EXHIBITION: BRUTAL GLASGOW

Posted August 22nd 2024

Explore Glasgow’s love-hate relationship with Brutalism through this interactive, multimedia exhibition featuring the work of Glasgow based illustrator Nebo Peklo (Natalie Tweedie).

Journey from Anniesland Tower to the Gallowgate Twins gaining fascinating insights into the city’s Brutalist buildings past and present, with commentary from architects, academics and writers including Miles Glendinning, Diane Watters, Rory Olcayto, Johnny Rodger, Nick Haynes, and Owen Hatherley, as well as first-hand stories from those who lived and worked in these monumental structures.

Devised by Rachel Loughran, a curator specialising in digital design who has previously exhibited with the Alasdair Gray Archive, the exhibition brings Nebo Peklo’s works to life, offering a deeper understanding of this often maligned style of architecture.

Brutal Glasgow tells a uniquely Glasgow story and will make you see Brutalism in a whole new light. Don’t miss out – it might just change your mind about these concrete giants.

Visit the exhibition online here

Or you can visit in person:

Following successful runs at Glasgow City Heritage Trust and at the Pyramid at Anderston, the exhibition is heading eastwards to Edinburgh:

Monday to Friday weekly from 17th March – 2nd May 2025

10am – 4pm

The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, 15 Rutland Square, Edinburgh, EH1 2BE

Free entry

EXHIBITION: Eastern Ground

Posted March 8th 2024

We’re thrilled to announce that this spring we will be hosting the Eastern Ground exhibition at our offices on Bell Street. Partly funded by Glasgow City Heritage Trust, the Eastern Ground project saw the creation of six stunning handmade garments which celebrate the heritage and people of the East End. Designed by bespoke tailor Alis le May, each costume was inspired by one of the area’s historic buildings.

Following on from the original exhibition, held at Strangefield in Dalmarnock, we are delighted to now present a selection of the garments on display at our city centre offices.

Alis explains, “I want people to take fresh look at the area – to appreciate its people, its buildings, the memories they inspire, and even the flowers and plants which grow there…These buildings are not just architectural landmarks; they are repositories of community memories and shared histories”.

The exhibition will also include work by master dyer Julia Billings from her Mapping East End Colour project. This explored the dye potential of the East End, with samples dyed using flora collected from within a mile of Julia’s studio in Bridgeton.

Exhibition dates and times:

Monday 25th March 2024 – Friday 3rd May 2024

Exhibition open daily Monday to Friday 10am – 4pm, except for Easter when it will be closed from Friday 29th March to Monday 1st April, reopening Tuesday 2nd April.

The exhibition will also be open on two weekends:

Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th April 10am – 4pm

Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th April 10am – 4pm

Location:

Glasgow City Heritage Trust, 54 Bell St, Glasgow, G1 1LQ

How to get here:

By Train: The closest train station is High Street (0.2 miles), or Queen Street (0.5 miles) | More information via Scotrail

By Subway: The nearest Subway station is St Enoch (0.6 miles) | More information via Glasgow Subway

There is limited on-street metered parking on Bell Street and surrounding area. The nearest multi-storey car park is Q-Park at Candleriggs

Free entry

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Become a Friend of Glasgow City Heritage Trust

Glasgow City Heritage Trust is an independent charity and your support is crucial to ensure that our charitable work promoting the understanding, appreciation and conservation of Glasgow’s historic buildings for the benefit of the city’s communities and its visitors continues now, and in the future.

The easiest way to support the Trust’s work is to join our loyalty scheme. Our tiered loyalty scheme means you can choose the level that’s right for you.

Click to find out all the benefits of membership

EXHIBITION: The Knight Map of Glasgow: Tracing the Transformation

Posted April 27th 2023

We’re thrilled to announce this new exhibition. The Knight map is a contemporary artwork by artist Will Knight, commissioned by Glasgow City Heritage Trust (GCHT) as part of our ‘Gallus Glasgow’ project. This digital outreach project ran from September 2021 and explored the development of Glasgow during the Victorian period, through the eyes of Thomas Sulman, illustrator of the Bird’s Eye View of Glasgow, 1864.

Looking North from the Southside of the Clyde, the Knight map is an incredibly detailed snapshot of modern day Glasgow. Displayed alongside Sulman’s map, it shows how the city has changed and developed over the last 150 years. It documents Will Knight’s approach to creating the contemporary map, with all the layers produced as part of the process on display. The exhibition also uses interactive elements to encourage visitors to ponder what the city will look like in the future.

