East of Downtown: The Cathedral and Nearby
Near the Glasgow School of Art
Map: Central Glasgow Hotels & Restaurants
Budget Options near the Glasgow School of Art
Glasgow (GLAS-goh), though bigger than Edinburgh, lives forever in the shadow of its more popular neighbor. Once a decrepit port city, Glasgow—astride the River Clyde—is both a workaday Scottish city and a cosmopolitan destination with an energetic dining and nightlife scene. The city is also a pilgrimage site of sorts for architecture buffs, thanks to a cityscape packed with Victorian architecture, early-20th-century touches, and modern flair. (Unfortunately, it also has some truly drab recent construction.) Most beloved are the works by hometown boy Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the visionary turn-of-the-20th-century architect who left his mark all over Glasgow.
Edinburgh, a short train-trip away, may have the royal aura, but Glasgow has an unpretentious appeal. One Glaswegian told me, “The people of Glasgow have a better time at a funeral than the people of Edinburgh have at a wedding.” In Glasgow, there’s no upper-crust history, and no one puts on airs. Locals call sanded and polished concrete “Glasgow marble.” You’ll be hard-pressed to find a souvenir shop in Glasgow—and that’s just how the natives like it. In this revitalized city, visitors are a novelty, and friendly locals do their best to introduce you to the fun-loving, laid-back Glaswegian (rhymes with “Norwegian”) way of life.
Most visitors need just a few hours to sample Glasgow. Focus on my self-guided walking tour in the city core, which includes Glasgow’s two most interesting sights: Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art and the time-warp Tenement House. With more time, add some of the outlying sights, such as the cathedral area (to the east), Kelvingrove Gallery and the West End restaurant scene (to the west), the Riverside Museum of Transport and Travel (two miles from the city center), and the Burrell Collection (a few miles out of town).
Day Trip from Edinburgh: For a full day, grab breakfast at your B&B in Edinburgh, then catch the 9:30 train to Glasgow (morning trains every 15 minutes; £12 same-day round-trip if leaving after 9:15 or on weekend); it arrives at Queen Street Train Station at 10:20. Call or book online to reserve tickets to tour the Glasgow School of Art (aim for an early-afternoon time slot, so you can have lunch beforehand). Once in Glasgow, take my self-guided walk to hit all the major sights, making sure to reach the Tenement House by the last entry time (16:30). For dinner, consider heading out to the thriving West End restaurant scene, then hop the subway back to Queen Street Station (use the Buchanan Street stop) and catch the 21:00 train back to Edinburgh (evening trains every 30 minutes).
With a grid street plan, a downtown business zone, and more than its share of boxy office buildings, Glasgow feels more like a midsized American city than a big Scottish one—like Cleveland or Cincinnati with shorter skyscrapers, more sandstone, and more hills. The tourist’s Glasgow has three main parts: the city center (including the Merchant City neighborhood), a cluster of minor sights near the cathedral (in the east), and the West End restaurant/nightlife/shopping zone. The easily walkable city center has a hilly northern area and two main drags, both lined with shops and crawling with shoppers: Sauchiehall Street (pronounced “Sockyhall,” running west to east) and Buchanan Street (running north to south).
The TI is opposite Queen Street Station in the southwest corner of George Square (at #11). They hand out an excellent free map, stock other Glasgow brochures, and can book you a room for a £4 fee. The TI sells tickets for the hop-on, hop-off bus tour and the Mackintosh Trail Ticket described below (Mon-Wed and Fri-Sat 9:00-17:00, Thu and Sun 10:00-17:00—except closed Sun in Oct-April, tel. 0141/204-4400, www.seeglasgow.com or www.visitscotland.com). Buses to the West End depart from in front of the TI (see here), and the hop-on, hop-off bus tour leaves from across the square.
Mackintosh Trail Ticket: This ticket, sold by the TI and all Mackintosh sights, covers entry to all “Charles Rennie Mac” sights and public transportation to those outside the city limits (£16/day, www.crmsociety.com).
By Train: Glasgow, a major Scottish transportation hub, has two main train stations, which are just a few blocks apart in the very heart of town: Central Station (with a grand, genteel interior) and Queen Street Station (more functional, with better connections to Edinburgh, and closer to the TI—take the exit marked George Square and continue straight across the square). Both stations have pay WCs (£0.30) and baggage storage (Central Station—at the head of track 1, £7/bag for 24 hours; Queen Street Station—near the head of track 7, £5-7/bag). Unless you’re packing heavy, it’s easier to walk the five minutes between the stations than to take the roundabout “RailLink” bus #398 between them (£0.80, or free if you have a ticket for a connecting train).
By Bus: Buchanan Street bus station is at Killermont Street, just two blocks up the hill behind Queen Street train station.
By Car: The M-8 motorway, which slices through downtown Glasgow, is the easiest way in and out of the city. Ask your hotel for directions to and from the M-8, and connect with other highways from there.
By Air: For information on Glasgow’s two airports, see “Glasgow Connections,” at the end of this chapter.
Safety: The city center, which is packed with ambitious career types during the day, can feel deserted at night. Avoid the area near the River Clyde entirely (hookers and thugs), and confine yourself to the streets north of Argyle Street if you’re in the downtown quarter. The Merchant City area (east of the train stations) and the West End bustle with crowded restaurants well into the evening and feel well-populated in the wee hours.
If you’ve picked up a football (soccer) jersey or scarf as a souvenir, don’t wear it in Glasgow; passions run very high, and most drunken brawls in town are between supporters of Glasgow’s two rival soccer clubs: the Celtic in green and white, and the Rangers in blue and red. (For reasons no one can explain, the Celtic team name is pronounced “sell-tic”—the only place you’ll find this pronunciation outside of Boston.)
Sightseeing: Glasgow’s city-owned museums—including the sights near the cathedral, but not the biggies like the Glasgow School of Art or Tenement House—are free (www.glasgowmuseums.com).
