City and Me in a Troubled Relationship

This strange urge imposed itself the other day—my relationship with Glasgow.

Words like dichotomy and strained appeared quickly, but then I realised there`s a synergy here because Glasgow has a pretty uneasy relationship with itself.

Why Glasgow, to start with?

Well, I spent the first year of my life there, on Dowanside Road, not that I have any memories of this, but there must be a bit of Glasgow in me, nonetheless. My many generational family history plays a multi-faceted place in it too, both maternal and paternal. From working with the poorest of the poor in Cowcaddens to somewhat more affluent living in Pollokshields. Glasgow University comes into the story, and a few churches of both CofS and Episcopal persuasions punctuate the narrative along the way. There`s a fair bit of economic and industrial heritage in there, and great cultural aspirations to boot. Medicine, alongside engineering, dentistry and music, early radio broadcasting and even the Scottish National Players, all flesh out the rich tapestry of ancestral involvement.

In a more contemporary vein, some very good friends of mine live in Glasgow. They are there as a clear matter of choice, it's their place and they like it for all sorts of reasons. Just a wee bit further back, my first introduction to Dear Green Place was in Archie Hind`s intriguing and troubling novel of that name, published in 1966.

More recently, I've cycled through it on several occasions, usually on the Forth and Clyde Canal cycleway. Needless to say, this is a great experience, but it touches geographically on something profoundly troubling; a reality that Glasgow today has a split personality both socially and economically; it has at least two aspirational personalities which seem to be at odds with each other.

Taking a step back at this juncture, I`d want to note that Glasgow got hammered at the time of two anniversaries which coincided with imposed changes in Local Government administration. In the mid-70s, just as the City was celebrating its 750th anniversary, more than half of its identity and function was lost to that vast amorphous thing called Strathclyde Region. Then, not long after the 800th was the order of the day, whilst Glasgow did re-emerge, it was emasculated as big slices of the more affluent rim were carved off to other neighbouring Councils. This was a savage economic hit as a vengeful Tory imposition. Now in 2025, it is the 850th anniversary, so let's hope that it will enable the City to move towards a more coherent sense of inclusive purpose.

But there are strongly competing tensions pulling it in many different directions, which seem almost irreconcilable; this grieves me greatly, but it’s the sad reality.

On the one hand, and the most visible, is Glasgow`s built heritage, exemplified by Greek Thomson and Mackintosh and the tragic neglect of their and related buildings. An enduring tragedy indeed, but this was of no consequence to the man from Maryhill I spoke to, who was fishing on the canal side on a sunny day last year. We had a great little chat about several things, and when I raised the subject of decaying heritage, as I put it, he just shrugged and cast it aside with blank indifference. Glasgow is more his City than it is mine.

The apparent inability of both the Government and Council to make even a dent in the poverty, which is so endemic, ranks as an even bigger tragedy. The economic and aspirational desert marches inexorably from generation to generation across wide swathes of Dear Green Place.

As the cycle lanes and related traffic management measures make two-wheeled travel so much safer, and rightly so, there are those in Easterhouse who never venture far beyond, ever; why would they?

As the attainment gap in education widens, in spite of the sterling efforts of those who are charged with delivering school and college programmes, many of Glasgow`s young people slide seamlessly into a life of inhibited horizons, if any.

As Glasgow Life justifiably shows off the splendid refurbishment of The Burrell, as such a vivid token of a City which reinventing itself, some tenant in Drumchapel can`t even afford to heat her house adequately to try and stave off the combined effects of ill health and damp. Irreconcilable differences are apparent. 

Glasgow is of course not alone in this; take almost any city. For many years, I`d had a closer link with Edinburgh, for some of it working in the Pilton area in the northwest, there, poverty was aplenty. At one meeting, I was confronted with a sharp poke in the chest by Battling Betty (as she was called), but whom I did admire. She exclaimed for all to hear: “See you, you bastard, you're like all the rest, and just make your living on our backs, professional skills my arse”. Follow that, because it was not some shallow anger-driven remark or gesture; there was more than a grain of truth in it. Betty and her ilk have practical knowledge, experience of life and living, and great dignity. I carry this lesson and its truths with me yet. Transpose it so aptly, to many parts of Glasgow; I believe it is a good respectful fit for many of the inhabitants there.

My deeper genetic link with Glasgow now has me thinking more deeply about where it is going. As the strapline says `People Make Glasgow`; this is surely both the challenge and the opportunity. The wee man from Maryhill doesn’t give a fig about what happens to the Mack, he just likes his fishing in the canal. But he does hope that his grandchildren will, in a sense, fare better in life than he did; his words, not mine. But what will shape their aspirations and horizons? What will Glasgow be like to live in another fifty years from now, when these grandchildren have become mature adults? This will be in 2075 perhaps, in the City`s 900th anniversary?

Fast forward, as young people grow up in Giffnock in 2075, what knowledge or awareness will they have of their city counterparts in Castlemilk, just a few miles along the road? How will the restored Mackintosh and all the rest of the remaining magnificent built heritage truly serve the needs or interests of all? Will people from Drumchapel find inspiration and hope beneath the splendour of the ceiling in the Oran Mor? Will education be the vehicle for change that we all surely dream about?

I`ll not be around then of course, but my genetic link will endure somewhere; I`ll have written it up for posterity if nothing else.

I`ve barely touched the surface here, I know that.

But the imperative is, will all the people that make Glasgow, be the means for it to be all that they want it to be; all that their City can be?

I leave that with you.