I love this hinge on D.B. Dobson's Art Nouveau masterpiece at 50 Darnley Street in Glasgow. At first it looks unexpectedly plain in comparison to the rest of the building, and then it hits you - it's a snake!
A Grahamston Iron Company drain cover on the grounds of the Glasgow Vet School at Garscube in the west of Glasgow. Grahamston Iron Company was founded in Falkirk by William Thomson Mitchell in 1868, and went into liquidation in 1993.
The lone surviving Alexander 'Greek' Thomson Lamp Standard on Queen's Drive is looking rather sorry for itself at the moment having been vandalised with silver spray paint. Anyone know who to contact to get it cleaned off without damaging the details underneath?
The nameplate on a Glenfield and Kennedy manhole cover in the Gorbals Rose Garden in Glasgow. Started by Thomas Kennedy in Kilmarnock in the 1860s, at one time it was one of the biggest industrial manufacturing companies in the British Commonwealth. Access covers bearing its name (mostly for fire hydrants) are a common sight on Glasgow's streets.
By far my favourite bit of architectural ironwork in Glasgow, and possibly anywhere in the world! It can be found on D.B. Dobson's 1902 Art Nouveau commercial building at 50 Darnley Street in Glasgow.
The coat of arms of the Merchants' House of Glasgow on the gates at the main entrance to the Necropolis. Below this is the name William Brown, a Scottish merchant and philanthropist who was the Dean of Guild at the time the gates were created. Designed by David and James Hamilton, the gates date from 1838 and were originally set at the western end of the Bridge of Sighs leading over the Molendinar Ravine which separates the Catherdral and the Necropolis.
An access panel produced by the Lion Foundry in Kirkintilloch, near Glasgow. This foundry was established in the early 1880s by a number of former employees of Walter MacFarlane's Saracen Foundry in the north of Glasgow. Originally named Jackson, Brown, Hudson and Cuthbert, they became known as the Lion Foundry in 1885. While you may not realise it, you most likely regularly pass other examples of this foundry's work in the shape of post boxes.
Queen's Park Railings on the Southside of Glasgow. I'm not too sure why one is so obviously different from the others, but I suspect it may be due to the need to make a repair to a listed structure clearly discernable from the original parts.
This access cover in Kelvingrove Park has long been a bit of a puzzle for me. Situated near the Park Drive entrance, you can just make out that it's a Fire Point (FP) cover made by Thomas Leadbetter and Co. Based on Gordon Street, with a works on Garnkirk Street, this Glasgow company was a plumbers, lead merchant and brass foundry, which, amongst other things made brass values for fire points (what we'd now call a fire hydrant) in the 1860s.
However, looking back at old maps as far back as the 1850s (when the park was first created) I cannot find any obvious reason why there was a fire point, or even water pipes, at this location in the park. However, it seems to been there for over 150 years, so presumably it had a logical purpose at some point in its history.
An unusual cast-iron gravestone in Old Kilpatrick Church Yard in West Dunbartonshire. I'm presuming this dates from around 1829, the more recent of the two years on it.
I love it when I come across an old bootscaper still in place. This one, outside a Victorian townhouse in the Park area of Glasgow, is particularly nice, if a little bit worse for wear, and is nearly identical to the ones outside 10 Downing Street in London, the traditional home of the British Prime Minister. And before anyone asks, yes I really am geeky enough to have spotted this!
Some rather stunning wrought ironwork on an untended building. There really should be greater powers to intervene to protect architectural gems like this.
The Phoenix Assurance Company monogram on thr door of their former office at 78 Saint Vincent Street in Glasgow. While this building was constructed in 1908, the Phoenix Assurance Company was created in London in the 1780s to specialise in providing insurance to the new businesses of the industrial revolution, such as cotton mills, which had substantial fire risks associated with them.
This is one of four rather amazing cast iron lamp bases outside the former Dennistoun Public School (now St. Denis' Primary) in the East End of Glasgow. The wings are slightly damaged, but other than that, they're in remarkably good condition given the fact they've been in a school playground for more than a century!
Decorative cast iron lamp base outside Charles Wilson's 1857 Queen's Rooms on La Belle Place in the West End of Glasgow. Despite the many layers of paint, you can still make out hippocampi with intertwined tails in the middle and dophin fish at either end. The name at the bottom indicates it was created by the Shotts Iron Works.