Sunday Travel: Bus and train schedules are dramatically reduced on Sundays—most routes have only half the departure times they have during the week (though Edinburgh is still easily accessible). If you plan to leave Glasgow for a remote destination on Sunday, check the schedules carefully when you arrive. All trains run less frequently in the off-season; if you want to get to the Highlands by bus on a Sunday in winter, forget it.
Internet Access: Many pubs and coffee shops offer free Wi-Fi. You’ll see signs advertising Internet cafés around the city core (near Central Station and Buchanan Street). Try Yeeha Internet Café (£2.50/hour, Mon-Fri 9:30-19:00, Sat 10:00-18:00, Sun 12:00-18:00, 48 West George Street, go upstairs to first floor, tel. 0141/332-6543).
Local Guide: Joan Dobbie, a native Glaswegian and registered Scottish Tourist Guide, will give you the insider’s take on Glasgow’s sights (£92/half-day, £135/day, tel. 01355/236-749, mobile 07773-555-151, joan.leo@lineone.net).
By City Bus: Various companies run Glasgow’s buses, but most city-center routes are operated by First Bus Company (£1.85/ride, £4.50 for all-day ticket—good only on First buses, buy tickets from driver, exact change required). Buses run every few minutes down Glasgow’s main thoroughfares (such as Sauchiehall Street) to the downtown core (train stations). If you’re waiting at a stop and a bus comes along, ask the driver if the bus is headed to Central Station; chances are the answer is yes. For information on buses to the West End, see here.
By Hop-on, Hop-off Bus Tour: This tour connects Glasgow’s far-flung historic sights in a 1.75-hour loop (£11, ticket valid for 2 days; buy online, from driver, or at TI; daily 9:30-16:00, July-Aug 4/hour, spring and fall 3/hour, winter 2/hour; stops in front of Central Station, George Square, and major hotels; tel. 0141/204-0444, www.citysightseeingglasgow.co.uk). If there’s a particular sight you want to see, confirm that it’s on the route.
By Taxi: Taxis are affordable, plentiful, and often come with nice, chatty cabbies—all speaking in the impenetrable Glaswegian accent. Just smile and nod. Most taxi rides in the downtown area will cost about £5; from the West End, a one-way trip is about £5-6. Use taxis or public transport to connect Glasgow’s more remote sights; splurge for a taxi (for safety) any time you’re traveling late at night.
By Subway: The tiny, claustrophobic, orange-line subway runs in a loop around the edge of the city center. The “outer circle” runs clockwise, and the “inner circle” runs counterclockwise. (If you miss your stop, you can just wait it out—you’ll come full circle in about 25 minutes. Or hop out and cross to the other side of the platform to go back the way you came.) Though the subway is essentially useless for connecting city-center sightseeing (Buchanan Street is the only downtown stop), it’s handy for reaching sights farther out, including the Kelvingrove Gallery (Kelvinhall stop) and West End restaurant/nightlife neighborhood (Hillhead stop; £1.20 single trip, £3.50 Discovery Ticket lets you travel all day, subway runs Mon-Sat 6:30-23:30, Sun 10:00-18:00, www.spt.co.uk/subway).
(See “Glasgow Walk” map, here)
Glasgow isn’t romantic, but it has an earthy charm, and architecture buffs love it. The longer you spend here, the more you’ll feel the edgy, artsy vibe. The trick to sightseeing here is to always look up—above the chain restaurants and mall stores, you’ll see a wealth of imaginative facades, complete with ornate friezes and expressive sculptures. These buildings transport you to the heady days around the turn of the 20th century—when the rest of Great Britain was enthralled by Victorianism, but Glasgow set its own course, thanks largely to the artistic bravado of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his friends (the “Glasgow Four”). This walking tour takes three to four hours, including one hour for Mackintosh’s masterpiece, the Glasgow School of Art (in summer, consider calling ahead to reserve your tour there—see here).
• Begin at Central Station. Exit the train station straight ahead from the tracks (to the north, onto Gordon Street), turn right, and cross busy Renfield/Union Street. Continue one block, then turn right down Mitchell Street, and look up on the left side of the street to see a multistory brick water tower topped by a rounded cap. Turn left down a small alley (Mitchell Lane) just in front of the tower. Within about 25 yards, on the right, you’ll see the entrance to...
The Lighthouse
This facility, which houses the Scotland Center for Architecture and Design, has two parts: a water tower designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in the early 1900s and a modern glass-and-metal museum built alongside it. The Lighthouse is filled mostly with design exhibitions, lonely floors of conference rooms, and funny icons directing desperate men and women to the bathrooms. This sight is skippable for most, but it does offer a fine view over the city. You have two options for scaling the heights: Take the elevator to the sixth-floor windows, or even better, climb up yourself. Head to the third floor, which features information about Mackintosh, along with architectural plans and scale models (linger here only if you’re planning to skip the Glasgow School of Art), then climb the 135 spiral steps inside the water tower. The top has a wraparound balcony with 360-degree views.
Cost and Hours: Free, Mon-Sat 10:30-17:00, late-April-Sept Sun 12:00-17:00, closed Sun off-season, 11 Mitchell Lane, tel. 0141/276-5365, www.thelighthouse.co.uk.
• Exit the Lighthouse to the right down the alley, then turn left onto the bustling pedestrian shopping drag called Buchanan Street—Glasgow’s outdoor mall. One branch of the Mackintosh-designed Willow Tea Rooms is on your left at 97 Buchanan Street (two re-created Mackintosh interiors, tel. 0141/204-5242, other location described later in this walk). Across the street, find the second alley on the right, called Exchange Place. Before entering, look in the store windows of the former bank building to your left, at 98 Buchanan Street. Now walk down Exchange Place and pass through the arch, emerging onto...
Royal Exchange SquareThis square—which marks the entrance to the shopping zone called Merchant City—is home to two interesting buildings. On your left as you enter the square is a stately, Neoclassical, bank-like building. This was once the private mansion of one of the tobacco lords, the super-rich businessmen who reigned here from the 1750s through the 1800s, stomping through the city with gold-tipped canes. During the port’s heyday, these entrepreneurs helped make Glasgow Europe’s sixth-biggest city.
