The Battlefield Area

Battlefield is bustling area of the Southside with something of an urban village feel. Langside College and the new and old Victoria Hospitals are also located within the area which adds to the busy atmosphere.

Battlefield Eating

Battlefield has several restaurants and bars mostly located along Battlefield Road for posts and reviews Battlefield Eating

Battlefield News and Events

Battlefield is a vibrant area of the Southside, steeped in history, for posts about News and Events click here

Battlefield Street Party
The Battlefield Street party was first held in 2009, and is hoped to become an annual event with the second Street Party being held Sunday 18 July 2010 

History

Click here to download the Langside Heritage Trail which covers parts of Battlefield

Links

Langside Heritage Trail
Langside, Battlefield and Camphill Community Council

apples

Steffi from Carside.civiblog.org has sent us a wee email to tell us about the Queens Park Orchard Pampering event taking place on Sunday 1 March 2009 from 1-4pm.

Here's the blurb-

"Come straight to the flag pole at the top of Queen's Park's hill and you'll see us!
A spring celebration! Come along and bring your family - we'll do
- apple tree maintenance
- tree planting
- apple juice pressing (and drinking)
With John Hancox from the Commonwealth Orchard. Tools will be provided.
Afterwards there will be a film screening and chat over tea and curry:

""The Story of Stuff"
20 min animation about the impacts of a consumption-based economy which makes the connections between environmental and social issues, calls us to create a more sustainable and just world. for more info check out http://www.storyofstuff.com/

"Wake Up Freak Out"
11 min animated piece about the causes and mechanisms of climate change, and about what we can do about it. for more info check out http://wakeupfreakout.org/

4.30pm, Go Slow Café, 452 Victoria Rd
Special: Veggie Curry & pot of tea £5 (kids pay half)
organised by members of Towards Transition Glasgow & the Commonwealth Orchard; for further information please visit
http://ttglasgow.ning.com
http://www.commonwealthorchard.com "

Sounds pretty interesting and the vegie curry special sounds super tasty.

Govanhill Baths up-date

The Govanhill Baths Community Trust are holding a public meeting to update everyone on the future of the Govanhill Baths. Click Here to download the invite. The meeting will be held at 7pm, on Tuesday 10 March, at Samaritan House, Coplaw Street, Govanhill.

More information on the Govanhill Baths Campaign can be found on their website www.govanhillbaths.com

Festival of the South

The Southside Festival 09 have launched their new website. It's full of interesting info on what to expect from this years festival and information on getting involved or sponsoring an event.

The events page will be up-dated shortly and will give a full listing of events leading up to the festival weekend as well as a list of events for the weekend.

They've also launched a facebook page..so join the group, show your support and find out all the news and up-dates about this years festival.

Southside Festival Facebook page

Southside Fesival Website

Legends of the Oche

We have another one of those grey area posts but it is such an exciting occurrence we felt we had to let people know about it.

The reason for the grey area is should our scope include Rutherglen? It is south of the Clyde but it is a little in the far east - not quite land of the rising sun but close to the horizon. The Northern boundary is easy but how far East, West and indeed South should we be going? What do people think?

Anyway the reason we raise this discussion is because we picked up a flyer for upcoming events at Rutherglen Town hall and amongst a range of different events including Dr Bunheads crash test jelly babies, a Patsy Cline concert and a festival for people who are "young at heart" we discovered a night entitled "Legends of the Oche".

"Bobby George, John Lowe and Eric Bristow take to the stage at Rutherglen Town Hall for an evening of darts like never before!

Don't miss your chance to play one of the legends and enjoy the competition when they go head to head. Two hours of great entertainment, hear their true stories, ask them questions, and witness their incredible dart skills live on stage."

I know, how exciting is that, brings back memories of the mid 80's and old episodes of Bullseye - Everything about Darts as a sport is funny, from the brilliant commentators, the speedboats on Bullseye, the crazy WAGS dressed in a ton of Argos gold chains right down to the central concept of very large men throwing very small sharp objects, accurately at a tiny target. Should be a very original and fun night out.

