Strathbungo Society

Some of the lovely buildings of Strathbungo

Strathbungo Society has an excellent wee website giving a brief history of the area and the work that they do to keep, the happy, leafy wee conservation area just off from Queens Park in tip top condition. There appears to be a really strong community feeling within the area which manifests itself in the various events that they arrange throughout the year - especially the "Bungo in the back lanes" event we posted about previously.

The site also has a store of useful contact details and information on the G41 area - including a list of shops, transport links and various trade contacts for the Southside area.

Crazy horses - a wooo a wooo

"Chimera...a legend brought to life.
The greatest show on 120 flashing hooves!
Never before has there been such a lavishly costumed spectacle of equine fun, thrills, drama, dance and skill set to specially arranged music and performed by the largest and most popular equestrian touring theatre show in Europe."

Or so says their website's hype - we will be able to make up our own minds in Bellahouston Park from the 5 July until the 8th when a show about horses fighting a Chimera, - a creature part lion, part serpent and part . . . goat?? comes to town. Not quite sure what is so terrifying about goats or how a bunch of horses will do battle with it but it sounds a suitably interesting experience that I think we will probably go along. Most people will already have heard about the show as there are posters everywhere - lots of the charity shops etc also have a ton of discount vouchers which give you a half off and are worth trying to track down. We've got a couple of spares so if anyone would like us to post them one then drop us an email. southsidehappenings@gmail.com

New Govan Health Care Building

While in the Pierce Institute cafe yesterday, I noticed they had a presentation on the new South West Community Health & Care Partnership Headquarters, which is to be located on Craigton road in Govan. If it gets the go-ahead, it should be the first "carbon-neutral" building in Scotland which is open to the public.
If your interested in finding out more, I've added some links below

evening times article

scottish architecture.com article

Raw Vintage - Abbot Street

EDIT: Sadly Raw Vintage closed its doors in April 2010.

This year I seem to have so many family events, weddings, Christenings, 21st birthday parties and of course I need new outfits for them all. I've recently discovered Raw Vintage, in Shawlands, it's just off Pollokshaws road beside the co op. I went in the other weekend for a browse and came out with a fantastic retro dress, which I subsequently wore to one of those gatherings.

They have a great collection of 1920's - 1980's second hand clothing. They also produce their own collection, provide an alteration service and will also make individual clothing, if you so desire. .....and they also do boys clothes.


I really like the store, it's very laidback, they're all really friendly and helpful and you can go in for a browse, without feeling like you have to buy......but I bet you do.

3D Harry Potter at the imax

I've been meaning to read the Harry Potter books for along time. Two weeks ago I borrowed the first book from my niece Gemma, and read it in three days. I really enjoyed it , so much so that last night I started the fourth book [yes I am a fast reader and yes I am slightly addicted]

Today I noticed that the the Imax Theatre are showing The Order of the Phoenix' in 3D, from the 13th of July.

I think I'll be purchasing some tickets for that...though I'll have to finish the fourth and fifth books before then.

http://www.glasgowsciencecentre.org/harrypotter5.aspx

The Design Collective Studio

We just received the below call for all budding artists/ designers in Govan.

"The Design Collective Studio is holding a textile exhibition from August 24 to 29 September 2007.

We are looking for makers who may be interested in taking part. There is no theme for the exhibition, we are looking for wearables, wall pieces, jewellery and conceptual work.

The Design Collective Studio is a independently run applied arts gallery/shop with a jewellery workshop and teaching area. We are based in 847 Govan Road in Glasgow and officially opened at this location in August 2006, however we had been holding events since the beginning of 2005 in our previous workspace in Argyll Court.

The Design Collective is run by makers and its two directors are both jewellers. We aim to promote small scale applied artists mainly from the West of Scotland. We are especially keen to support artists who have recently established themselves, be it because they have just graduated or retired from 'proper' jobs. We are always open to submissions for the shop and enquiries from makers who may wish to get involved on other levels.

The gallery space is not huge so we do suggest any makers interested visit the space to see where their work would fit etc. We are looking for a range of work - textile jewellery, wearables, wall pieces and conceptual pieces, to give visitors a taste of the diversity that textiles has to offer. Although we promote our events heavily we also expect participants to do their bit in helping to let people know about the exhibition.

For more information or to arrange to visit the studio, please contact Penny on: 0141 445 5077 (11am-6pm wed-sat) or 07981 900476 e-mail: design_collective@yahoo.co.uk

Deadline: 30 July 2007"

The Design collective also run a series of art classes workshops and more info can be found at their website http://www.design-collective.co.uk/.

bungo in the back lanes

Last Saturday we spent a lovely afternoon at the "Bungo in the Back Lanes" event in Strathbungo. This is a brilliant thing. There are two really long lanes that run parallel to Pollokshaws Road and then three shorter lanes connecting them which run perpendicular. Once a year for the past few years, all the houses that back onto the lanes throw a strange little festival.

