelopment work isolated the theatre, and attempts to redevelop it were met by constant planning refusals, so it lay derelict for a spell before being demolished in 1987.
Balmore Road, by the old Vogue Cinema. Was up here myself a few days ago to look at the condition of the place, noticed that the bridge in the background appears to have long since gone.
A bit dark on the left, but for me, this is a great shot of Sauchiehall Street. I walk along this section every day on my way to and from work, and to see people doing likewise 40 years previously is fascinating. The cinema on the right is now Blanket nightclub, and the fabled Grand Hotel at Charing Cross is in the distance, awaiting the M8 to come crashing through and flatten it!
Along practically outside the Grand Hotel now, the tram is turning up what apepars to be St Georges Rd.
Back in the city centre, this is Renfield Street at the junction with St Vincent Street.
George Square from Queen Street, with that lovely arch in the background. Thanks goodness a hideous hotel extension now hides that from view....
A slightly closer shot to really hammer home what a good thing it is that the hotel extension was built there.
Finally, a quite emotive shot of what purports to be Wilmots temporary scrapyard, somewhere in Partick - anywere near where the scrapyard by the Kelvin was until recently I wonder? I'm guessing that this was after most, if not all, of the tram routes had been withdrawn.
Gary