A Glasgow Album: June 2011

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 11 June 2011 and we are at Kelvinbridge for Lansdowne Church Art Adventure Day, a

'. . . community-inclusive event at Lansdowne. . . designed to raise public awareness and financial support for the restoration of the Lansdowne church building and its magnificent stained glass and to highlight its use as a space for arts and heritage.'

See
http://lansdowneinspires.blogspot.com/search/label/Art%20Adventures

For more pics of the splendid church see

http://glasgowalbum.blogspot.com/2010/03/churches-working-and-converted-other.html

We're here in the afternoon - there were painterly activities going on earlier here, involving (among others) the remarkable Allan Richardson, See
http://glasgowalbum.blogspot.com/2011/05/kelvinbridge-adventures-in-art-west-end.html

From the VisitScotland site

'Built 1863 to a design by John Honeyman. Spire 218 feet, one of the slimmest in Europe, a powerful landmark on Great Western Road. Box pews. Beautiful stained glass by Alfred and Gordon Webster, and war memorial frieze by Evelyn Beale. Pipe organ 1911, Norman & Beard, said to have the finest tuba rank in Glasgow with some wonderful flutes. On corner with Park Road, opposite Kelvinbridge underground. City buses 20, 41, 59, 66, from city centre. '

See

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hOKj7x02kMoJ:guide.visitscotland.com/vs/guide/5,en,SCH1/objectId,INF51414Svs,curr,GBP,season,at1,selectedEntry,home/home.html+glasgow+architecture+lansdowne+church&cd=16&hl=en&ct=clnk&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.com


For the restoration see http://www.cottiers.com/history/four-acres-charitable-trust/landsdowne-church-restoration/ 'Lansdowne Church in the West End of Glasgow is one of the city’s finest Gothic Revival buildings. The West End contains many Victorian churches and the decline in church attendance in recent decades has placed an undue burden on congregations. The congregation at Lansdowne has recognised that an ecclesiastical use with hires to local organisations will not be sufficient on its own to support such a large building and the condition of the fabric has become a real concern. In 2005 the congregation entered into discussions with Four Acres Charitable Trust to secure the future of the building. Under an arrangement with the Church of Scotland General Trustees, Four Acres Charitable Trust is able to take ownership of Lansdowne subject to the achievement of a planning consent for the trust’s proposed long-term use together with a suitable funding package for a first phase of work. Reflecting the model of the Cottier Project, Lansdowne will be developed as a community building with a catering facility to provide financial sustainability. However in the case of Lansdowne a small upper hall will also be available for community hire and the main church building will retain an ecclesiastical use remaining available to the congregation while also being adapted for occasional performance. If funding is achieved to convert the hall the trust intends to work with the Friends of Glasgow West to make Lansdowne a base for the Friends’ lectures and interpretation activity. Lansdowne is a Category A Listed building and one of the major Glasgow landmarks famous for its slender tapering spire. The Heritage Lottery Fund, the Pilgrim Trust and the Architectural heritage Fund have provided the trust with grant funding to develop a project plan which was completed in March 2009. Extracts from the plan regarding the significance of Lansdowne can be downloaded. . . '	'

Alasdair Gray is doing portraits today, which is great. You get your portrait sketched for free by one of Scotland's leading artists (and novelists) and if you get fed up looking at it you can flog it on ebay.

Queue for Alasdair on left; somebody doing something artistic on altar on right


For the Lansdowne Portrait Project see http://clearwood.co.uk/?page_id=1282

This is the fine choir Voicebeat; see http://www.voicebeat.org/

From their website:

'Voicebeat is a multicultural singing group, or world music community choir, the only one in Glasgow that we know of. It was started about eight years ago by Jane Tomlinson and is now led by Harry Campbell. We sing songs from around the world in easy unaccompanied harmony, often in foreign languages, in an informal, lively, supportive atmosphere. Whatever your background and experience, you are welcome at Voicebeat. There’s no audition and you don't need to be able to read music, as all songs are taught by ear. We meet on Mondays (not Thursdays as before) from 7–9pm at the Annexe, Stewartville St, Partick, Glasgow G11 5PE. Why not come along and give it a try?'

Jane Tomlinson - organiser of the event - on left

Lansdowne's imposing spire on screen

Aha - unbeknown to Alasdair he is having his portrait done

Like this

Original decoraion rediscivered

We're heading towards the stairs now

Old news, old sorrows

Heading upstairs


From the Cottiers restoration link above - 'The interior has a range of stained glass with the two triple lancet windows in the north and east transepts by Alf Webster standing out as exceptional. The south transept window is considered Webster's masterwork and was completed shortly before his death at Ypres in 1915.'

Back on ground floor

The Rev Roy Henderson on right, Lansdowne's widely admired minister. The congregation is a small and lively one.

Alasdair still sketching away

A rather endearing pair of chairs

Is art the new religion? Some would say so , but it seems evident that - certainly with Christianity - it is new forms of religion that are the new religion, as is evidenced by the evangelical churches springing up in Glasgow (and everywhere else in the world, from China to Nigeria) - see, for example, the Townhead Destiny church here

http://glasgowalbum.blogspot.com/2010/10/townhead-to-duke-st-to-george-square.html

The artist's gesture at the altar is of course not meant to be disrespectful and would not be seen as such in institutions such as the Church of Scotland and Church of England - churches wedded to the 'in a very real sense blah blah ' approach but perhaps would not go down well in the new churches.