The residents bring tables into the lanes and sell off loads of their old stuff in a mass neighbourhood jumble sale. Its class - just like a proper old school festival or village fair - just a bunch of folk coming together for a fun. There's no sponsorship and no real major commercial stuff going on. Just folk coming up with ideas for things to do or too sell, with a large number of stalls were doing it for charity and the funny thing is, that they only advertise within the area they live. The three short lanes are the main heart of the event with proper set up areas in each with outdoors bars, marqueed seating areas and bands/ performers playing music. My favourite was a little lady sitting on her own back steps, playing keyboard.

As well as the stalls of brickabrac, there are people baking cakes, a couple with bbq's cooking fresh meat from the farmers market, the local deli had a stall selling sandwiches and the boy and dad in the photo above were selling conkers for 20p for 5.

Looking south along Regent square lane.

Looking North along Regent Square Lane. The event was a great way for people to redistribute their unwanted items. We've all got things in our homes that we no longer need and this way, instead of throwing them out, you can sell them onto someone who needs them, for a few pennies. Annie for example got a grate for her fire place from a very helpful man, who lets us have it for nothing.

The range of things on sale, was very interesting - above is a photo from a table where a guy was selling honey from his own bees. He even had the above glass case full of bees to prove it was genuine. There were also stalls selling board games, jigsaws and books.

Looking East up Queens square lane. We enjoyed some very tasty venison burgers freshly cooked on someones home bbq. We also had several go's on the various tombola stands and between the five of us managed to win a baby bath book and a can of Skol beer.

Looking West down Regent Square lane. A woman selling helium balloons. There was a lot of fun events for kids to take part in - The lane above was mainly set up for kids things - including a bouncy castle, a coconut shie, bat the rat, throw the hoop, face painting and all the other classic games from the village fair ground.

There was also lots of events for the grown ups as well - including Thai chi demonstrations and 15 minute massages on a proper massage table under a tree. There were also a lot of local community groups there telling people about their work and their facilities. We picked up flyers for local tennis clubs, dance lessons and the New Victoria Garden allotments annual show, which takes place on the 18 August( Albert Drive at Glenapp Street opposite St Albert's Church). Judging by the very impressive garden plant stall they had set up in the lanes it will be worth a visit.

At the end of the day we set off home with our bags laden with goodies and decided to have a conker battle. Our friend Nicole is American and had never had a go before - so Gav offered to let her try and hit his. She took one swipe and you can see the results above.

A great day and hopefully we'll find out about it in advance next year and be able to plan to get along and to help spread the word that it is on.

For more information about Strathbungo and the people that organise the "Bungo in the back lane" event visit the Strathbungo Society website.

They also have an excellent guide to living in the G41 postcode and have a list of local shops, community resources and lots of other useful information.

Happy Birthday Hidden Gardens

On Saturday after our tasty breakfast (see previous post), we wandered along to the Tramway in Pollokshields to check out the MFA exhibition. I had been to the Art School the previous night to see the degree show and I was interested to see how the Masters students compared. I hadn't been overly impressed by the degree show - most likely because there are no explanations of the work or even titles and so you are often left wandering around the place going "What is that all about?"

We only got round part of the main hall before it had to close for some repairs but again I found myself slightly confused by a lot of the work. This time there were titles but they seemed to me to be vague - non committal type things which didn't reveal any of the thought behind the works. It would have been good to have explanation text which gave some insight into the artists ideas and processes. Without that kind of information I found myself having to review the work purely on its aesthetic value and couldn't help thinking that they'd just made it all up. In saying that there was a lot of interesting looking work there I just have no idea what it was about.

After looking at the art we wandered out into the back gardens to discover that it was the Hidden Gardens 4th Birthday. In celebration there were amazing fairy cakes, badge making, singers, punch and kite flying.

Ikafe breakfast

Ikafe - Nithsdale Road Pollokshields

So in our ongoing quest to find the best cafe breakfast in the Southside we paid a visit to Ikafe in Pollokshields. Its a lovely wee place with a really nice varied menu - covering breakfast through to dinner. They even do home take away meals and will cater for your dinner parties.

The breakfast was very nice. Annie had the veggie breakfast and I had the full Scottish with cibatta, toast, potato scones, beans, fried egg, lorne sausage, bacon, mushrooms and fried tomatoes. Annie tells me the veggie one was very tasty but of course the carnivore one is what we are all concerned with. Lets break down the highlights.