I only have one word for it.

"Magic darts"

EDIT: We just found out that the show has been delayed until the 15th of July - boo I was looking forward to going to that this weekend.

Lengends of the Oche (7:30pm Tickets £10)
Mon 27 April (Now on Wed 15 July)

Rutherglen Town Hall
139 Main Street
Rutherglen G73 2JJ

0141 613 5700

Love is in the air

I just spotted this on the great Nothing to see here website. I knew that Glasgow claimed to be the City of Love due to having parts of Saint Valentine hidden away somewhere. I had always assumed they were in the Cathedral or maybe in St Mungos museum so I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Love Saint is actually residing in a smaller location, a Church in the Gorbals.

Have a look at the post on Nothing to see here for more info and a short article on the Scotsman.

All greek

Gav and I went along to the Burrel on Wednesday to check out the British Musuem touring exhibiton of ancient Greek artefacts. Its a small exhibition but very nicely laid out and it focuses on the most popular and fun aspects of Ancient Greece - Athletes, Warriors and Heroes.

There's a collection of stone sculptures and a great collection of old pottery with that wonderful old black and orange colouring. The best thing about the exhibition is the number of interactive games to play with explain are set up to teach children but in a fun way.

Luckily there was only one of two kids in attendance so we were able to shove them off and play with the toys ourselves. Above is a plate Gav designed.

You could also build your own Wooden horse - complete with hidden compartment for the Greeks to hide in.

There was also a pile of costumes to try and on and masks to wear. As you may notice - the costumes look to be adult size so I think that means we were allowed to play with them.

Ancient greek vase.

Star of the show was an olympic themed board game. We were able to compete in five sports - the javlin, running, long jump, discus and wrestling. The games were played using a combination of cards and a spinner. It was a hard fought battle but I'm glad to say I emerged as the champion and won a bottle of olive oil and a laurel wreath.

EDIT: Forgot to mention the special themed guided tours taking place at the Burrel.

Tuesday 24 Feb, 2.30pm - Iconography: How to read meanings in Art with Mrs Elizabeth Black
Tuesday 10 Mar, 2.30pm - The Rules of Art? with Mr Jim Turle
Monday 23 Mar. @ 11.30am - Christianity through the Arts at the Burrell with Mrs Margaret Anderson

24 Fragments

Ive just received an e-mail from our friend Stephen, about an event being performed at the Hidden Gardens, this Saturday. Sounds like a really interesting event.

24 hours of music, neuroscience and performance at 24 sites across the UK

The Fragmented Orchestra is a huge distributed musical structure modelled on the firing of the human brain's neurons. Twenty-four sites around the UK are connected to each other to form a “neural” network. The sonic information captured at these sites is transmitted over the internet, causing other sites to “fire”.

Alasdair Roberts will be performing at the Glasgow ‘neuron’ at the Hidden Gardens, Tramway on Saturday 21st February at noon.

Intimate acoustic performance from fine Scottish folk singer Alasdair Roberts and invited guests. Roberts is noted for both his own compositions and recitations of traditional songs. 'Roberts effortlessly makes explicit the shared vocabulary of folk's natural weirdness and experimental music's studied strangeness.' The Times


For more information www.thefragmentedorchestra.com/

Scottish Ballet

Nice little propagnda video about the currently being built Scottish Ballet. It gives you a better idea of what the building will actually be like. The inside looks nice - not sure about the outside but I'm pretty sure it will be a million times better than all the new flats being built in the area - every time I see the "Utopia" sign it makes me smile.

I've only ever seen one ballet, when we went to the National Opera house in Stolkholm. It was very posh, the Swedish Princess was there in her Royal box and I think we were about the only people not wearing suits or black ties. Twas far more enjoyable than I thought it would be and I am interested in going along to the new building once its finshed and checking out a show or two. Maybe try a few moves of my own.

