posted
I like Glasgow too. And can get there in as long as it takes to cross London.
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Astromariner
Going the right way for a smacked bottom
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I live in Glasgow. I like it very much. I don't know much about the "scene" though.
I think this idea about Glasgow being somehow "grittier" than Edinburgh is a bit misleading. When I lived in Edinburgh, I rented a flat in Bread Street (part of an area known as the Pubic Triangle on account of how many strip bars and sex shops there are). The early part of my walk to work was liberally seasoned with slicks of last night's vomit, kebab wrappers, abandoned clothing, and sometimes blood. Several times, I had to gingerly step over unconscious stag night refugees who had taken shelter in my doorway during the early hours (after prodding them a bit to check they were still alive). Ambulance sirens punctured the night time air at a rate of one every two or three minutes. Lothian Road, one of the main routes into the city centre and home of sundry theme pubs and clubs, boasts the most stabbings per square mile of any road in Europe. Edinburgh has as just as many problems with poverty, crime, drug misuse, and homelessness as Glasgow does. But unlike Glasgow, it deals with them by glossing over them and pretending to outsiders that they don't exist. The council spends its money on the festival and new year fireworks instead.
Glasgow has a "gritty" reputation because it has some tower blocks and lots of poor people. It also has the most parks of any city in the UK - vast areas of lush green, with trees and lakes and ducks and stuff. Some of its architecture is staggering - check out the old University, the Kelvingrove, the Cathedral, the Mitchell Library, the Hunterian, the Observatory. Merchant City feels a bit like some chic old areas of Paris or somewhere, all fading opulence and people riding about on bikes. The west end is stuffed full of victorian town houses, excellent restaurants and delicatessens, cobbled streets, and cool side-street pubs you go to in the afternoon and end up wanting to stay all day/night.
I know I'm coming over all Tourist Board but I do think that people have a lot of inaccurate preconceptions about Glasgow. I'm not saying it's some haven of fluffy loveliness: I got chased by some terrifying kappa-clad youths when I was out running the other week, for example - but I've never felt lonely and out of place here in the same way that I did in Edinburgh.
quote:Originally posted by Voidoid: I like Glasgow too. And can get there in as long as it takes to cross London.
I don't understand? How is that a selling point for a city or a place? And - you know - doesn't it depend on where you start from as to how big a deal that is? I mean - you might live in Glasgow so it's utterly unremarkable that you'd be able to get there in 'less time it takes to cross London'. I mean - I could brag that when I lived in Dorset I could get to my girlfriend's house in less time than it takes for someone in Glasgow to say something coherent in English (seven minutes in clear traffic). It doesn't make it any better, though.
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quote:Originally posted by Astromariner: Glasgow has a "gritty" reputation because it has some tower blocks and lots of poor people. It also has the most parks of any city in the UK - vast areas of lush green, with trees and lakes and ducks and stuff. Some of its architecture is staggering - check out the old University, the Kelvingrove, the Cathedral, the Mitchell Library, the Hunterian, the Observatory. Merchant City feels a bit like some chic old areas of Paris or somewhere, all fading opulence and people riding about on bikes. The west end is stuffed full of victorian town houses, excellent restaurants and delicatessens, cobbled streets, and cool side-street pubs you go to in the afternoon and end up wanting to stay all day/night.
Astro, you are preaching to the converted. I lived in Glasgow for five years before moving south. When I was offered the relocation, colleagues assumed I'd want to live in Edinburgh.
They were shocked when I said I'd prefer Glasgow and actively disliked the thought of living in Edinburgh. I love Glasgow for the same reasons as you - in my view Edinburgh is like a watered down version.
I stated that Glasgow feels more gritty and determined. Probably because I have always felt that the people have a real sense of collective responsibilty - the will to make things better (and in many cases they are).
As you point out, green space, architecture and general interest are in abundance. I can't wait to get back - moving on Friday!
