A Glasgow Album: South Street to Thornwood: an 'X'-Listed' walk in which we encounter the Secret State

Welcome to my wee photoblog on Glasgow, where we feature the joys and unjoys of walking and cycling through a fascinating, beautiful and often badly run city. For the blog's origin see the 'Introduction' post -

http://glasgowalbum.blogspot.com/2010/02/introduction.html

An alphabetical list of all posts so far can be found at the end of this post

Today is 27 June and we have just dropped off a van at Arnold Clark's on South St. Our intention is to link up a section of our Glasgow ramblings by going up to the top of South St and round to Dumbarton Rd - but things are not going to work out for us.

Nice modern building beside Arnold Clark's

Large South St buildings - we are going to heading up past the BAE systems buildings

South St is beside the Clyde - an old industrial street

looking back at Arnie's - fine service as ever

South St is quite evocative of Terry Gilliam's dystopian fantasy Brazil - and not just in terms of architecture, as we shall shortly discover

It's a long street this

One of the street's older buildings

We are directly opposite the BAE building of which I have taken a few pics - now we are going to climb these stairs to a car park. . .


. . .where we find these enchanting dining al fresco benches - perhaps laid out as a cunning trap for tuxedoed Bond villains, foreign agents and industrial spies, for at this moment a voice calls from the street 'Sir! Sir!' What follows is a literal mauvais quart d'heure during which I am 'invited' into BAE reception and 'invited' to delete the pics I have taken. It's all very polite in the 'polite' mode of that soldier in an Iraq war movie who says to Arabs: 'Sir! Sir! Could you stand over there with the other ragheads sir!' I got - as an opening gambit - 'Sir! I'm going to have to confiscate your camera sir!' I am told by security that the BAE building is a building that has been 'x-listed' by the Ministry of Defence and that taking photographs of it is strictly forbidden. This is all news to me. I am under the impression that there is no law against taking photographs of buildings on a public street. In December 2009 the Met Commissioner John Yates said quite explicitly that there were 'no laws to stop people photographing buildings'. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/15/yates-police-terrorism-powers-photography But this is not the place to argue. I delete the pics of the building front and leave. When I get home I google and in a minute find the building I am not allowed to photograph - at Wikimedia commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Entrance_To_BAE_Systems,_Scotstoun_-_geograph.org.uk_-_740858.jpg NB - as you can see in the background of the above photograph the building has two flags out since the wikimedia pic was taken - the BAE company flag and the Union Jack. I think Big Eck should be told there is no St Andrew's flag! The security issue is of course a complete nonsense. Wikimedia Commons has detailed pics (more detailed than I would have taken) of the building and other parts of the BAE site. Also, we live in an age of deep and extensive satellite surveillance, and if any foreign power or business competitor wants more detailed pics of the building and its inhabitants there are drones the size of hummingbirds - of dragonflies - that can do the job. The intention of this blog is to be A Weegie's Google Street View of Glasgow - cycles and rambles through a city changing constantly. Google Earth has us all mapped out - indeed the spooks have us all mapped out to the extent that they don't have enough staff to analyse it all. Collecting and analysing photos of something as specific as BAE plant (and staff) is a dawdle. There is no danger to BAE or the UK of any kind from an old codger like me taking pics of Glasgow buildings. Taking me off the street and deleting my pics is part of the 'secret state' mentality in which the enemy is not any of the real enemies - who cannot be stopped - but we, the British people. Wikimedia points out that some of the BAE plant looks 'dilapidated' - an accurate perception. BAE's competitors and any interested enemies of the British state will know this already of course - but BAE doesn't want us to know it. So are there 'x-listed' buildings in Britain's city streets and are we - the people - forbidden to photograph them and be ordered to delete any we have taken? As their actions are asserted by BAE to be on the orders of the Ministry of Defence, we shall ask the Secretary of State for Defence - Liam Fox MP - and copy in my MP Ann McKechin - and I am sure Alex Salmond will also be interested. UPDATE 5 September 2011 All has been gracefully resolved; see http://glasgowalbum.blogspot.com/2011/09/update-to-south-street-walk.html

Now at the top of South St and turning into Burnham Rd (let's not look back down South St - at this moment the safest option is to keep walking)

Here we link up with Welcome to Glasgow 2: the Yoker Rd

http://glasgowalbum.blogspot.com/2010/11/welcome-to-glasgow-2-yoker-rd.html
which runs from Scotstoun through Yoker to the City Boundary, taking in the Renfrew Ferry and such delightful sights as the pub where our recent City Leader used to buy his cocaine. Another aspect of Glasgow less written about than it ought to be.

Looking back down Burnham Rd

We are in Dumbarton Rd and will do a flanker on South St for a while. . .

. . .by cutting down Ardsloy Place (nice terraced houses). . .

. . . across Earl St another long street which runs parallel to South St. . .

. . .and we head up past those bins. . .

. . .to find a path which is unmarked on at least one Glasgow A-Z

We are heading this way, eastwards (townwards)

Something about Derry?

I have an idea for BAE: drop the secret squirrel stuff and host a street party for Scotstoun kids. (Consultants are paid vast sums for ideas like this and I'm giving it free.)

Approaching a bridge

Looking down on Balmoral St. Scotstoun's new community centre on the right there - opened a few days ago, June 2011.