Saturday 6th- Sunday 14th May 2023, 11.00-17.00 daily, at New Glasgow Society, 1307 Argyle Street.

Free entry.

How to get here:

The exhibition space is located just around the corner from Kelvingrove Museum, about a 30 – 45 minute walk from Glasgow City Centre

By Bus: Glasgow First Bus route 2 stops right next to the exhibition space and bus routes 3 & 77 stop just a street away on Sauchiehall Street | More information via First Bus: https://www.firstbus.co.uk/greater-glasgow

By Train: The closest train station is Exhibition Centre, which is about a ten minute walk | More information via Scotrail: https://www.scotrail.co.uk/

By Subway: The exhibition space is located about a 10 minute walk from Kelvinhall Subway Station | More information via Glasgow Subway https://www.spt.co.uk/travel-with-spt/subway/

Become a Friend of Glasgow City Heritage Trust

The easiest way to support the Trust’s work is to join our loyalty scheme. Our tiered loyalty scheme means you can choose the level that’s right for you.

Click to find out all the benefits of membership

The City Talks: Glasgow has an ever-changing skyline, is this a sign of a vibrant city?

Posted April 28th 2020

Glasgow has an ever-changing skyline, is this a sign of a vibrant city?
Glasgow is a city which never sleeps! A cultural and economic hub with an ever-changing skyline; but is this constant evolution the sign of an exciting city, or is Glasgow losing the unique historic built environment at the heart of its soul? Our panel of speakers discussed the pros and cons of becoming a modern metropolis, and the challenges faced when incorporating the old with the new.

About The City Talks: Glasgow City Heritage Trust hold a series of quarterly events called ‘The City Talks’. As opposed to the more traditional format of our lecture series, The City Talks are two-way debates between a specially selected panel of experts and the audience. This debate was held on 2nd November 2016 at Cottiers Theatre in the West End.

Panellists:

Niall Murphy, Glasgow City Heritage Trust
Jude Barber, Collective Architecture
Ranald McInnes, Historic Environment Scotland
Karen Pickering, Page \ Park Architects
Chris Coleman-Smith, Hoskins Architects

In memory of Gareth Hoskins, 1967-2016

End of the Line: Explore Glasgow’s Industrial Past

Posted June 28th 2019

Support us

Like many other charities, the coronavirus outbreak is having a major impact on our activities, threatening our crucial work to protect, repair and celebrate Glasgow’s rich built heritage. As a result, we expect to lose an important part of our income this year.

We are therefore asking that if you are able to support our conservation and outreach work,
please consider donating to the Trust.

Donate Now

John R Hume first started documenting Glasgow’s industrial buildings in 1964. Wandering the city by bicycle, he was determined to get images of as many of the city’s decaying industrial buildings as possible before they disappeared. He was just in time.

END OF THE LINE EXHIBITION, SUMMER 2019

In the summer of 2019, GCHT created the exhibition End of the Line: Photographs of Glasgow’s Industrial Past by Professor John R Hume. People came to see the exhibition for a variety of reasons, including personal memories of the buildings photographed, an interest in industrial heritage or photography, and curiosity about the former Tax Hall as many people had never seen inside the building. Running from 25th July until 5th September, the exhibition had over 1,200 visitors in just six weeks.

This is the first time that these images, many of which were originally included in John R Hume’s book Industrial Archaeology of Glasgow (Blackie, 1974), had been exhibited together on a large scale. The powerful black and white photographs demonstrate the monumentality and ambition of Glasgow’s industrial buildings, as well as the diversity of architectural styles; they span neo-gothic, neoclassical, and Venetian to name a few. The viewer is encouraged to admire the intricate architectural details of each building and to imagine the lives of the people who may have worked there.

AUDIO TOUR & INTERACTIVE MAP

An audio tour of selected highlights of the exhibition by John R Hume is available online.

End of the Line Building Locations

GLASGOW’S INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE CAPTURED

The dramatic changes in Glasgow’s urban fabric since the 1960s were in large part a consequence of the decline of industry after the Second World War. Postwar government policies, such as clearances for Comprehensive Development Areas and the creation of the M8 urban motorway, virtually flattened areas of the city including the Gorbals, Hutchesontown, Anderston and Bridgeton. The photographs in End of the Line represent the enormity of the loss of Glasgow’s industrial heritage: every building depicted has subsequently been demolished.

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Exhibition: 10 Years / 10 Buildings

Posted September 27th 2017

Established in 2007, Glasgow City Heritage Trust champions the city’s unique architecture and built environment and promotes and encourages the understanding, appreciation and conservation of Glasgow’s historic buildings for the benefit of the city’s communities and its visitors, now and in the future.