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Astromariner
Going the right way for a smacked bottom
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quote:Originally posted by pyrrho: I can't wait to get back - moving on Friday!
Cool! I hope I didn't sound preachy. It's just that I encounter the sort of attitudes you describe from your work colleagues all the time, and after a while, it really begain to get on my tits, and now I do the "Edinburgh = rubbish! Glasgow = excellent" default rant at every opportunity.
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Our litter is much more cosmopolitan than any other city's, though, isn't it? Copies of the FT, bottles of Supermalt, half-chewed stalks of qat, burning Albanian flags, crumpled yarmulkes... makes you proud to be a Londoner.
-Weirdos, freaks, madmen, scary, Scary freaks, mad weirdos etc. -Traffic, parking, smell, locals, bad kids, spitting, chewing gum everywhere, too many takeaways, too many bad takeaways, -Fonthill road is pretty awful on a saturday - avoid at all costs unless you want to be crushed by frenzied shoppers (women mainly) Gooners also invade every now and then, but generally don't cause any hassle at all. The junction of Blackstock road and Rock street can be pretty weird if you're female and alone, but only because of the bizarre hissing noise the men who hang around there outside the cafes make...... -Scary people....a lot of scary people. -The begging and the litter. -The Ghetto Youths are taking over, Please make your bid to claim back a pretty cool, relaxed area. -It's reputation for unsafe streets which is unfounded it's no better or worse than any other London inner city area. -no sports shops/record shops/clubs..late night drinking holes -Some of the beggars get a bit intimidating-especially at nite. -Wish the councils would sort out the street cleaning situation. -New influx of Algerians. I'm not racist but they spit a lot and leer. Yuk. -Rubbish in the streets. -Drunks at the tube and park gates -So much to choose from, so little time. This area is criminally neglected as a result of being at the intersection of 3 local authorities. Plus all the scum (crackheads, winoes etc) come up from King's Cross whenever the cops clamp down there. There's a particularly foul stretch of pavement on 7 sisters road between Blackstock road and Wilberforce road. -Gangs of youths -A little bit unsafe at night, but no worse than anywhere else in zone 2. -Of a night time it's one of the most intimidating places I've ever been.
The weirdest thing about the Algerian situation is that you don't see any Algerian women, ever. And no women ever go into the cafes. Where are they?
[ 02.02.2005, 07:30: Message edited by: Dr. Benway ]
Octavia
I hate Valentine's Day. Stupid commercialised crap
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Lol. I had a blind date once with a guy who turned out to be an ex Met-policeman. His best story was of how he and some other police-mates used to go down to Soho gents' toilets and watch the action through the two-way mirrors.
posted
I went to Macclesfield a couple of weeks ago. Actually, I work in Macclesfield, but not in the centre so I rarely see the actual town itself. Anyway, Macclesfield was recently voted the most uncultured place in Britain, but I would like to dispute this for a moment if I may.
You see, Macclesfield has no cinema (the local paper has an ongoing "xxxx Days Without A Cinema" - I think it's about 3,500 days so far) and it has no ten pin bowling or Namco Station sort of places. I'm not even sure if it has a theatre, but there's probably one somewhere. But, you see, what Macclesfield does have is actual culture. Actual British culture. It has hundreds of pubs, most of which are Ye Olde pubs which only have three tables and have never even heard of stainless steel or neon lights. It has little weeny shops, millions of them, including about fifty charity shops. It has bars which have live bands every night. It has at least two markets with stalls for cheese and stalls for Olde sweets out of big jars and stalls for repairing anything you can think of. It's got very silly houses that are built on vertical cliff sides with cobbled lanes leading to the front doors. It's got a canal half way up the side of a steep hill. It doesn't appear to have any interest at all in becoming modern in any way.