In the middle of the square is the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art, nicknamed GoMA. Walk around the GoMA building to the main entry (at the equestrian statue), and step back to take in the full Neoclassical facade. On the pediment (above the columns), notice the funky, mirrored mosaic—an example of how Glasgow refuses to take itself too seriously. The temporary exhibits inside GoMA are generally forgettable, but the museum does have an unusual charter: It displays only the work of living artists (free, £1 suggested donation, Mon-Wed and Sat 10:00-17:00, Thu 10:00-20:00, Fri and Sun 11:00-17:00, free guided tours Sat-Sun at 12:00 and 14:00, tel. 0141/287-3050).
• With the facade of GoMA behind you, turn left onto Queen Street. Within a block, you’ll be at the southwest corner of...
George SquareHere, in the heart of the city, you’ll find the TI (just to your right as you come to the square), Queen Street train station, the Glasgow City Chambers (the big Neoclassical building to the east, not worth visiting), and—in front of that—a monument to Glaswegians killed fighting in the World Wars. The square is decorated with a Who’s Who of statues depicting Glaswegians of note. Find James Watt (inventor of the steam engine), as well as Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott (Scotland’s two most famous poets). Head north (left) along the edge of the square to find a statue of an idealized, surprisingly skinny Queen Victoria riding a horse. But you won’t see a statue of King George III, for whom the square is named. The stubborn Scots are still angry at George for losing the colonies (i.e., us), and they never commissioned a statue of him.
• Just past skinny Vic and Robert Peel, turn left onto West George Street and head for the tall church in the middle of the street (the handy Yeeha Internet Café is on your right, at #48). Cross Buchanan Street and go around the church on the left side, entering a little square called...
Nelson Mandela PlaceThe area around this church features some interesting bits of architectural detail. First, as you stand along the left side of the church, look up and to the left (across from the church) to find the three circular friezes, on the first floor up, of the former Stock Exchange (built in 1875). These idealized heads, which were recently cleaned and restored, represent the industries that made Glasgow prosperous during its heyday: building, engineering, and mining.
• Continue around to the back of the church and look to the right side of the street for the sandy-colored building at #8 (notice the low-profile label over the door). This is the...
AthenaeumNow a law office, this was founded in 1847 as a school and city library during Glasgow’s Golden Age. (Charles Dickens gave the building’s inaugural address.) Like Edinburgh, Glasgow was at the forefront of the 17th-century Scottish Enlightenment, a celebration of education and intellectualism. The Scots were known for their extremely practical brand of humanism; all members of society, including the merchant and working classes, were expected to be well-educated. (Tobacco lords, for example, often knew Latin and Greek.) Look above the door to find the symbolic statue of a reader sharing books with young children, an embodiment of this ideal.
• Continue beyond the church and turn left onto West Nile Street; one block later, turn right onto St. Vincent Street. We’ll enjoy more architectural Easter eggs as we continue along this street toward the Glasgow School of Art. After a block, on the left side of the street (at #115), look up to the second floor to see sculptures of...
Art Nouveau MaidensTheir elongated, melancholy faces and downcast eyes seem to reflect Glasgow’s difficult recent past, and decades of economic decline and urban decay. (They mirror similar faces in Art Nouveau paintings in the Glasgow School of Art, particularly in the artwork of Margaret MacDonald, Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s wife and artistic partner.) As you walk along this street, keep your eyes above street level to take in classic Glaswegian sandstone architecture and the Mackintosh-influenced modern takes on it.
• Another block down on the right (at #144) is the slender building locals have nicknamed the...
“Hatrack” BuildingAt first glance it looks like most other sandstone buildings in the city. But look up at the very top to see the ornate rooftop and elaborate ironwork (Glasgow had roaring iron forges back in the day). The Hatrack is a prime example of the adventurous turn-of-the-century Glaswegian architecture: The building’s internal framework bears all the weight, so the facade can use very little load-bearing stone. This “curtain wall” method allows for architectural creativity—here the huge bay windows let in plenty of light and contrast nicely with the recessed arches, making the building both unusual and still quintessentially Glaswegian. (The same method gave Antoni Gaudí the freedom to create his fantastical buildings in Barcelona.) Above the left doorway as you face the building, notice the stained-glass ship in turbulent seas, another fitting icon for a city that’s seen more than its share of ups and downs.
• At the end of the block, turn right up...
Wellington StreetClimb this street to the crest of the hill, where the two- and three-story buildings have a pleasing, uniform look. These sandstone structures were the homes of Glasgow’s upper-middle class, the factory managers who worked for the city’s barons (such as the titan who owned the mansion back on Royal Exchange Square). In the strict Victorian class structure, the people who lived here were distinctly higher on the social scale than the people who lived in the tenements (which we’ll see at the end of this tour).
• Turn left onto Bath Street and then right onto West Campbell Street. It opens onto Sauchiehall, Glasgow’s main commercial street. Turn left onto Sauchiehall. Half a block later, at #217 (on the left), you’ll see a black-and-white Art Nouveau building with a sign reading...
Willow Tea RoomsCharles Rennie Mackintosh made his living from design commissions, including multiple tearooms for businesswoman Kate Cranston. (You might also see fake “Mockintosh” tearooms sprinkled throughout the city—ignore them.) A well-known control freak, Mackintosh designed everything here—down to the furniture, lighting, and cutlery. He took his theme for the café from the name of the street it’s on—saugh is Scots for willow, and haugh for meadow.
In the design of these tearooms, there was a meeting of the (very modern) minds. Cranston wanted a place for women to be able to gather while unescorted, in a time when traveling solo could give a woman a less-than-desirable reputation. An ardent women’s rights supporter, Cranston requested that the rooms be bathed in white, the suffragists’ signature color.