Every year we help to fund important conservation projects across Glasgow, and encourage people to gain a better understanding of our historic buildings and places.

2017 marked the tenth anniversary of the Trust and a suitable point to look back on what we have achieved over the last decade. To celebrate we invited you to explore our archives and discover just a few of the fantastic conservation projects the Trust supports.

While our city of glamour and grit may give the impression of solidity and permanence, it does require great care and careful conservation if it is to be passed on to future generations. The volume of requests for grant funding we continue to receive every year shows how much there is still to do across Glasgow to conserve, enhance and promote the unique built heritage of our city.

Glasgow City Heritage Trust is an independent charity supported by Glasgow City Council and Historic Environment Scotland.

Become a Friend of Glasgow City Heritage Trust

The easiest way to support the Trust’s work is to join our loyalty scheme. Our tiered loyalty scheme means you can choose the level that’s right for you.

Click to find out all the benefits of membership

EXHIBITION: Lost Glasgow – More than Just Memories

Posted June 20th 2017

Since launching in 2014, the Lost Glasgow Facebook page has attracted a 135k-strong global following. The site, which uses archive photographs to spark stories, memories, and debate about the city, its buildings, its people, and its ever-evolving history and future, was launched off the back of the successful Lost Edinburgh site.

In the summer of 2017 Glasgow City Heritage Trust teamed up with Lost Glasgow, to present an exhibition devoted to the documentation, discussion and appreciation of Glasgow’s changing architecture and its community throughout the last few centuries.

The exhibition covers everything from the majestic to the mundane, from the city’s great buildings to its more humble corners, from the tenement to the townhouse, from the great and the good, to the ‘common old workin’ man (and woman). The bottom line is, we love Glasgow, and the tales of our city. And everybody in Glasgow loves to hear a good story.

Folk were invited to join in, be a curator and rearrange our exhibition, then leave us a comment about the pictures they connected with the most.

A day in the life of the exhibition!

This exhibition is currently not on show. It is being transformed into two handling boxes with artefacts and activities for all ages.

More information is coming soon!

We would like to thank The Glasgow Herald/Evening Times, The Daily Record, The Scotsman, and Lost Glasgow’s many site fans for opening their picture archives to us. Without their kind co-operation, these images – and memories – would have remained lost and buried…

Become a Friend of Glasgow City Heritage Trust

The easiest way to support the Trust’s work is to join our loyalty scheme. Our tiered loyalty scheme means you can choose the level that’s right for you.

Click to find out all the benefits of membership

Alf Webster: Glasgow’s Lost Genius, Dr George Rawson

Posted May 18th 2017

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Dr George Rawson, fine art and design librarian at the Glasgow School of Art 1977-2006, is an art historian with a special interest in 19th century British art education the Glasgow Style and the Arts and Crafts Movement.

Alf Webster: Glasgow’s Lost Genius, Professor Robin Webster OBE

Posted May 18th 2017

Professor Robin Webster OBE is a partner in the Glasgow firm of Cameron Webster Architects, and professor emeritus at the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, where he was head of the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture for twenty years. He is Secretary of the Walmer Crescent Association, Chairman of The Alexander Thomson Society and a trustee of the Scottish Stained Glass Symposium. Robin is currently the Development Consultant for Glasgow City Heritage Trust. Robin is the son of Gordon Webster and grandson of Alf Webster.

Robin will discuss Alf Webster from a family perspective, and describe from his personal experience; what it was like living with a stained glass artist, and what he learned and remembers from growing up with a stained glass studio in his childhood home with his father Gordon Webster. He will also talk briefly about the different qualities that he sees in the windows of his father and grandfather, and their contribution to the art of stained glass in Scotland.

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Glasgow in the 1860s and the beginning of 'a better condition of things in Scotland as regards stained glass'

Dr. Sally Rush is a senior lecturer in History of Art at the University of Glasgow, specialising in historic interiors and the visual culture of the Renaissance court. Her study of Scottish glass painting began when she was asked to contribute to the Glasgow volume of the Buildings of Scotland and she completed her Ph.D, Glass Painting in Scotland, 1830-1870 in 2001. In 2003, her doctoral research was put to one side in order to work with Historic Scotland on the restoration of Stirling Castle Palace. Recently, however, she has been working on the stained glass at Durham Cathedral and has contributed to Durham Cathedral: history, fabric and culture (2014). She is married to the stained-glass conservator and artist Mark Bambrough.