Free Comedy Night at the Ivory Hotel

The Ha Ha Raw Comedy night at the Ivory Hotel has become a regular event over the last year or so. We've been along a few times, but not for a while. ....so when I walked passed the Ivory hotel the other day, I was pleased to see it's still going strong and attracting quite a crowd.

I am a bit of a coward when it comes to comedy nights, I am always a little scared I am going to be picked on, but I have to say I really enjoyed it. It's a bit of a mixed bag, there are a round ten acts on the Sunday night ranging from professional comedians, to people who are just starting out.

It's on every Sunday from 8.30pm

The good news it's a free event, so if you don't like it you can just leave..

More details can be found here

The Southside Festival Star

The Southside Festival, this week launched The Festival Star competition. This Southside version of X Factor is open to any person between the ages of 10 - 18, who attends a school within the Glasgow city boundary. There are several categories including singing, group, dance, solo. The prize is a slot on the main stage at the Southside Festival on the 23rd of May. Info and application forms are available on the Southside Festival website.

The Judges are will be announced soon...we'll keep you posted.

Super bad design

We got an email from James Brown at the weekend. (Not the godfather of soul one RIP but another one who also it seems has his brushes with fame) James was alerting us to the fact that Somerfield on Victoria Road is to close its doors on the 28 February and reopen as a Lidl at the beginning of March.

James has a great post on his site about his experiences and thoughts on Somerfield here.

Got to admit I agree with him on Somerfield - it is the scafiest looking of all the supers closely followed by Morrisons - all that black and yellow, its like the shop is run by bees.

[For the same reasons that that yellow and black color scheme works for the cheap as chips discount DVD shop posted below I don't want the same feeling when I go into my supermarket - makes me feel like all the food is second hand or tainted in some way.]

Can't say I think too much of Lidl's graphics or colours scheme (see above) they tend to look like they have been made out of the cheapest material they could find and look about as attractive as a mechnao kit - why are so many supermarkets so badly designed graphically? Does that make us buy more food? Again I agree with James, the Co-op also gets my vote - its pretty nicely designed inside and the food is pretty good value and is reasonably ethical in its sourcing.

I've not really had much experience with Lidl, when they first opened in Scotland I did pop into one but through oddly displayed pricing I ended up buying an advent calender for £9 when I thought it was only 60p. It was very nice though with 3cm high 3D moulded chocolate figures each day that I felt guilty to eat - especially the little chocolate baby Jesus, he looked so sad - but was very tasty.

Club on the Hill

Hmm just read a bit more about the planned night club for the upper level of the "Church on the Hill" in Langside. While I can understand people not wanting more noise in their area I'm not sure why their concerns were not suitably dealt with and I worry about our big buildings being left partially used for too long.

An interesting quote from a local councillors had me a bit confused "I'm delighted that, once again, we have successfully blocked an application." - seems a strange thing to be delighted about. Now in fairness I'm not entirely sure of the context in which this was said but surely councilors are there to try and encourage appropriate development and they should be disappointed when they are not able to get the needs of the developers and the needs of their constituents to match up.

Maybe if the owners had applied for a license to turn it into an all singing all dancing music, art and theatre venue which would have actually served the local community as well as generating the nighttime income the developers were after it might have had a better chance. Could Langside/ Shawlands support an Oran Mor style development?

While the concerns of locals over the problems created by a nightclub may be partially justified (I know what it can be like, I live near the Shed) - the reason we all like living in this city is because of a strong urban mix - the best places, and the parts of the city where everyone tends to congregate are the ones which have layer upon layer of uses. Maybe the extra vibrancy the nigh time use would have brought actually might have been a bonus in the long run. Despite the occasional noise from the club I wouldn't get rid of it, I enjoy the buzz and life it encourages and I'd miss the numpty under dressed folk you get to laugh at as they stand shivering in the cold in the queue.