Enter the Willow Tea Rooms and make your way past the tacky jewelry and trinket store that now inhabits the bottom floor. On the open mezzanine level, you’ll find 20 crowded tables run like a diner from a corner kitchen, serving bland meals to middle-class people—just as this place has since it opened in 1903. Don’t leave without poking your head into the almost-hidden Room de Luxe. Head up the stairs (following signs for the toilet) to the first landing, and go left down the hall to see this peaceful tearoom space (only open for tea at certain times—call ahead). While some parts of the Room de Luxe are reproductions (such as the chairs and the doors, which were too fragile to survive), the rest is just as it was in Mackintosh’s day (£4-7 breakfasts, £5 sandwiches, £7-9 salads and main dishes, £13 afternoon tea served all day, Mon-Sat 9:00-16:30, Sun 11:00-16:15, last orders 30 minutes before closing, 217 Sauchiehall Street, second location at 97 Buchanan Street, tel. 0141/332-0521, www.willowtearooms.co.uk).
• From here it’s a five-minute, mostly uphill walk to the only must-see Mackintosh sight within the town center. Walk a block and a half west (left) on Sauchiehall, and make a right onto Dalhousie Street; the big reddish-brown building on the left at the top of the hill is the Glasgow School of Art (described next).
If you have time to kill before your tour starts, consider eating lunch at one of my recommended restaurants: the student café Where the Monkey Sleeps (closed for renovation until late 2013) or the CCA Saramago Bar and Courtyard Café. Or, if you have at least an hour before your tour, you can head to the Tenement House (listed at the end of this walk, closed mornings and Nov-Feb), a preserved home from the early 1900s—right when Mackintosh was doing his most important work.
Glasgow School of ArtA pinnacle of artistic and architectural achievement—worth ▲—the Glasgow School of Art presented a unique opportunity for Charles Rennie Mackintosh to design a massive project entirely to his own liking, down to every last detail. Those details—from a fireplace that looks like a kimono to windows that soar for multiple stories—are the beauty of the Glasgow School of Art.
Because the Glasgow School of Art is still a working school, most of the interior can only be visited by one-hour guided tour. However, several exhibition galleries in the school are free and open to the public, even without a tour (enter the school from Renfrew Street and go upstairs to the visitor gallery). Note that in late 2013, the school is slated to open a brand-new visitors center, shop, and café, near the intersection of Renfrew and Dalhousie streets.
Cost and Hours: £8.75 guided tour, daily at 11:00, 15:00, and 17:00, more at busy times, no tours for one week in late May/early June during student shows (but school is open to visit on your own). Tip the starving student guides a pound or two if they give a good spiel. In the summer, tours are frequent, but they fill up quickly—it’s smart to confirm times and reserve a spot by booking online, calling, or emailing the shop (open daily April-Sept 10:30-19:00, Oct-March 10:30-17:00; go in at Dalhousie Street entrance; tel. 0141/353-4526—provide call-back number if leaving a message, www.gsa.ac.uk/tours, tours@gsa.ac.uk). No cameras are allowed on the tour. Serious admirers may also want to ask about the 2.5-hour Mackintosh-themed city walking tours given by students (£25, July-Aug only).
Visiting the School: Mackintosh loved the hands-on ideology of the Arts and Crafts movement, but he was also a practical Scot. Study the outside of the building. Those protruding wrought-iron brackets that hover outside the multipaned windows were a new invention during the time of the Industrial Revolution; they reinforce the big, fragile glass windows, allowing natural light to pour in to the school. Mackintosh brought all the most recent technologies to this work and added them to his artistic palate—which also merged clean Modernist lines, Asian influences, and Art Nouveau flourishes.
When the building first opened, it was modern and minimalist. Other elements were added later, such as the lobby’s tile mosaics depicting the artistic greats, including mustachioed Mackintosh (who hovers over the gift shop). As you tour the school, you’ll see how Mackintosh—who’d been a humble art student himself not too long before he designed this building—strove to create a space that was both artistically innovative and completely functional for students. The plaster replicas of classical sculptures lining the halls were part of Mackintosh’s vision to inspire students by the greats of the past. You’ll likely see students and their canvases lining the halls. Do you smell oil paint?
Linking these useable spaces are clever artistic patterns and puzzles that Mackintosh embedded to spur creative thought. If you notice a design that looks like it is repeated elsewhere, look again. No two motifs are exactly alike, just as nothing is exactly the same in nature. A resolute pagan in a very Protestant city, Mackintosh romanticized the ideals of nature and included an abstract icon of a spiral-within-a-circle rose design on many of his works. In some cases, he designed a little alcove just big enough for a fresh, single-stem rose and placed it next to one of his stained-glass roses—so students could compare reality with the artistic form. (You’ll even find these roses on the swinging doors in the bathroom.)
Mackintosh cleverly arranged the school so that every one of the cellar studios is bathed in intense natural light. And yet, as you climb to the top of the building—which should be the brightest, most light-filled area—the space becomes dark and gloomy, and the stairwell is encumbered by a cage-like structure. Then, reaching the top floor, the professors’ offices are again full of sunrays—a literal and metaphorical “enlightenment” for the students after slogging through a dark spell.
During the tour, you’ll be able to linger a few minutes in the major rooms, such as the remarkable forest-like library and the furniture gallery (including some original tables and chairs from the Willow Tea Rooms). Walking through the GSA, remember that all of this work was the Art Nouveau original, and that Frank Lloyd Wright, the Art Deco Chrysler Building, and everything that resembles it came well after Charles Rennie Mack’s time.
• To finish this walk, we’ll do a wee bit of urban “hillwalking” (a popular Scottish pastime). Head north from the Glasgow School of Art on Scott Street (from the shop’s exit, turn left, then left again on Renfrew Street; one block later, turn right onto Scott Street). Huff and puff your way over the crest of the hill, and make a left onto Buccleuch Street. After three blocks, the last house on the left is the...
Tenement HousePackrats of the world, unite! A strange quirk of fate—the 10-year hospitalization of a woman who never redecorated—created this perfectly preserved middle-class residence, worth ▲. The Scottish National Trust bought this otherwise ordinary row home, located in a residential neighborhood, because of the peculiar tendencies of Miss Agnes Toward. For five decades, she kept her home essentially unchanged. The kitchen calendar is still set for 1935, and canisters of licorice powder (a laxative) still sit on the bathroom shelf. It’s a time-warp experience, where Glaswegian old-timers enjoy coming to reminisce about how they grew up.
