West End Walk: West to Centre
By Manos Paneras and Paulius Serelis
Manos Paneras and Paulius Serelis' West End to City Centre walk considers dereliction as an opportunity for renewal.
The starting point for this walk is University Gardens, a street within the University of Glasgow campus that previously housed a squat space. Squatting, often associated with political movements such as anarchism, has become increasingly difficult due to legal restrictions and trespassing laws, not just in Scotland but across the whole of the UK. This location raises questions about the paradox of empty buildings in the middle of a housing crisis where vulnerable people are struggling to find homes.
Cities like Glasgow contain so much enclosed empty space that we must ask the question, how can vacancy and dereliction be reimagined? Do these empty buildings - deemed 'no places' - have the transformative potential to become communal or shared living spaces? The artists invite the passer-by to think about what we could do with these buildings and about how restoring the old can build something new.
Using polaroid and digital cameras, Manos Paneras and Paulius Serelis photographed six buildings on the route between University Gardens and Lion Chambers and produced a series of sound pieces designed to be listened to at six waymarks. Transitioning from Manos' celestial and synthy, photo-audio translations, to Paulius' meditative field recordings, this walk examines how two artists use sound to interpret the cityscape. Their sound tracks both jar with, and compliment, the visual stimuli, and in doing so offer alternative perceptions of where you are.
University Gardens
The first stop of the walk is University Gardens previously home to squat space, it makes up part of the University of Glasgow campus.
Kelvingrove
The next stop, Kelvingrove, is home to one of many Victorian parks created in response to overcrowding in Glasgow, the result of rapid urban growth during the industrial revolution. In 1927, 13% of Glaswegians lived in a one room apartment and 27% lived three to a room; space has long been a concern for the city. (Lowndes, 2013)
Stewart Memorial Fountain
Constructed in 1872 by the architect James Sellars the Stewart Memorial has seen a long period of disuse and neglect. It was refurbished in 1988 but after a few years of renewed activity, issues with pipes and continual vandalism led to the closing down of the fountain.
Royal Terrace
Next is Royal Terrace, a street just off the Park District in Glasgow’s West End. The Park District was part of a planned development created by Charles Wilson in the 1850’s built to house Glasgow’s mercantile class who moved Westward during the mid 1800’s to escape the sprawling centre.
This spot is also not far from 22 Park Circus, previously Casa D'Italia, a social club for Italian migrants from 1935-1990. It aimed to promote Italian culture through providing a space for cultural societies.
46 Finnieston Street
Named after Reverend John Finnie and once an area of warehouses and docks, Finnieston is now a residential area popular with students. In 2016, Finnieston was first in The Times list "20 Hippest Places to Live in Britain" and The Herald claimed it the 'Hippest Place in Britain'.
Carousel Nursery
Across from Carousel Nursery is an overpass for the M8; the busiest motorway in Scotland which connects Glasgow and Edinburgh. The M8 has seen a lot of criticism especially during construction as buildings were flattened and whole streets disappeared to make way for the new motorway. Once home to some of Glasgow’s finest architecture such as the Grand Hotel, Charing Cross is now a busy motorway junction that divides the city. Not only affecting Charing Cross, the M8 project meant working class families were forced to move out of the Cowcaddens area, and within a couple of decades the population had more than halved.
Lion Chambers
Lion Chambers is one of the most striking buildings in the City Centre. Designed by John Gaff Gillespie and James Salmon, it was completed in 1907. The top floor of this building was dedicated to artist studios but unfortunately poor insulation and thin concrete walls resulted in corrosion and in 1995 the building was declared unsafe. While the ground floor of the building operates as a business the future of Lion Chambers remains unclear. (Rodgers, 2016)
1. Sarah Lowndes, Social Sculpture: The Rise of the Glasgow Art Scene (Edinburgh: Luath Press Limited, 2013), p.25
2. Johnny Rodgers. 2016. "Footnotes: from 520 to Lion Chambers - Walking Heads", Walking Heads <http://www.walkingheads.net/tour_stop/footnotes-520-lion-chambers/> [accessed 5 November 2020]
Download the map to our West End - City Centre walks.
Photographs by Manos Paneras and Paulius Serelis
Note: Manos' images have been deliberately exported in a lower resolution for the purposes of photo - sound translation.
