Glasgow West End Sights
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Sightseeing around Glasgow's West End
Sightseeing Guide | George Square & Around | Merchant City | Trongate & East End | Cathedral Area | Buchanan Street to Charing Cross | West End | South Side Sightseeing
The bustling hub of the West End is Byres Rd, running south from the Great Western Road past Hillhead Underground.
It's an area populated mostly by students and full of fashionable shops, bars, cafés and restaurants.
On the other side of the M8 is the West End, an area which contains many of the city's major museums, as well some of its finest examples of Victorian architecture.
During the course of the 19th century the West End grew in importance as wealthy merchants moved here, away from the dirt and grime of the industrial city.
By the middle of the 19th century the Park Conservation Area had been established and was described as one of the finest pieces of architectural planning of the century.
Perhaps the most impressive of all the terraces in the conservation area are Park Quadrant and Park Terrace, with glorious views across Kelvingrove Park.
Soon after, in 1870, the university also moved west, to its present site overlooking Kelvingrove Park, and in 1896 the Glasgow District Subway was extended west.
In 1888 the park was used to stage an international exhibition and the profits were used to build the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery, which housed the second international exhibition, in 1901.
Kelvingrove Museum & Art Gallery
Check that the museum is open before visiting as a lengthy refurbishment is pending, probably starting in late 2002.
Glasgow's greatest art gallery (with the possible exception of the Burrell Collection) is the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, which stands below the university, on the other side of the River Kelvin, at the most westerly end of Argyle and Sauchiehall Streets, near Kelvingrove Park.
This massive sandstone Victorian building houses one of the finest municipal collections of Scottish and European paintings in the country, and should not be missed.
The art gallery and museum, first opened to the public in 1902, can be entered from the "rear, leading to one of the most popular urban myths, that it was mistakenly built back to front and when the architect found out he was so distraught that he jumped from one of the towers.
It was actually designed by two architects, Sir JW Simpson and Milner Allen, and is a wonderful structure, especially the breathtaking atrium.
At one end of the atrium is a huge set of organ pipes, and recitals are still held here.
On the ground floor is the Scottish Natural History Museum and, on the opposite side of the main hall, a rather jumbled collection of pottery, porcelain, silverware, costumes, tapestry and a collection of arms and armour.
But it is the art gallery upstairs which makes this such a fascinating attraction. Displayed in a series of rooms are some superb works, including Botticelli's Annunciation, Giorgione's The Adultress Brought Before Christ and Rembrandt's Man in Armour.
There are also outstanding examples of French Impressionism, Post-Impressionism and Dutch schools, including works by Degas, Monet, Turner, Bonnard, Pissaro, Vuillard, Braque and Derain.
There are also excellent works by many of Scotland's finest artists, including, Sir Henry Raeburn, Horatio McCulloch and Alexander Naysmith.
The Glasgow Boys are also well represented, with works by George Henry, Joseph Crawhall, Sir James Guthrie and Sir John Lavery. There's also a room dedicated to Charles Rennie Mackintosh, featuring a marvellous collection of furniture.
Mon-Thu and Sat 1000-1700; Fri and Sun 1100-1700. Free.
There's a cheap self-service café on the ground floor.
Also free guided tours most days from the enquiry desk. (Tel: 2872690).
To get there, take any bus heading for the Dumbarton Rd (Nos 9, 16, 42, 62, 64, ).
Nearest Underground station is Kelvin Hall.
Transport Museum
Opposite the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery and behind the Kelvin Hall, just off Argyle Street, is the Transport Museum, whose name may lack appeal but which is one of the country's most fascinating museums.
There are collections of trams, trains, motor cars, horsedrawn vehicles, bicycles, motorbikes, as well as a whole room dedicated to models of Clyde-built ships.
Everything you ever wanted to know about the history of transport but were too disinterested to ask. Well, this place will change all that.
There's also a reconstruction of a 1938 cobbled street, an old Underground station and a cinema showing old films of Glaswegians heading "doon the watter".
Something for everyone, as they say in the tourist brochures.
Mon-Thu and Sat 1000-1700, Fri and Sun 1100-1700. Free. (Tel: 2872720).
The Kelvin Walkway follows the River Kelvin from Kelvingrove Park through the northwest of the city to Dawsholm Park, about three miles away.