Buy your ticket on the main floor, and poke around the little museum. You’ll learn that in Glasgow, a “tenement” isn’t a slum—it’s simply a stone apartment house. In fact, tenements like these were typical for every class except the richest. But with the city’s economic decline, tenements went the way of the dodo bird as the city’s population shrank.
Head upstairs to the apartment, which is staffed by caring volunteers. Ring the doorbell to be let in. Ask them why the bed is in the kitchen or why the rooms still smell like natural gas. As you look through the rooms stuffed with lace and Victorian trinkets—such as the ceramic dogs on the living room’s fireplace mantle—consider how different they are from Mackintosh’s stark, minimalist designs from the same period.
Cost and Hours: £6, £3.50 guidebook, March-Oct daily 13:00-17:00, last entry 30 minutes before closing, closed Nov-Feb, no photos allowed, 145 Buccleuch Street (pronounced “ba-KLOO”) down off the top of Garnethill, tel. 0844-493-2197, www.nts.org.uk.
• Our walk is finished. To get to Sauchiehall Street (with the nearest bus stop and taxis), exit the Tenement House, cross the street, go left, and follow the sidewalk down the hill. Pass the pedestrian bridge on your left and curve around to arrive at the far end of Sauchiehall. To continue from here to Central Station, turn left, walk to the second bus shelter, and take bus #44 (every 10 minutes, other buses also go to station—ask the driver if another bus pulls up while you’re waiting). Taxis zip by on Sauchiehall; a ride to the station costs about £5.
To catch the subway from the Tenement House out to the recommended restaurants in the West End (Hillhead stop; see here), exit to the right on Buccleuch Street, walk five blocks, and turn left down Rose Street. The Cowcaddens subway stop is at the bottom of the hill.
To reach these sights from the TI on George Square, head up North Hanover Street, turn right on Cathedral Street, and walk about 20 minutes (or hop a bus along the main drag—confirm with driver that the bus stops at the cathedral).
Glasgow Cathedral—This blackened, Gothic-to-the-extreme cathedral is a rare example of an intact pre-Reformation Scottish cathedral. Currently under renovation to remove dark soot and replace its mortar, the cathedral is open but covered with scaffolding until 2014. Inside, look up to see the wooden barrel-vaulted ceiling, and take in the beautifully decorated section over the choir (“quire”). Standing at the choir, turn around to look down the nave at the west wall, and notice how the right wall lists. (Don’t worry; it’s been standing for 800 years.) Peek into the lower church, and don’t miss the Blacader Aisle (stairs down to the right as you face the choir), where you can look up to see the ceiling bosses—colorful carved demons, dragons, skulls, and more.
Cost and Hours: Free; April-Sept Mon-Sat 9:30-17:30, Sun 13:00-17:00; Oct-March Mon-Sat 9:30-16:30, Sun 13:00-16:30; last entry 30 minutes before closing, near junction of Castle and Cathedral Streets, tel. 0141/552-8198, www.glasgowcathedral.org.uk.
Provand’s Lordship—With low beams and medieval decor, this creaky home—supposedly the “oldest house in Glasgow”—displays the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous...circa 1471. The interior shows off a few pieces of furniture from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. Out back, explore the St. Nicholas Garden, which was once part of a hospital that dispensed herbal remedies. The plaques in each section show the part of the body each plant is used to treat.
Cost and Hours: Free, Tue-Thu and Sat 10:00-17:00, Fri and Sun 11:00-17:00, closed Mon, across the street from St. Mungo Museum at 3 Castle Street, tel. 0141/552-8819, www.glasgowmuseums.com.
St. Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art—This museum, next to the cathedral, aims to promote religious understanding. Taking an ecumenical approach, it provides a handy summary of major and minor world religions, showing how each faith handles various rites of passage through the human life span: birth, puberty, marriage, death, and everything in between.
Cost and Hours: Free, same hours as Provand’s Lordship, cheap ground-floor café, 2 Castle Street, tel. 0141/276-1625, www.glasgowmuseums.com.
Necropolis—Built to resemble Paris’ Père Lachaise cemetery, Glasgow’s huge burial hill next to the cathedral has a similarly wistful, ramshackle appeal, along with an occasional deer. Its gravestones seem poised to slide down the hill (open year-round, www.glasgownecropolis.org; if main black gates are closed, walk around to the side and see if you can get in and out through a side alleyway).
▲Riverside Museum of Transport and Travel—Located along the River Clyde, this new, high-tech, extremely kid-friendly museum is dedicated to all things transportation-related. Highlights of its vast collection include the world’s oldest bicycle, stagecoaches, locomotives, a re-creation of a 20th-century street, and plenty of recollecting Glaswegian seniors.
Upon entering, find out about upcoming tours and activities (free, ask at information desk—to the right as you enter, near the shop—or listen for announcements). Be sure to pick up a map from the information desk, as the museum’s open floor plan, spread over two levels and packed with original vehicles, can feel a bit like rush hour—especially with no audioguide or clear route to follow. Despite the chaos—and the fact that most of the exhibit proudly examines ties to Glasgow and Scotland—the museum still appeals to anyone interested in the movement of citizens or goods, or the overall influence transportation has on shaping society.
Cost and Hours: Free, £1-2 suggested donation, Sun-Thu 10:00-17:00, Fri-Sat 11:00-17:00, restaurant (£6-9 meals, daily 12:00-16:00), first-floor coffee shop with basic drinks and snacks, 100 Pointhouse Place, tel. 0141/287-2720, www.glasgowmuseums.com.
Getting There: It’s on the riverfront promenade, two miles west of the city center. Bus #100 runs between the museum and George Square (2/hour), or you can take a taxi (£6, 10-minute ride from downtown). The museum is also included on the hop-on, hop-off sightseeing bus route (described earlier, under “Getting Around Glasgow”).