Although I wouldn't actually want to live in Macclesfield, it's good to know that places like that still exist, somehow stuck in about 1956 or something (and I'm not saying it's just Macclesfield, there's loads of other places like it I know). I just hope that no one takes the "uncultured" bit seriously and tries to drag the place forward into, say, the early 1970s or something. Stand firm Macclesfield! Stay as a kind of British Amish community, or one of those Indian Raj hill stations that still look the same when Michael Palin drives through now as they did in 1948 when the flag was lowered.
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quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: A couple of months back I saw a yellow, velvet, three-seater sofa balanced on top of a telephone box. I may have mentioned it here.
quote:I don't understand? How is that a selling point for a city or a place? And - you know - doesn't it depend on where you start from as to how big a deal that is? I mean - you might live in Glasgow so it's utterly unremarkable that you'd be able to get there in 'less time it takes to cross London'. I mean - I could brag that when I lived in Dorset I could get to my girlfriend's house in less time than it takes for someone in Glasgow to say something coherent in English (seven minutes in clear traffic). It doesn't make it any better, though.
Thorn I live between the two cities (I don't mean inbetween but in both) so I get to experience the advantages of both on a weekly basis.
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posted
O right. So you live in Glasgow and it takes you less time to get there than it does to cross London? Fair enough. Hey - guess what! You'll like this: I can get to London in less time than it takes to cross Glasgow. How cool is that? Looks like we both got lucky there.
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posted
Sorry I'm not making any sense today. I'm temporarily homeless as I lost my flat in Edinburgh so I'm living between friends in Ed and parents in Glasgow. So my "home address" is Glas but my life is in Edinburgh. And I do like London anyway.
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My favourite homeless person is the "good morning" guy at Balham overland station who wishes everyone who passes him a good morning. A lot of people pass him so he has to say it pretty fast. Sometimes when he's drunk he swears and shouts instead but normally (I reckon about 80% of the time) it's just a pleasant greeting at the start of the day.
posted
What was it T.S. Eliot wrote in his unfinished poem Sweeney Agonistes? Oh yes: "London's a little too gay for us / Yes I'll say a little too gay / Yes London's a little too gay for us / I'm afraid we couldn't stand the place." Way ahead of his time, the kunt.
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posted
A beach? Good. Hopefully the asylum seekers will turn up there instead and think 'Fuck me, England is not the land of milk and honey that we were told. Come on, let's go to France'
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posted
This particular beach wont actually back onto the sea, it'll back onto a vast lake in the middle of the city, which is already a very nice area to go and relax in the summer, with trails for walks through the wooded areas surrounding it, and many different types of watersports available. Willen Lake has also been host to World Powerboat racing.
And Willen Lake is about 20 minutes healthy bike ride down the canal walk, past the old brick kilns, from my house.
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quote:Originally posted by Ringo: And Willen Lake is about 20 minutes healthy bike ride down the canal walk, past the old brick kilns, from my house.
Like you ever cycle anywhere.
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posted
I'll have you know I bought a bike before Christmas and with it's help I've managed to lose over a stone, and improved my general fitness in ways I didn't think possible.
So yes, when the summer rolls around, I'll be making regular cycle trips down to the beach.
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posted
I'm sorry to let you know this Ringrud, but they are developing a massive area suitable for poor people and first time home owners. If you can get near the beach without being enraged by young couples in love and pikey children pulling at your shortstrings, I'll eat my armbands.
posted
This would be true were it not for several facts:
1 - The expansion areas of Milton Keynes are all around the outskirts. The ones who move here from out of town wont be bothered to get out of their cars often enough to even discover a beach and the rest of the houses will be bought by people who are already here.
2 - As the grid road system is being abandoned for new areas (what a fucking great idea that is. nice one Prescott you fat fucking fuck), people from outside MK wont be able to drive far enough into the city without getting hopelessly lost on the grid system, and those from within MK wont be able to find their way out of their own estate because there wont be nice convenient grid roads to drive on.
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
as I lost my flat in Edinburgh so I'm living between friends in Ed and parents in Glasgow. So my "home address" is Glas but my life is in Edinburgh. And I do like London anyway.
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