The lorne sausage was delicious - I always prefer lorne instead of the banger kind
Bacon - very tasty but a bit strange texture - i like it more crispy
Egg - nicely cooked - runny enough to dunk toast and thankfully not enough to run everywhere
Beans - very nice touch - in a separate wee dish - no bean juice over everything
Toast/ ciabatta - veggie breakfast came with toast, the carnivore with a ciabatta. Must admit I preferred the toast and was able to persuade ann to swap one toast for one ciabatta. Toast was thick and well fired but there was a very poor offering of one tiny butter which wasn't enough
Potato scone - looked burned but was actually very nice
Mushrooms/ Tomatoes - I don't like these so didn't really eat them - its the same with salads I view them as decorations

All in all, a high standard and I give it a

**** out of 5 yum

Of special note was their apple juice - it was tasty, organic and served in a tall good quality glass.

Mmmmm full cooked breakfast

Running Round Rouken

There's a 10km and a 5km run in Rouken Glen park on Thursday night, I am disappointed I won't be able to go as it seemingly a really nice route, though I've also heard it can be quite hilly in places....
You can register on the night at the park. So if your in need of a free t-shirt and goodie bag go along.

http://www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk/leisure/runningfestival/the_event.htm

Southside Cinemas?

One thing we lack in the Southside is Cinema's. We once had lots of cinemas in the southside, now we only have the quay and it's not quite the same as the old ones.

We could really do with an independent cinema of our own. When I first moved to the Southside I was really excited by the Bollywood theatre in Cessnock /Kinning park, but that was knocked down last year.

I came across this website, it documents all the old Glasgow cinemas, and it's amazing how many there once were.

http://www.scottishcinemas.org.uk/glasgow/index.html

M74 ?

An issue that will effect nearly the whole of the Southside is the new M74 connection which will pass right through the city and effectively cut off the south. In future when walking into town you will need to pass under 6 lanes of motorway.


The people at Jam74 were trying to put a stop to it but a legal action they tried to bring against the executive (for ignoring the public enquiry which advised the road was a bad idea) - didn't really get off the ground. I drew the coloured sketches posted here, for a article in the List around the time of the appeal. Not sure what the situation regarding any further appeals are.

The new road has created quite a bit of debate between Glaswegians for and against, but the academics and environmentalists do seem to agree that the good intentions behind the road - to ease congestion, speed up travel and reduced traffic using/ polluting minor roads will only be temporary. Research by several different groups around the world have advised that more roads actually just encourage more road users - and the fear is that within 5 years this new road will reach it's saturation and we'll end up with the same problems as before but this time involving double the number of vehicles. Considering the vast cost of the road - and the amount of alternative public transport this could buy - wouldn't improved trains/ buses be the sensible place to invest this money?

We'd be interested to gage every ones opinion so why not visit the links below for more info and then let us know what you think.

http://www.m74completion.com/ - official site
http://www.jam74.org/ - site of people trying to stop it being built
http://www.cbrd.co.uk/futures/new/m74.shtml- very odd site for motorway enthusiasts

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/4757967.stm - thoughts of GP's

evening times - latest news from the evening times

http://www.theherald.co.uk/politics/news/display.var.1452715.0.0.php - even newer news on the Herald's site

Tramway - Exhibition

Photo source

The "Glasgow School of Art Degree Show 2007 " opens next week, Thursday 14 June, at the Tramway in Pollokshields. The previous years shows have been very good and there is also usually a good degree of free snacks and glass or two of free wine. You can also sometimes pick up a piece of work by some young up and comer - which you could sell again when they become famous.

Housed in the old tramsheds on Albert Drive, The Tramway is a brilliant place to see exhibitions, the vast stables really show off work to its best. They have a continuous and changing series of art events throughout the year but their main focus is imaginative, original and sometimes slightly odd performance work. For this it is internationally renowned and attracts the cream of Europes performers to showcase their work. Ranging from the opening of the Scottish National Theatre's performance of "When the wolves come out of the walls" to a very odd thing we went to once, where a guy lead us into a room one by one, took off his shirt and made us feel his heart beat!!

They also occasionally put on gigs and they have a couple of interesting sounding events on in the next few weeks. For a full run down of whats going on this season, visit their website. The Tramway also has the wonderful Hidden Gardens as Ann discussed in a previous post.

Another new string to the Tramway bow, which when it was decided, created a bit of controversy, is the rehousing of the Scottish Ballet into the building - namely into the bit on Pollokshaws Road that fell down. I think it will be great to have another new cultural thing going on in the Southside and look forward to going along - even if I haven't got a clue what ballet is all about.

EDIT: Doh - just been told that the opening was last night Wed 13 June. Missed it. Ah well, the show itself is on until the 24 June, so still time to make it along.