Go Citybreak:The Scottish city is not only surprisingly attractive but seriously sophisticated-looking, which explains how it managed to make it on to a 'Lonely Planet' list as one of the top 10 cities of the world, writes ADAM ALEXANDER
THE PLANE FROM Belfast had hardly got off the ground before it was heading down again, and yet I knew so shamefully little about where it was going. Nothing but a faint knowledge of a place with a reputation for sectarian football rivalry, and a kiss that can put you in hospital.
The first big relief to hit me then is how super-friendly Glasgow is. A richly cosmopolitan place full of Asians, Africans, Italians and even orthodox Jews, where as my native Glaswegian taxi driver who picked me up from the airport explained: “Everyone gets on brilliant . . . except o’ course fer the Rangers and Celtic fans.”
The next big revelation was to find that far from being a place that would look the same before and after a nuclear attack, as Billy Connolly once jibed, Glasgow is not only a surprisingly attractive city today, but a seriously sophisticated-looking one as well. A place so full of cafes, bars, boutiques, upmarket hotels and restaurants that it soon answers the mystery of how on earth it recently managed to make it on to a Lonely Planet list alongside Chicago, Lisbon and Mexico City as one of the top 10 cities of the world.
Third largest city in the UK, Glasgow looks at first like Belfast’s big cousin – with its skyline of church spires, surrounding hills and shipbuilding cranes. Like Belfast, the shipbuilding is a thing of the past though, and today Glasgow’s major new industry and investment appears to be in its people, and its artists in particular.
Nowhere is this more apparent perhaps than in its thriving music scene, where a staggering average of 130 music events every week has helped produce bands such as Franz Ferdinand, Snow Patrol and Travis.
The petulant Mancunian duo of Oasis were also discovered here, it is said, and at one of Glasgow’s most famous music venues, the fabulously-named King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, a young manager explained to me the secret of how Glasgow’s music scene is so flourishing: “Everyone’s a f**king critic here. They watch some new band and say: ‘That’s crap! I could do better than that’. And so they pick up a guitar and they do. It’s like this great competitive spirit!”
But while fierce one-upmanship may be the answer to its musical successes, it was only on visits to places such as the Briggait, Glasgow’s old fish market now refashioned into state-of-the-art painters’ studios, that I really began to see a bigger picture of how Glasgow successfully encourages and even cross-pollinates all of its arts and strengths.
NO WONDERthen that it has so much to boast about these days: European City of Culture in 1990. Second biggest shopping capital after London. Only the third city in Europe after Seville and Bologna to be named a Unesco city of music in 2008. And now the Commonwealth Games scheduled for 2014, for which hotel-occupancy will finally outstrip even Edinburgh.
The result, when you step back and take a look, is a quite astonishing and inspiring rejuvenation story. A city that not only overcame a violent, hard-drinking image of slums, gangs, and industrial dereliction, but re-emerged from it as one of the great cultural cities of Europe.
But it was on a visit to another of the city’s most enduringly popular buildings, the Glasgow School of Art, that I began to see how Glasgow – once one of the world’s richest cities and “Second city of the Empire” – was always a progressive place far ahead of its time.
Founded in the mid-1800s, it was designed by one Charles Rennie Mackintosh – an architectural genius, who also ensured that Glasgow was the first place in the world ever to have tea rooms.
His retro-style furniture, which would not only give Ikea a run for its money but has even been used in films such as Inception, can still be seen in these tea rooms right across Glasgow. Exquisite, almost Mad Hatter-like places not only still busy today, but about as far as you can get in your head from any misguided idea you might ever have had about Glasgow.
BUT WHILE ITwas now obvious that Glasgow is a place that defies preconceived notions, I was glad that at least one I had brought with me was still firmly intact. And if everyone's a critic here, as the young manager at King Tut's Wah Wah Hit suggested, you can bet your last Scottish pound, everyone's a bloody comedian as well.
Here, the less sophisticated members of society are known as Neds (Non Educated Delinquents); and who can ever forget the seriously funny warning given to Al-Qaeda by the Glasgow airport baggage handler, John Smeaton, who after sticking the boot into a suicide-bomber already in flames, said famously: “This is Glasgow; we’ll set aboot ye!”
