Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
5
City
. he 1895 building was Mackintosh's first public commission, and housed the o
ces
of the
Glasgow Herald
newspaper; despite glass and sandstone additions, it retains many
original features, including the distinctive tower from which the building takes its name.
Alongside temporary exhibitions on design and architecture there's a shop featuring
some attractive contemporary design and the stylish
Mackintosh Interpretation Centre
,
a great place to learn more about the man and his work. It features plans, models,
photographs, original objects, and computer and video displays that explore many of
Mackintosh's unique buildings and interiors. A viewing platform and the Lighthouse
Tower itself give fantastic views out over the city skyline to a number of his important
buildings, including the School of Art and Scotland Street School.
The Merchant City
he grid of streets that lie immediately east of the City Chambers is known as the
Merchant City
, an area of eighteenth-century warehouses and homes once bustling with
cotton, tobacco and sugar traders, which in the last two decades has been sandblasted
and swabbed clean with greater enthusiasm and municipal money than any other part of
Glasgow in an attempt to bring residents back into the city centre. he expected flood
of yuppies was more like a trickle, but the expensive designer shops, stylish bars and
bijou cafés are still in evidence, giving the area a pervasive air of sophistication and chic.
Trades Hall
Glassford St • Mon-Fri 9am-5pm; tour Tues 10.30am • Free •
T
0141 552 2418,
W
tradeshallglasgow.co.uk uk • St Enoch underground
At the junction of Ingram and John streets is the delicate white spire of
Hutcheson Hall
,
an early nineteenth-century building designed by Scottish architect David Hamilton,
while a little way down Glassford Street, the Robert Adam-designed
Trades Hall
is easily
distinguished by its neat green copper dome. Purpose-built in 1794, it still functions as
the headquarters of the Glasgow trade guilds. hese include corporations of Bakers,
Hammermen, Gardeners and Weavers, among others, although today they have limited
connections to their respective trades and act as charitably minded associations. he
former civic pride and status of the guilds is still evident, however, from the rich
assortment of carvings and stained-glass windows, with a lively pictorial representation
of the different trades in the silk frieze around the walls of the first-floor grand hall.
Visitors are free to look around the building, and access is only restricted if there is a
function taking place.
Trongate 103
Trongate 103 • Tues-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm; open Thurs till 9pm Feb-Dec • Free •
W
trongate103.com
Behind a sleek glass frontage among otherwise nondescript and downmarket shops on
Trongate you'll find
Trongate 103
, a sparkling new arts centre that incorporates a number
of organizations, including the Glasgow Print Studio, Street Level Photoworks and
Transmission Gallery. he six-storey converted building is used to show printmaking,
contemporary photography, video work and ceramics in airy light-filled spaces.
Sharmanka Kinetic Gallery
Trongate 103 • Wed, Fri & Sat 3pm, Thurs & Sun 3pm & 7pm • 45min (3pm)/70min (7pm) show £5/8 •
T
0141 552 7080,
W
sharmanka
.com • St Enoch underground
Trongate 103 is home to Glasgow's most unusual attraction. Founded by Russian
émigrés Eduard Bersudsky and Tatyana Jakovskaya, the
Sharmanka Kinetic Gallery
is
like a mad inventor's magical workshop, with dozens of allegorical contraptions made
from old wheels, levers, lights, carved wooden figures and scrap metal that spark into
