Talks

Veteran festival and events director Michael Dale, who founded the West End Festival in 1996, reviews his experiences of being the boss not just of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in the 1980s but also the very successful Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988 and many more besides. Michael left WEF in 2021 to take on other […]

Websters Theatre, formerly Lansdowne Parish Church, is home to stained glass windows by highly acclaimed Glasgow designer Alf Webster. David Robertson, Director of Four Acres Charitable Trust describes this wonderful stained glass, and the massive glass conservation project which the public will be able to visit and observe. Along with the public realm upgrade at […]

Rowena Statt, local resident and architect, presents old maps and archive images to explain the Victorian evolution of North Kelvinside, when speculative building rapidly consumed the R. Kelvin's beautiful wooded north bank. The tenements, terraces and villas remain, still in demand today, as are churches, shops, schools, bridges and even an industrial relic, the North […]

Michael Meighan, author and historian, remembers riding a trolleybus or tram to visit relatives and taking a steam train and paddle steamer ‘doon the water’ to Dunoon. Since then, trams and trolleybuses have given way to modern buses, the electric ‘Blue Train’ and the diesels arrived, and paddle steamers, ferries, ships and shipyards disappeared from […]

Glasgow’s West End is renowned for its glorious Victorian townscape, but there's also a rich legacy from its earlier history. In this talk, historian Gordon R. Urquhart will examine the settlement of the city’s western hinterlands, from the Neolithic period, through the Viking hogback tombs in Govan, to the era of the grand Georgian country […]

Little is known about the manual workers who constructed major Victorian buildings, but Joseph Sharples of the Hunterian, University of Glasgow, has researched in detail the lives of about 100 of the 900 masons, joiners, bricklayers, etc., who built the University between 1867 and 1871, under contractor John Thompson of Peterborough. Their recruitment, experiences before […]

After WW2, Glasgow's infamous 'Bruce Plan' proposed motorways encircling a completely remodelled futuristic city centre. So many key assets were demolished for modernisation that by 1964 our Victorian heritage was in mortal danger. This was part of a national problem, and Westminster passed the protective Civic Amenities Act in 1967. Glasgow quickly designated its first […]

In talent, Sir JJ Burnet’s was as great as Thomson and Mackintosh while his career was even more stellar in achievement - yet he remains little known, the most mysterious of the Glasgow architects. Has Burnet's ability as stylistic chameleon contributed to this overshadowing? Niall Murphy, Director of Glasgow City Heritage Trust discusses the career […]

Rosalie Menon, Glasgow School of Art, presents her new publication "Glasgow from Above" with stunning aerial photography by Alistair Leith. The book offers a historical perspective on Glasgow’s postindustrial landscape and highlights key Victorian-era buildings alongside structures built since 2000. The accompanying photographs capture the city’s appearance in 2025, illustrating changes within the city centre […]

Glasgow University's new Western Campus is rapidly expanding with the completion of the James McCune Smith Learning Hub, Clarice Pears building, Advanced Research Centre (ARC) and Adam Smith Business School. These new buildings surround the central open space of St Mungo's Square and the innovative Rain Gardens, which together form an attractive new public pedestrian […]

Barclay Price, author and historian, spent the first 20 years of his life growing up in Ruthven Lane. His recent publication is written from the heart, with love, many interesting stories, and a profusion of photographs. It examines every aspect of Glasgow's most famous west end street, spanning its development from unremarkable byway to today's […]

Share in the compelling and historically rich journey from Glasgow’s first Lunatic Asylum at Dobbie’s Loan to Gartnavel Royal Hospital, with Eileen Ross as your guide. She will reflect on how our local services have promoted wellbeing and provided mental health care to their communities over the last two centuries. Presented in conjunction with Art […]

In what organised sports could the Victorian west ender participate? Ann Laird of Friends of Glasgow West offers a historical overview of a wide range of activities available around Woodlands, Park, Hillhead, Partick, Dowanhill, Hyndland and Kelvinside. From the Arlington baths and swimming pond, to nearby Burnbank Grounds and beyond, there was cricket, bowls, curling, […]

Niall Murphy, Director of Glasgow City Heritage Trust, describes how almost £1 million in conservation grant funding is given out each year to help people in Glasgow protect, repair and promote the city’s historic buildings and places, for current and future generations. The Trust is also a key partner in the new Built Heritage Commission […]