“I love the naivety of Al-Qaeda for trying to bring a religious war to Glasgow,” said Glasgow-born Billy Connolly after the botched attack on the airport. “You’re 400 years too late, guys! You’ve not even got a football team, for Christ sake!”
But while Glasgow still likes to joke about its violent history, it wasn’t until the end of my all-too-brief weekend visit when I stepped into the fascinating Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum that I even got a whiff of the sectarian football rivalry that once gave Glasgow its more notorious reputation.
“Over 150 years ago, Glasgow was seen as a place of refuge for people fleeing from the potato famine in Ireland,” explains one of the museum’s exhibits, which details the history of Protestant and Catholic rivalries in the city. “Scotland’s main church was Protestant, but many of those arriving over from Ireland were Roman Catholics.”
Thus, it continues: “Some Glaswegians were suspicious of these new immigrants. They thought they might take jobs and housing away from them. So Glasgow became a divided city, and football teams encouraged people to keep their own faiths.”
But it was the stories of more recent immigrants also exhibited in the museum that I found more interesting. People who came from places such as Pakistan and India in the 1950s, and have since filled the city with so many restaurants and exotic eateries that today – forget about the deep-fried pizzas and Mars bars you’ve heard about – you can literally eat your way around the world here.
“The first thing I remember when we arrived,” says a young Indian immigrant, “was we were so tired and our parents told us to go to sleep and it was dark. And the next day, when I woke up, it was still dark, and I thought: ‘What long nights here!’”
God love them, it must have been winter. But then even Glasgow couldn’t do much about that.
Glasgow where to . . .
3 places to stay
Value: Beersbridge Lodge Guesthouse, 50 Bentinck Street, 00-44-141-338-6666, beersbridgelodge.hostel.com. Overlooking the beautiful grounds of Kelvingrove Park in central Glasgow, just 50 yards from Sauchiehall Street, this is close to local bars, cafes, restaurants and the nightlife of Glasgow. Twins from €61.
Mid-market: The Lorne Hotel, West End, 923 Sauchiehall Street, 00-44-141-330-1555, lornehotelglasgow.com. Stylish boutique hotel, with great little cocktail bar and friendly staff. Prices from €90pps.
Upmarket: Glasgow Grand Central, 99 Gordon Street, (adjoins the side of Central Station), 00-44-871-508-8768, grandcentralglasgow.co.uk. This grandiose olde worlde railway hotel – once one of the city's most prestigious hotels – has been recently refurbished and restored to its former glory. Rooms from €93.
3 places to eat
Value: Republic Bier Halle, 9 Gordon Street (two minutes from Central Station), 00-44-141-204-0706, republicbierhalle.com. Must-visit, quirky cosmopolitan beer hall famous for its 2-for-1 stone-baked pizza deals, and its all-you-can-eat buffet midweek.
Mid-market: The Arches, 253 Argyle Street, 00-44-141-565-1035, thearches.co.uk. Try the haggis with chilli jam starter, or better still, the famous black-pudding burger.
Upmarket: Two Fat Ladies at the Buttery, 652 Argyle Street, 00-44-141-221-8188, twofatladiesrestaurant.com. One of Glasgow's oldest, most enduring and celebrated restaurants, this is one of the best, most ambient places for seafood in town, even if you do never do work out what an "ethically-dived scallop" actually is.
3 places to go
Museum: the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum (Argyle Street, 00-44-141-276-9599) and Glasgow School of Art (167 Renfrew Street, 00-44-141-353-4500) are must-visits for culture vultures, as is anything that contains the name Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
Music: with clubs like Nice 'N' Sleazy (421 Sauchiehall Street, 00-44-141-333-0900), the Cathouse (15 Union Street, 00-44-141-248-6606) and King Tut's Wah Wah Hut (272a St Vincent Street, 00-44-141-221 5279), who can resist Glasgow's musical heartland?
Shopping: second only to London, Glasgow's shopping scene inspires just two words – what recession?
Get thereAer Lingus (aerlingus.com) flies to Glasgow from Dublin, Cork and Shannon. Easyjet (easyjet.com) and Flybe (flybe.com) fly from Belfast.
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