As we approach the 80th anniversary of D-Day, I thought I'd repost this picture of Kelvin Dock beside the Forth and Clyde Canal in the Maryhill area of Glasgow. It might not seem like much now, but this was where some of the landing craft which were used to get troops onto the beaches of Normandy on the 6th of June 1944 were made.
Ruchill Parish Church and Halls on Shakespeare Street in the north of Glasgow. The pale sandstone halls were designed by Charles Rennie MacKintosh and were built in 1899, while the red sandstone church was built a few years later in 1903 and was designed by Neil C. Duff. The reason why MacKintosh was not also commissioned to design the church as well as the halls is a bit of a mystery.
Acre House in the Maryhill area of Glasgow. An Italianate late 19th Century villa with a corner tower. While C-listed it has been in poor condition for many years before being further damaged around 2010 by the inevitable fire of the type which plagues Glasgow's abandoned buildings. There's now conditional planning permission to turn it into flats.
A K Type post box on Maryhill Road in Glasgow. Designed by Tony Gibbs and introduced in 1980, they were meant to be the 'post box of the future'. They didn't prove popular and by 1990, the Royal Mail had re-introduced the previous cylindrial version as an alternative. The last K type box was produced in 2001.
This was not the first failed attempt to update the humble post box. The rectangular F Type was introduced in 1968, but only lasted until 1974, when it was replaced by another rectangular one, the G Type. This proved just as unpopular and was soon phased out in favour of, you guessed it, traditional cylindical ones!
Janitor's House of the Kelbourne School on Hotspur Street in the Maryhill area of Glasgow. Built in a mix of Arts and Crafts and Queen Anne styles in 1912, it was designed by Hutton and Taylor.
Art Deco style entrance to a 1935 Drill Hall on Hotspur Street in the Maryhill area of Glasgow. It's named afer Walcheren Island in the Netherlands, which was liberated foom German occupation by Allied troups as part of the Battle of the Scheldt in 1944. The Drill Hall is currently home to the 6th Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Scotland.
Completing my recent series of Glasgow tower blocks against a sunrise is this shot along the Forth and Clyde Canal looking towards the Collina Street High Flats, known to many as Osprey Heights, the fictional home of Still Game's Jack and Victor.
The former Maryhill Primary School on Viewmount Drive. Built around 1881, it's one of the few Greek Revival style schools constructed by the Glasgow School Board and is thought to have been designed by T.L. Watson.
The Maryhill Tavern in the north of Glasgow. The history of this pub begins in 1881 when it was the business premises for William Garven, a wine and spirit merchant. It closed in 2016 after being damaged in a fire and has been empty ever since.
Sculpted signs on the Maryhill public baths and wash house in Glasgow (now the Glasgow Club Maryhill). They were designed by A.B. MacDonald and were opened in 1898. They included thirty-six wash-stalls, two washing machines, a sevent-fice foot long swimming pool, twenty-five private baths for men, and only six private baths for women. They proved exceedingly popular and were visited over 400,000 times in the Summer of 1938 alone.
This unassuming pool of water just off the Maryhill Locks on the Forth and Clyde Canal is the Kelvin Dock. It was constructed in 1789 to build and repair canal boats and is the oldest boat yard on the canal.
By the 1850s, it was owned by Swan and Co, and in 1857, the very first of the legendary Clyde Puffers, which plied their trade up and down the west coast of Scotland and were made famous by Neil Munro's Para Handy books, was built here.
In the 1940s, landing craft for the D-Day Normandy Landings were built here. The boat yard finaly closed in the 1960s.
The Maryhill Panther, painted on the exposed gable end of a traditional sandstone tenement, peeking through between newly built flats on Maryhill Road in Glasgow.
A Phoenix rising from the flames on the side of Maryhill Community Central Hall in the north of Glasgow. This mural commemorates the Phoenix Ironworks, which was established at 52 Queen Street by Thomas Edington in 1797. It later moved to Garscube Road near the Central Hall, where the specialised in making ornamental ironwork. The site of the Phoenix Foundry became the Phoenix Park in 1891.
You gotta love the moustaches on those Maryhill firemen! This is one of the firemen dressed in period fire fighting equipment on the iron gates created by Andy Scott as part of the renovations of the former Maryhill Municipal buildings in Glasgow, including a fire station dating from 1892.
Last butterflies of summer filling up on necter today alongside the Forth and Clyde Canal in Maryhill before finding somewhere to hibernate for the winter.
Today's animal from Glasgow's architecture is this magnificent wild boar on the former Kelvinside Artistic Stationery Works on Herbert Street. The quality of pointing's not quite so good!
The Nolly Brig over the Forth and Clyde Canal by Firhill Stadium in Glasgow, with its mural inspired by Charles Rennie MacKintosh's 1922 water colour called Sailing Ships. The bridge was built with European Regional Development Fund (from the EU) and was opened in 1990. The mural was added in 2019 by Art Pistol Projects.