As it is, sadly "The Church on the Hill" is going to be another large building in Glasgow which is only partially used, running through the hands of various owners until the day it inevitably gets torn down or turned into "luxury" flats and I don't think anyone wants to live in a sea of sanitised identical terrible buildings like the atrocity that is the Plaza at St Andrews cross beside the BP - I think my thoughts on that will require a further post.

More info on the records site

Whats black and yellow and goes toot toot?

In the first of our posts about local alternatives when it comes to your shopping, we thought we should make mention of this curious little southside institution. Started by Charlie Hayes on Pollokshaws Road before briefly flirting with a City Centre venue near Central Station - this bright banana of a store has been selling its wares for 20+ years. Despite its age and despite it being such a brightly coloured and identifiable part of the south - we didn't know anyone who had actually been into the shop.

Possibly that is to do with the stores unusual opening times for example its only open two hours on a Sunday. But when we asked a few people why they hadn't been in, they said that they thought it was a pirate DVD shop or catered for more adult interest. I guess I can see why people might have got that idea, the shop does use quite a lot of the same components that those kind of shops use - stark colours, hand written signs, bold text, no windows. It seems our friends weren't the only ones, as a sign on the front door states.

"We do not sell copies, pirate or adult material - DON'T EVEN ASK."

Must get annoying to be constantly asked for something you don't sell. We can reassure everyone (and probably disappoint a few) that there no pirate or adult items on sale - what they do sell are pretty decent pre-owned CD's and DVD's. They are also very interested in doing exchanges (hence the shops name) and also pay for your old unwanted discs which in the current climate might be a good scheme for making yourself an extra bit of dosh.

As you can see from the photos the inside of the shop is the Aladdin's cave that you would hope - with piles of DVD's and CD's lining the walls. There's a pretty good selection - obviously being an exchange shop its not all the latest releases but theres still plenty so choose from. I opened a few cases to check the health of the discs and am pleased to report no scratches or scuff marks on any of the disks I had a look at which is a failure a couple of other exchange stores I know of have suffered from.

That this little places has kept going for 20+ years while bigger places like Woolies and Zaavi have started closing their doors means they must be doing something right. I bet they've seen a lot of changes for a start they won't need as much storage these days compared to the days of records, VHS and cassettes. (How rubbish were cassettes? - it seems weird to think we'd all carry piles of these odd shaped bits of plastic now we live in the mp3 era.)

I must admit I strangely like the decor of the shop - maybe I'm just so used to seeing it, but there is something charming about its hand crafted nature and it certainly gives the place some character - even if it is a bit in your face. Currently there is a sale on - with £2 off any DVD and a further 50p off if you take along the voucher below - with DVD's costing about £6 its no a bad bargain and with Woolies no longer around - its one of the few stores in the Queens Park area where you can pick a quick DVD or CD for a birthday present.

Anyway - what do people think? Who's used Record Exchange? Did you get a good deal? Anyone have any further suggestions on places in the south to get music etc from?

Tea today, gone tomorrow

Oh no - looks like we have some terrible news. The above image looks like it shows the wonderfully relaxing and comfortable Tchai Ovna tea house as it has always been -a home from home of fantastic teas, comfy chairs and an old tattered Scrabble board. Sadly though the photo actually shows a bunch of workmen in the middle of converting it into a laundrette!! :-(

We've emailed Ken who ran the Southside Tchai Ovna to find out what the story is but I'm afraid on the evidence it looks like they have shut - when we find out more we'll let you know.

If they have closed then it again highlights the importance of us all to support our local businessess and where possible shop in the south. We previously suggest starting up some kind of campaign or list of readers top southside shopping destinations or those places that give the south its character. If anyone has any suggestions then plese post below.

Below images are of the interior of Tchai Ovna in the happy old days.