We're going to come off the path here and go down Balmoral St to South St

A narrow wee path at bottom

Good luck to the Centre: See http://heartofscotstoun.org/
I wonder if BAE and other South St employers are providing some aid: a fractional budgetary outlay could reap big social benefits. But big capitalist companies are often not rational never mind compassionate. Gok Wan was here last year during the construction - see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXCUge5R6vE&feature=player_embedded
and
http://www.localnewsglasgow.co.uk/2010/10/gok-takes-a-look-in-scotstoun/

Looking back

Back onto South St

Looking back where we have been

. . .we are heading townwards

Looks like a transformer standing on top of that high rise

South St goes on a bit from here heading into Partick but not much in the way of buildings

Whiteinch Indoor Bowling Club. Last year I was along here and took some pics on a bright sunny day - must dig them out

Now heading back up the way we came


Something demolished - I probably have a pic from last year

We're going to head down Harland St towards Dumbarton Rd

Earl St again looking west. . .

. . .and looking east

Dumbarton Rd looking west

We're heading townwards

Nice looking bike shop

Uh oh - there is some sort of confrontation going on down there involving a cop van

We'll take a body swerve and head down Methil St to that bridge. . .

. . .and leave the Wild Things behind

We're heading right here walking up to that doocot

The sun has come out!

But not for long

Up the steps we go

Scotstoun Boys

A doocot - a place for keeping pigeons (doos) a dovecot in England. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dovecote which says 'Doocots were built well into the 18th century in increasingly decorative forms, then the need for them died out though some continued to be incorporated into farm buildings as ornamental features. However the 20th century saw a revival of doocot construction by pigeon fanciers, and dramatic towers clad in black or green painted corrugated iron can still be found on wasteland near housing estates in Glasgow and Edinburgh.'

There has traditionally been a great deal of rivalry between urban doocot owners with dark tales of owners using pigeons to seduce other pigeons into moving in. Maybe the Ministry of Defence could publish a protocol of accepted behavior - a sort of doos and don'ts.

Cyclist approaching

Back down the way we came up

Henrietta St

I worked as an agency postie along this route back in 2004. Neighbouring tenement closes along Dumbarton Rd vary dramatically. One close I went into had a huge dog turd on the landing - another had a brothel on the top floor. If you want to know your city, ask a postman.

The police wagon has gone so on we go

Scotstoun St

This is Victoria Park Bowling Club - and not a 2000-year-old Victoria Park

We'll take a wee detour here. .

. . .to see Great Western Auctions, home of Bargain Hunt star Anita Manning
UPDATE 29 September 2011
I stuck some items in the auction for sale in late August as I kept almost breaking them - not exciting stuff, only fetched coppers. Two members of the staff we spoke to were lovely, but if you plan to stick stuff in yourself, be warned, you may be intercepted by a Basil Fawlty like wee porter who actually walked away from us while I was speaking to him, and has no obvious social or indeed customer skills. If you want to be sure of a family-friendly reception, go to McTear's

www.mctears.co.uk

Looking back

Shaftesbury Cottages

Shaftesbury Medical Practice
http://www.shaftesburymedicalpractice.co.uk
From the website -
'The practice aims to provide high quality effective health care to all patients in an innovative and progressive environment, through the ongoing development and commitment of all members of the primary health care team.'

An evocative name for a chippy

Whiteinch Health Practice
http://www.whiteinchmedicalpractice.co.uk
The Whiteinch Practice has a rather more blunt approach to patients than the Shaftesbury:
'Remember: You are responsible for your own health and the health of your children. We will give you our professional help and advice. Please act upon it.
We ask that you treat the doctors and practice staff with courtesy and respect.'

Well, quite.


The inscription says 'Saint Paul's Parish Halls built 1908'

The church itself

We take a quick cut up Squire street here. . .

. . .to see this church

Back in Dumbarton Rd - costly properties going up

Whiteinch Cross

Path into Clyde Tunnel

Oh let's go in - can't be as bad as it looks

I've noted elsewhere in this blog that parts of Glasgow seem to belong more to the dark faery world of Gaiman and Susannah Clarke than they do to more mainstream fictions. . .

. . .there may be messages here we are not meant to read. . .

People talk of the 'Glasgow Effect', the level of despair in Glasgow that remains when compared with similar cities such as Liverpool. . .

. . .Glswegians are always seen by outsiders as a cheery (if pished) bunch of people but we're not all that merry really.

Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Yeats - 'The Stolen Child'

Glendower:
I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
Hotspur:
Why, so can I, or so can any man;
But will they come when you do call for them?

A nice cheery mural. For the Whiteinch area see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiteinch
and for the Centre see
http://www.whiteinchcentre.org.uk/
This is also a very useful site for the area -
http://www.geolocation.ws/v/W/4d7fd7728786567a4003015d/whiteinch-cross-this-can-be-quite-a-nice/en

What's going on in this mural? It could be (a) a 'community art' project done by arty people still in thrall to The Word (that 80s TV show of benighted memory) who see art as about getting down wid da yoof; (b) a work by locals. Or maybe (c) a BAE recruiting poster - 'Sir! Sir! Ya dobber!'

For some theorising on this and some good pics see
http://www.flickr.com/photos/captaincupid87/4657477746/