Southside Walk
By Vita Lerche, Nasim Luczaj, Aaron Smyth and Niki Cardoso Zaupa
The Southside walk takes you through the Southside area of Govanhill. In the 1880's the area was home to Irish migrants, there are now over 50 nationalities and 32 languages spoken in Govanhill. The artists on this walk depict Govanhill as it was in the past, and as it is now. Through audio, visual and film work, common themes of film and theatre arise which resonate with the two sites of former cinemas on this route. Govanhill is presented as heart of the Southside, living, breathing with a multitude of histories:
Govanhill Baths:
'closure.
Disconnect.
Insert painting here.
See the boarded windows, ply fit for a painting, or three.
Atmosphere Atmosphere Atmosphere'
Govanhill Picture House:
'You can watch everyone
You can Look for what’s new
Regal silk,
City fog
a song without end'
"Beckett had been on my mind, 'Not, I' in particular. It became apparent that I should have segments repeated and contrasted against other audio samples from, 'The Searchers Theme', Carl Orff's 'Gassenhauer' and 'Dies Irae'. My images can be viewed in conjunction with the audio, they give something to the building to kind of complete it. Both image and audio deal with a domestic narrative, which plays out interestingly against this 'theatre set' of a building."
The "body" is divided into the 5 canonical parts: head, spine, thorax, arms and legs, and for each part the filmmaker adopts different shooting, editing and processing approaches. The head opens with a stop-motion video showing an array of the complex textures present on Govanhill's face; the spine section focuses on the notion of endurance, hence the moving images are placed one on top of the other, each one influencing the other through tiny random vibrations; the thorax video expands and pulses in the same way the diaphragm and the heart do; the strength of their arms is pictured with the use of very quick and mechanical pan-shots (from up to down and vice versa), the feedback video builds a trace up the same way arms build objects in space; the legs are conceptualised as the act of walking itself. A voice provides poetic commentary throughout the video and is accompanied by synthesised sound."
Govanhill Baths
Built in 1917, the Govanhill Baths housed swimming pools, public baths and ‘slipper baths’ - individual baths that could be rented to wash in. In 2001, the Baths were closed by Glasgow City Council who argued that the baths were too expensive refurbish and keep open. Since then, Govanhill Baths Community Trust have been campaigning for the Baths to be reopened. Over the years the Baths have been open to the public for specific events, most recently for Doors Open Days which saw the Baths filled with flowers.
Govanhill Library
Walk a little further down Calder Street and you find Govanhill Library. An example of Baroque architecture, the library was built in 1906 as one of twelve libraries constructed with Andrew Carnegie's gift of £100,000 to the city in 1901. With the library and the Baths, this area of Govanhill would have once been the centre of civic life with amenities for bathing, clothes washing, leisure and education. Unfortunately, due to current lockdown measures, the library has been closed since March. Alongside the disused Baths, we wonder what is lost when these municipal buildings shut?
Govanhill Picture House
Govanhill Picture House is one of the most striking buildings in Govanhill. It was built in 1926 as an Egyptian-themed cinema designed by architect Eric A. Sutherland and seated over 1000 people. Govanhill Picture House was one of many cinemas in Glasgow in the 1930's, at which time Glasgow was home to more cinemas per person than anywhere else in the UK.
The cinema was used until 1961, and then as a bingo hall until 1974. Between then and 2018, the building was used a warehouse, but in 2018 plans were unveiled to refurbish the cinema and use it again for its original purpose by Queer Classics Film Festival (QCFF). It is currently home to local business, Lalli Fashions.
127 Albert Road
Just across from Crosshill station, the 'faceless' tenements of Albert Road look like a life-size doll's house or an extravagant theatre set. The tenements, which has been evacuated in 2015 over safety concerns, were damaged in Storm Ophelia in 2017. Three years later, the building has been left almost untouched by the City council and remains a stark reminder of Glasgow's 74,000 private homes that are around 100 years old or older, many in desperate need of restoration.
A Temporary Green Space
At the end of Westmoreland Street you will find 'a temporary green space', an oddly placed park with boulders placed in a circle on a central grassy mound. This space was once home to an infamous Irish social club called The Clada Club, and later the Up N Down Club. When the club was being demolished, a 1925 poster for the Hampden Picture House was found in the rubble. The building, similar to Govanhill Picture House, was a cinema turned bingo hall before it became a social club.
*There is some hidden treasure at this stop, look in the brick wall to your left. Please use gloves or hand sanitiser. Read the instructions from Nasim below.
Visual Work by Vita Lerche, Aaron Smyth and Nasim Luczaj