Nearby: The Glenlee, one of five remaining tall ships built in Glasgow in the 19th century, is moored just outside the museum on the River Clyde (£5, one child free with each paying adult, additional children-£3, daily 10:00-17:00, Nov-Feb until 16:00, tel. 01413/573-699, www.thetallship.com).
▲Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum—This museum is like a Scottish Smithsonian—with everything from a pair of stuffed elephants to fine artwork by the great masters. The well-described collection is impressively displayed in a grand, 100-year-old, Spanish Baroque-style building. It’s divided into two sections. The “Life” section, in the West Court, features a menagerie of stuffed animals (including a giraffe, kangaroo, ostrich, and moose) with a WWII-era Spitfire fighter plane hovering overhead. Branching off are halls with exhibits ranging from Ancient Egypt to “Scotland’s First Peoples” to weaponry (“Conflict and Consequence”). The more serene “Expression” section, in the East Court, focuses on artwork, including Dutch, Flemish, French, and Italian paintings. On the second floor near the main hall, you’ll find its most famous painting, Salvador Dalí’s Christ of St. John of the Cross, which brought visitors to tears when it was first displayed here in the 1950s. This section also has exhibits on “Scottish Identity in Art” and on Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow School. The Kelvingrove claims to be one of the most-visited museums in Britain—presumably because of all the field-trip groups you’ll see here. Watching all the excited Scottish kids—their imaginations ablaze—is as much fun as the collection itself.
Cost and Hours: Free, Mon-Thu and Sat 10:00-17:00, Fri and Sun 11:00-17:00, free tours at 11:30 and 14:30, Argyle Street, tel. 0141/276-9599, www.glasgowmuseums.com.
Getting There: Ride the subway to the Kelvinhall stop; when you exit, turn left and walk 5 minutes. Buses #9, #42, and #62 all stop nearby—when you get off the bus, look for the huge red-brick building.
Organ Concerts: At the top of the main hall, the huge pipe organ booms with a daily recital at 13:00 (15:00 on Sunday, 30-45 minutes).
▲Burrell Collection—This eclectic art collection of a wealthy local shipping magnate is one of Glasgow’s top destinations, but it’s three miles outside the city center. If you’d like to visit, plan to make an afternoon of it, and leave time to walk around the surrounding park, where Highland cattle graze. The diverse contents of this museum include sculptures (from Roman to Rodin), stained glass, tapestries, furniture, Asian and Islamic works, and halls of paintings—starring Cézanne, Renoir, Degas, and a Rembrandt self-portrait.
Cost and Hours: Free, Mon-Thu and Sat 10:00-17:00, Fri and Sun 11:00-17:00, Pollok Country Park, 2060 Pollokshaws Road, tel. 0141/287-2550, www.glasgowmuseums.com.
Getting There: From downtown, take bus #45, #47, or #57 to Pollokshaws Road, or take a train to the Pollokshaws West train station; the entrance is a 10-minute walk from the bus stop and the train station. By car, follow the M-8 to exit at Junction 22 onto the M-77 Ayr; exit Junction 1 on the M-77 and follow signs.
Glasgow is a young city, and its nightlife scene is renowned. Walking through the city center, you’ll pass at least one club or bar on every block. For the latest, pick up a copy of The List (sold at newsstands).
In the West End: Òran Mòr, a converted 1862 church overlooking a busy intersection, is one of Glasgow’s most popular hangouts. In addition to hosting an atmospheric bar, outdoor beer garden, and brasserie, the building’s former nave (now decorated with funky murals) has a nightclub featuring everything from rock shows to traditional Scottish music nights (brasserie serves £10-20 main dishes; pub with dressy conservatory or outdoor beer garden serves £3-10 pub grub; daily 9:00-very late, food served 12:00-15:00 & 17:00-22:00, top of Byres Road at 731-735 Great Western Road, tel. 0141/357-6226).
In the City Center: The Pot Still is an award-winning malt whisky bar from 1835 that boasts a formidable selection of more than 300 choices. You’ll see locals of all ages sitting in its leathery interior, watching football (soccer) and discussing their drinks. They have whisky aged in sherry casks, whisky preferred by wine drinkers, and whisky from every region of Scotland. Give the friendly bartenders a little background on your beverage tastes, and they’ll narrow down a good choice for you from their long list (whisky runs £2-250 a glass, average price £4-5, £2.50 pasties and pies, Mon-Sat 11:00-24:00, Sun 12:30-24:00, 154 Hope Street, tel. 0141/333-0980).
The area just west of the school has a few decent accommodations options, including a fine guesthouse in a church building (Adelaides), an Ibis chain hotel, and a buffet line of tired, basic B&Bs along Renfrew Street. From here you can walk downhill into the downtown core in about 10 to 15 minutes (or take a £5 taxi). If approaching by car, you can’t drive down one-way Renfrew Street from the city center. Instead, from busy Sauchiehall Street, go up Scott Street or Rose Street, turn left onto Buccleuch Street, and circle around to Renfrew Street.
$$ Adelaides Guest House rents eight clean and cheerful rooms in a multitasking church building that also houses a theater and nursery school. Heavenly hosts Ted and Janice run the place with warmth and quirky humor (S-£37, Sb-£55, Db-£69, family deals, includes very basic breakfast, £5 cooked breakfast available Mon-Fri, free Internet access, 209 Bath Street, tel. 0141/248-4970, fax 0141/226-4247, www.adelaides.co.uk, reservations@adelaides.co.uk).
$$ Ibis Glasgow, part of the modern hotel chain, has 141 cookie-cutter rooms with blond wood and predictable comfort (Sb/Db-£56 on weeknights, £69 on weekends, £85 “event rate” during festivals and in Aug, breakfast-£7.50, air-con, pay Internet access and Wi-Fi, elevator, restaurant, hiding behind a big Novotel at 220 West Regent Street, tel. 0141/225-6000, fax 0141/225-6010, www.ibishotel.com, h3139@accor.com).
