Glasgow: Scotland’s Lady with a New Face

Story and photography by
Eric Anderson 

 

Scotland’s capital, Edinburgh, in truth is the second most popular tourist attraction in Britain especially in August when a mob pours in every August for the famed Festival. But for many tourists, a few pictures will be snapped of Edinburgh Castle, and maybe, if the tourists are lucky, they get a couple of shots of a man wearing the kilt or playing the bagpipes, then visitors are off to better things in Europe.

Until now.

Now, it's different.

Scotland has become the in-destination in Europe and there's no doubt as to why. Scotland's achievement lies, interestingly enough, not in what's happened in the past in Edinburgh but what's happened in the present in Glasgow, the formerly-grimy industrial city 30 miles to the west.

The government clean air acts got things going in Glasgow about 20 years ago. The city rolled up its sleeves and started scrubbing the soot of centuries off its buildings. What was revealed was Victorian architecture of such great beauty and dazzling beauty that a hugely successful Garden Festival followed in 1988. Visitors flocked to this neglected and now awakened Sleeping Beauty: from 700,000 persons in 1982 to three million in 1990.

In that year, Glasgow beat out some of the most prestigious cities on its continent to win the award of European City of Culture 1990.

According to statistics from the British Tourist Authority, Glasgow is now the third most popular city destination for foreign visitors coming to Britain.

Asked why, a Greater Glasgow Tourist Board assistant answers readily:

"First, we're probably the friendliest people in Scotland -- and the Scots are the friendliest race in Europe!

"Glaswegians will come up to you if you stop and pull out a map. You won't have to look for help. And they speak your language." 

That last statement should be taken with the proverbial grain of salt by Americans. The broadest accents in Scotland are found in Glasgow and the West Coast. I lived in Scotland for 28 years; even so, I find some forms of the Glasgow accent so thick at times that I just nod and smile -- an easy thing to do because Glasgow folk always seem to have a cheery, pawky grin on their faces.

"Second," says our Glasgow booster, "all our museums are free, our stores are filled with fairly stylish fashions, and we have entertainment for everyone, all year round -- from Bach to the Beach Boys, from children's pantomime to Pavarotti."

Glasgow is, indeed, a lively city with considerable up market shopping in Princes Square, a beautifully restored building, and in St. Enoch Centre, a converted railway station, the largest glass-roofed building in Europe.

But the pride of Glasgow is the acclaimed Burrell Collection, the gift of a wealthy industrialist and magpie collector. The museum of 8,000 items of antique furniture, oriental art, stained glass, tapestries and armor attracted more than a million visitors the first year it opened. The city's Art Gallery & Museum, long established and less of a novelty, still packs in visitors especially at weekends. Both museums have restaurants.

Additional places of interest are Provand's Lordship, the oldest house in Glasgow carrying a plaque for its role as the Hospital of St. Nicholas in 1471; and across the street with its plaque, the Royal Infirmary where Lister did his pioneer work on antisepsis four centuries later.

Elegant but pricey are two hotels favored by Americans: Devonshire Hotel and One Devonshire Gardens. We find British hotels very expensive: even Holiday Inn in downtown Glasgow comes close to the price of those Devonshire hotels.

We rather like the Copthorne, a converted railway hotel. It has weekend specials -- and it has its history. It was the venue for the historic 1941 meeting between Winston Churchill and Harry Hopkins. President Roosevelt's personal envoy, the meeting that pledged United States support for Britain's war effort.

The Copthorne, furthermore, is handy for airport bus service and next door to the railway station with its fast trains to Edinburgh.

SHOPPING:

International inflation has killed bargains but some goods are better value in Scotland. Examples are basic woolens, tweeds, tartans, sheepskin-lined jackets and other leather goods including bags and shoes. Deer-stalker hats a la Sherlock Holmes are excellent for the fisherman and "Tammy" berets for the golfer. Staghorn items and Celtic jewelry, glass paperweights. silverware, table cloths, Scotch whiskey and records of Scottish singers or bagpipe bands make welcome gifts. Replicas of ancient Scottish artifacts -- swords, leather shields, and other weapons are in short supply but available.

Don't worry about whether your surname qualifies you for a "correct" tartan or plaid. Just buy the one you like best, then pose for your photograph.

Scotland has produced a remarkable crop from its rocky infertile soil: Fifteen American presidents; and Baird, who invented television and Bell the telephone; Carnegie, the gentlest rich man in history and Burns, the poorest great poet in literature; Hunter, the dean of surgical anatomy and Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin; Simpson, who saw a use for chloroform and Watt, who understood the value of steam; MacMillan, the blacksmith who built the bicycle and Napier, the mathematician who created logarithms; Mackintosh, who made rainmacs and Macadam, who made tarmac.

Scotland is remembered for its bridge builders, its authors and its explorers. Scotland produced the founder of the United States Navy and the Russian Navy. It had its hand in chemical oil refining, artificial ice manufacturing and even the first adhesive postage stamp. Appropriately for a canny country it had Adam Smith, the first world economist. Even the founder of the Bank of England was a Scotsman.

As the world has remarked: "The Scots interfere with everything!"

So why visit the Scots if they are a bunch of busybodies?

First, to trace your roots. "Everyone," says Dr. Micheil MacDonald, a Scottish anthropologist, "seems to have a Scottish granny."

Second, there's a sense of history. "Where else," asks MacDonald, "can you round a bend and find someone who has been living there for 2000 years?" He feels that the land of the Scot resembles a time capsule but, unlike the world of Disney, it's for real.

Third, the scenery can be marvelous: Rolling green hills like those of Vermont, craggy granite peaks like New Hampshire, sleepy fishing villages like Maine, imposing baronial homes like Connecticut -- in fact New England in many ways resembles old Scotland.