It goes through the Botanic Gardens and under the Forth and Clyde Canal. With the appropriate maps you could follow one waterway out and return by the other.
The path starts just west of the Transport Museum, by the bridge on the Dumbarton Road. Glasgow University & the Hunterian Museum The university's roots go back to 1451 when Pope Nicholas V authorised William Turnbull, Bishop of Glasgow to found a seat of learning in the city.
At first there was just an Arts faculty and lectures were held in the cathedral crypt and neighbouring monastery.
In the 17th century the university moved to new premises in the High Street, but these became too small and, in 1870, it moved to its present site, on Gilmorehill, overlooking Kelvingrove Park.
The Gothic buildings were designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, though the Lion and Unicorn balustrade on the stone staircase opposite the Principal's Lodging is a relic of the old High Street colleges, as is the stonework of the lodge gateway.
Bute Hall, which is now used for graduation and other ceremonies, was added in 1882. The university chapel is also worth seeing. Contained within the university buildings is the Hunterian Museum, named after William Hunter (1718-83), a student at the university in the 1730s.
His bequest to the university of his substantial collections led to the establishment of the Hunterian Museum in 1807, Scotland's oldest public museum. It has displays of social history, archaeology and geology and includes Roman relics from the Antonine Wall and one of the largest coin collections in Britain.
Beneath the museum is the University Visitor Centre, which features interactive displays on the university and a coffee bar. There's also a Zoology Museum, housed in the Graham Kerr Building, a few minutes' walk from the main museum.
Mon-Sat 0930-1700. Free. (Tel: 3304221), www.hunterian.gla.ac.uk
Hunterian Art Gallery & Mackintosh House
Across the road, at 82 Hillhead Street, is the Hunterian Art Gallery, a modern building containing the more interesting part of Hunter's bequest, the fabulous art collection.
The gallery holds an important collection of European paintings including works by Rembrandt, Koninck, Rubens, Pissaro and Rodin, as well as 18th century British portraits by Ramsay and Reynolds.
There is also a fine collection of Scottish 19th and 20th century paintings including works by McTaggart, Guthrie and Fergusson.
The piece de resistance is the huge collection of works by the American painter, James McNeill Whistler.
There are some 70 paintings and a selection of his personal possessions on show, making it the largest display of his work outside the USA.
Attached to the gallery is the Mackintosh House, a stunning reconstruction of the main interiors from 78 Southpark Avenue, the Glasgow home of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife, Margaret MacDonald, from 1906 to 1914.
A stairway leads to an introductory display containing numerous drawings and designs, including those for his major buildings, furniture and interiors.
From there you are led into the cool, soothing rooms, lovingly reconstructed and exquisitely furnished with some 80 original pieces of his furniture.
These give the perfect example of just why this innovative designer and architect is so revered. Among the highlights are the Studio Drawing Room, decorated in white and flooded with natural light, and the guest bedroom from Northampton, a later commission, with its bold and dazzling geometric designs.
When George Bernard Shaw, a guest, was asked if the décor would disturb his sleep, he replied, "No, I always sleep with my eyes closed."
Mon-Sat 0930-1700. Mackintosh House closed daily 1230-1330. Free. (Tel: 3305431), www.hunterian.gla.co.uk
To get there take buses 44 and 59 from the city centre (Hope St), or the Underground to Hillhead and walk. Opposite the entrance is the student refectory.
Botanic Gardens
At the top of Byres Road, where it meets the Great Western Road, is the entrance to the Botanic Gardens, a smallish but perfectly formed park where you can lose yourself along the remote paths that follow the wooded banks of the River Kelvin.
There are two large hothouses in the park, one of which is the Kibble Palace, built as a conservatory for the Clyde Coast home of Glasgow businessman, John Kibble, and then shipped to its present site in 1873.
The domed glasshouse, which contains a collection of ferns and palms from around the world, is thought to have been designed by Sir Joseph Paxton who designed the Crystal Palace in London, as well as Kelvingrove Park.
The main glasshouse is more attractive, with outstanding collections of orchids and begonias.
Gardens open daily 0700 till dusk. Free. Kibble Palace and all glasshouses open daily 1000-1645 in summer, 1000-1615 in winter.