These places, all on Renfrew Street, offer instant immersion into Glasgow’s working-class roots. Adjust your expectations: Each comes with tired public spaces, past-their-prime rooms, and a touch of indifference. But breakfast is included and the prices are competitive.
$$ Rennie Mackintosh Art School Hotel has 24 rooms—some redecorated—and hints of Glasgow’s favorite architect (slippery rates change with demand, but generally Sb-£32-35; Db-£48-55 Sun-Thu, £55 Fri-Sat; family rooms around £100, free Wi-Fi, 218-220 Renfrew Street, tel. 0141/333-9992, fax 0141/333-9995, www.rmghotels.com, rennie@rmghotels.com).
$$ Victorian House Hotel is a crank-’em-out place with a friendly staff and 58 worn but workable rooms sprawling through several old townhouses (S-£32, Sb-£39, Db-£60, lots of stairs and no elevator, free Wi-Fi, 212 Renfrew Street, tel. 0141/332-0129, www.thevictorian.co.uk, info@thevictorian.co.uk).
$$ Willow Guest House feels the most boutique, with 39 rooms—all with private bath (Sb-£35, Db-£50-60, family rooms-£75, free Wi-Fi, 228 Renfrew Street, tel. 0141/332-2332, www.willowhotelglasgow.com, wilcun@aol.com).
$$ Alba Lodge Guest House, at the end of the Renfrew row, has 15 mostly en suite rooms and featureless common areas (Sb-£35, Db-£52, Tb-£72, Qb-£89, free Wi-Fi, 232 Renfrew Street, tel. 0141/332-2588, www.albalodge.co.uk, info@albalodge.co.uk).
$ Hampton Court Guest House, with 18 rooms (most set up for families), drapes visitors in tartan (Sb-£36, Db-£48, family rooms-£78-129, free Wi-Fi, 230 Renfrew Street, tel. 0141/332-6623, info@hamptoncourtguesthouse.com, Purwel family).
$$ Premier Inn George Square is a family-friendly chain hotel in the Merchant City district, close to Queen Street Station (Sb/Db-£61, Db for up to 2 adults and 2 kids-£69-100, cheaper in winter—see here for tips on getting the best deal, elevator, pay Wi-Fi, 187 George Street, tel. 08715-278-440, fax 08725/278-441, www.premierinn.com).
$$ Babbity Bowster, named for a traditional Scottish dance, is a pub and restaurant renting six simple, mod rooms up top. It’s located in the trendy Merchant City on the eastern fringe of downtown, near several clubs and restaurants (Sb-£45, Db-£60, breakfast-£6, lots of stairs and no elevator, 10-minute walk from Central Station, 16-18 Blackfriars Street, tel. 0141/552-5055, www.babbitybowster.com, babbity@btinternet.com). The ground-floor pub serves £5-9 pub grub (daily 12:00-22:00); the first-floor restaurant, run by a French chef, offers £14-17 main dishes (Fri-Sat only 18:30-21:30, closed Sun-Thu).
$ Euro Hostel is the best bet for hostel beds in the city center. Part of a chain, this place is a lively hive of backpacker activity, with 364 beds on nine floors, plus pay Internet access, free Wi-Fi in the bar, a kitchen, and friendly staff (request a room on a higher floor and in the back for maximum quiet; very slippery rates, but figure £13-20 bunk in 4- to 14-bed dorm with bathroom, Sb-£29-40, Db-£36-52, couples should request a double or else end up with a bunk-bed, includes continental breakfast, elevator, laundry-£4/load, 318 Clyde Street, tel. 0141/222-2828, www.euro-hostels.co.uk, reservations@euro-hostels.co.uk). It’s on the busy main thoroughfare past Central Station, along the River Clyde, near some seedy areas.
Many of Glasgow’s fancier eateries serve “pre-theatre menus”—affordable, fixed-price meals served before 19:00.
(See “Central Glasgow Hotels & Restaurants” map, here)
Mussel Inn offers light, good-value fish dinners and seafood plates in an airy, informal environment. The restaurant is a cooperative, owned and run by shellfish farmers. Their £10 “kilo pot” of Scottish mussels is popular with locals and big enough to share (£7-8 small grilled platters, £11-18 meals, Mon-Fri 12:00-14:30 & 17:00-22:00, Sat 12:00-22:00, Sun 12:30-22:00, 157 Hope Street, between St. Vincent and West George Streets, tel. 0141/572-1405).
Rogano is a time-warp Glasgow institution that retains much of the same classy Art Deco interior it had when it opened in 1935. You half-expect to see Bacall and Bogart at the next table. The restaurant has three parts. The bar in front has outdoor seating (£6 lunch sandwiches, £12-15 meals). The fancy dining room at the back of the main floor smacks of the officers’ mess on the Queen Mary, which was built here on the Clyde during the same period (£20-24 meals with a focus on seafood). A more casual yet still dressy bistro in the cellar is filled with 1930s-Hollywood glamour (£11-14 meals, £15 afternoon tea; daily 12:00-21:30, fancy restaurant closed 14:30-18:00, 11 Exchange Place—just before giant archway from Buchanan Street, reservations smart, tel. 0141/248-4055).
Wagamama is part of a reliably good UK chain that serves tasty Asian noodle dishes at a reasonable price (£8-11 main dishes, Mon-Sat 11:30-23:00, Sun 12:30-22:00, 97-103 West George Street, tel. 0141/229-1468).
And More: Dozens of restaurants line the main commercial areas of town: Sauchiehall Street, Buchanan Street, and the Merchant City area. Most are very similar, with trendy interiors, Euro disco-pop soundtracks, and dinner for about £15-20 per person.
Supermarket: Steps from the Buchanan Street subway stop, Sainsbury’s is your best bet for groceries and cheap sandwiches (daily 7:00-23:00).
(See “Central Glasgow Hotels & Restaurants” map, here)
CCA Saramago Bar and Courtyard Café, located on the first floor of Glasgow’s edgy contemporary art museum, has designer animal-free food at art-student prices. An 18th-century facade, discovered when the site was excavated to build the gallery, looms over the courtyard restaurant (£3.50 small plates, £7 main courses, food served Mon-Sat 12:00-22:00, closed Sun, 350 Sauchiehall Street, tel. 0141/332-7959).
