Mesmerize me!

[Socceroo]

I do not think this topic / thread has been addressed before, as a relative newbie, even with the help of a search engine it is difficult to be sure with hundreds of threads and tens of thousands of postings on this unique website.

Anyway to get to the point. Something yesterday triggered my memory of my all time favourite building which totally mesmerized me as a child.

It was Fossy's topic / thread - "Can you guess where it is 2?" which showed the faience (glazed terracotta) clad Department Store on London Road (Fossy's pic below):




Every time i drive past the building on London Road or walk past the faience masterpiece at Battlefield Rest on the island opposite the Victoria Infirmary, i am reminded of my all time favourite building from childhood. That building was the Vogue Cinema on Langlands Road, Govan.

It was destroyed - no other word for it - in the late 1980's by Jamaica Street Properties who built red brick flats in its place.

I remember going past it at night time on the top deck of a bus, seeing it all lit up at night fighting, against the doom and gloom of a sodium lit Glasgow winter night.

So all you building lovers - what is your favourite building from childhood?

[glasgowken]

Hard to say, but probably Queen St Station (inside though, not the awful exterior).
I still get a rush of excitement when I walk under the fugly 60's block into the bustle of people, rumble of trains, smell of diesel, and get a view of that roof, I could almost feel the whole place. Quite frightening really as a little kid, it was sort of overwhelming.

Don't like the 'improvements' over the last few years though

[dazza]

So all you building lovers - what is your favourite building from childhood?

Ha ha! I guess this thread only applies to people that grew up in places where there were... umm.. buildings, or things other than identikit cottages in rural villages etc, etc.

They didn't let me out of Gartloch until i was in my teens, so i guess that counts me out (though i did always think the superintendents house had a certain je ne sais pas).

[McShad]

Pitlochry dam

Watching it open to let millions of gallons of water rumble down the tummel after a heavy storm...

The noice was incredible from the prime vantage point on the right bank where only the locals knew how to get to it... the tourists can watch it from the salmon ladders.

[viceroy]

This will be an unimaginably long time ago for most people on this forum, but my childhood goes back to the nineteen-fifties when I loved being taken to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery, primarily because at that time the ship models were displayed there on the ground floor. That was what made it a kind of paradise for a wee boy such as myself. Don't remember going upstairs to the galleries much, although I do remember seeing Salvador Dali's painting of the Crucifixion which everybody was talking about at that time since the Corporation had only recently purchased it [there had been a lot of controversy about this]. The ship models were later removed to the Transport Museum when it was opened at the old Coplawhill Tramway works on Albert Drive [now of course at the Kelvin Hall].

The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum has always remained one of my favourite buildings in Glasgow and I look forward to seeing it when it reopens once the refurbishment has been completed. Just hope I won't be disappointed with the result.

[Vladimir]

I dont think you will be dissapointed, it looks amazing.

[Socceroo]

Here's a pic of the Vogue, no doubt it's appeared on another thread somewhere, i have got some colour photos of it just before it got knocked down. I'll need to scan them.

A Cinema for George Singleton designed by McKissack. Opened in 1938, the same year as the Empire Exhibition and the same year as the Lyceum Cinema on Govan Road.

It was an amazing building, how they ever got permission to flatten it is beyond me. I would like to think that nearly twenty years later, such a building would not be allowed to be destroyed, but sadly our City Council still seem absolutely blind when it comes to our Architectural heritage.

I am too young to have seen it as a Cinema, it must have been quite something with all its neon trimmings. It was stunning enough at night as a Bingo Hall with just a few well placed spotlights on its cream facade.

I recall the local people of Govan's disbelief when the building began to get demolished.

[HollowHorn]

seeing it all lit up at night fighting, against the doom and gloom of a sodium lit Glasgow winter night.

Very nicely put

This will be an unimaginably long time ago for most people on this forum

Haha, we probably passed each other in there many a time, It hope it still has that distinctive aroma when it re-opens. I can smell it now but I can't describe it.

[govanboay]

I used to live right next to the Vogue in Uist St and I recall a fair bit of outcry over its demolition. I remember it being lit up at night as the bingo but never saw the full neon glory. At least there's an attempt to restore the Lyceum to something of its former glory. We wait with baited breath........

[Dexter St. Clair]

The Vogue,
A Cinema for George Singleton designed by McKissack. Opened in 1938, the same year as the Empire Exhibition and the same year as the Lyceum Cinema on Govan Road.


I am too young to have seen it as a Cinema, it must have been quite something with all its neon trimmings.

One of the better cinemas in Govan, a bit more luxurious. The Vogue had the Saturday Matinee on the afternoon rather than the morning when the ABC minors were on. Much more suited to me to lie in bed than head down to Govan Cross at ten in the morning.

At the Vogue they used to split the choc ices for the matinee audience and charge 3d per half.

And you tell the kids these days..........

Sorry I thought I was on glasgowguide.

[crusty_bint]

My favourite building from childhood, and probably what sparked my interest in architecture and heritage, has to be the old Glasgow Savings Bank at Parkhead Cross. I used to be able to see its, almost luminescant, dome peeking up through the roofs from my tap-dancer tenement flat in DSShettleston, competing for my attention with th old floodlights of Celtic Park. Was never really in town as a kid so Parkhead Cross was the closest I got to fine art and magnificent architecture. The cross became Glasgow's newest conservation area a year or so ago so hopefully it won't share the same fate as your Vogue Socceroo ...you never can tell in this city tho!

[shortie]

Have a particularly vivid memory of being taken to glasgow by my uncle as a very small child of no more than four or five and emerging from a building onto argyle street on to wet wintery street and on looking up seeing two figures straining to hold the building up. Think its next to Frasers and was or is an entrance to Remnant Kings Fabric shop.
Surprised it made such a memorable impression and didn't just scare me witless. Think we might have been coming out of a book shop in the basement, not sure because book shops were about the only shop my uncle thought worth visiting can't believe I didn't get lost or kidnapped either, as I was allowed to wander.

[Fossil]

....................Think we might have been coming out of a book shop in the basement, .................................

Your first bits right shortie.Now this book shop would it have been Grants on Union St? It was located on each side of the stairs that go into Central Station (Union St side).

Fossil

[Socceroo]

Here is a bit of a perspective on the Vogue Cinema from Stuart Neville's excellent site : http://www.glasgowcinemas.co.uk

The Vogue was the favourite of owner George Singleton, it dominated its location and featured so much neon, more than any other suburban cinema, that it was visible from planes approaching the then Abbotsinch airfield, as George Singleton recalled, "I flew up from London in 1939...I was so proud to see my cinema glowing down below."

I wonder if there is a colour photograph of it anywhere showing it with it's full neon trimmings when it was still a Cinema.

[gap74]

Can't help with a colour exterior shot I'm afraid, just another black and white one, although I do have a colour interior shot from bingo days.

It's not on Gordon and I's site as it's long demolished, and we're concentrating on recording the cinemas that still survive before they go too!

Interestingly, though, we have gained access to, and photographed for the site, a number of other cinemas designed by James McKissack recently, such as the Riddrie (1938) in Cumbernauld Rd, the Kingsway (1929) in the southside and the La Scala (1921) in Hamilton - interesting to see how they compare. The Govan Vogue was 1937, but is fairly unusual in that it doesn't really resemble many of his other cinemas inside or out.





Gary