Where the Monkey Sleeps is the Glasgow School of Art’s cheap student cafeteria, though it may be closed during your visit (it is expected to reopen in late 2013 at the completion of the school’s renovation project). It’s your chance to mingle with the city’s next generation of artists and hear more of that lilting Glaswegian accent (if open, generally Sept-June Mon-Fri 8:00-17:00, closed Sat-Sun, tel. 0141/353-4728).
The hip, lively residential neighborhood called the West End is worth exploring, particularly at dinnertime. A collection of fine and fun eateries lines Ashton Lane, a small street just off bustling Byres Road (the scene continues to the left along Cresswell Lane). Before choosing a place, make a point of strolling the whole scene to comparison-shop.
Local favorites (all open long hours daily) include the landmark Ubiquitous Chip (with various pubs and restaurants sprawling through a deceptively large building; £5-7 pub grub, £8-20 restaurant meals, tel. 0141/334-5007) and the adorably named Wee Curry Shop (£7-14 Scottish-Indian fusion main dishes, tel. 0141/357-5280). Up at Cresswell Lane, consider Café Andaluz, which offers £4-9 tapas and sangria behind lacy wooden screens, as the waitstaff clicks past on the cool tiles (2 Cresswell Lane, tel. 0141/339-1111). Back on Byres Road, La Vallée Blanche serves French cuisine with a Scottish twist, in a romantic dining area that resembles an upscale mountain lodge (£10 dinner specials, £11-18 main courses, closed Mon, 360 Byres Road, tel. 0141/334-3333). Also note that the church-turned-pub Òran Mòr—described earlier, under “Nightlife in Glasgow”—has good pub snacks and is a five-minute walk away (at the intersection of Byres and Great Western Road).
Getting to the West End: It’s easiest to take the subway to Hillhead, which is a two-minute walk from Ashton Lane (exit the station to the left, then take the first left to find the lane). From the city center, you can also take a £5-6 taxi or catch bus #20 or #66 (stops just in front of the TI and on Hope Street, near recommended Renfrew Street accommodations, runs every 10 minutes; get out when you reach Byres Road).
Traveline Scotland has a journey planner that’s linked to all of Scotland’s train and bus schedule info. Go online (www.travelinescotland.com); call them at tel. 0871-200-2233; or use the individual websites listed below. If you’re connecting with Edinburgh, note that the train is faster but the bus is cheaper.
From Glasgow’s Central Station by Train to: Keswick in the Lake District (roughly hourly, 1.5 hours to Penrith, then catch a bus to Keswick, 45 minutes—see here), Cairnryan and ferry to Belfast (take train to Ayr, 2/hour, 1 hour; then ride bus to Cairnryan, 1 hour), Blackpool (hourly, 3.5-4 hours, transfer in Preston), Liverpool (1-2/hour, 3.5-4 hours, change in Wigan or Preston), Durham (4/hour, 3 hours, may require change in Edinburgh), York (2/hour, 3.5 hours, may require change in Edinburgh), London (1-2/hour, 4.5-5 hours direct). Train info: tel. 0845-748-4950, www.nationalrail.co.uk.
From Glasgow’s Queen Street Station by Train to: Oban (3/day, just 1/day Sun in winter, 3 hours), Inverness (11/day, 3 hours, 4 direct, the rest change in Perth), Edinburgh (4/hour, 50 minutes), Stirling (3/hour, 30-45 minutes), Pitlochry (11/day, 1.5-1.75 hours, some transfer in Perth).
From Glasgow by Bus to: Edinburgh (4/hour, 1.25-1.5 hours), Oban (3-8/day, 2.75-3 hours, some with transfer in Tyndrum), Fort William (buses #914, #915, and #916; 8/day, 3 hours), Glencoe (buses #914, #915, and #916; 8/day, 2.5 hours), Inverness (7/day, 3.5-4.5 hours, some transfer in Perth), Portree on the Isle of Skye (buses #915 and #916, 3/day, 6.5-7.5 hours), Pitlochry (3/day, 2.25 hours, transfer in Perth). Bus info: tel. 0871-266-3333, www.citylink.co.uk.
Glasgow International Airport: Located eight miles west of the city, this airport has currency-exchange desks, a TI, Internet access, luggage storage, and ATMs (tel. 0844-481-5555, www.glasgowairport.com). Taxis connect downtown to the airport for about £20. Bus #500 zips to central Glasgow (daily at least 4/hour 5:00-23:00, then hourly through the night, £5/one-way, £7.50/round-trip, 15-20 minutes to both train stations, 25 minutes to the bus station, catch at bus stop #1).
Prestwick Airport: A hub for Ryanair (as well as the US military, which refuels planes here), this airport is about 30 miles southwest of the city center (tel. 0871-223-0700, ext. 1006, www.gpia.co.uk). The best connection is by train, which runs between the airport and Central Station (Mon-Sat 2/hour, 45 minutes, half-price with Ryanair ticket). Stagecoach buses link the airport with Buchanan Street Station (£10, daily 4/hour plus a few nighttime buses, 45-60 minutes, check schedules at www.travelinescotland.com).
From England’s Lake District to Glasgow: From Keswick, take the A-66 for 18 miles to the M-6 and speed north nonstop (via Penrith and Carlisle), crossing Hadrian’s Wall into Scotland. The road becomes the M-74 south of Glasgow. To slip through Glasgow quickly, leave the M-74 at Junction 4 onto the M-73, following signs to M-8/Glasgow. Leave the M-73 at Junction 2, exiting onto the M-8. Stay on the M-8 west through Glasgow, exit on Junction 30, cross Erskine Bridge, and turn left on the A-82, following signs to Crianlarich and Loch Lomond. (For a scenic drive through Glasgow, take exit 17 off the M-8 and stay on the A-82 toward Dumbarton.)