Every time I round that corner, for some reason memories come back.
I cross the street to the Old Sherrif Court, its now a swish new housing development in the making. No time to stop. I decide to head east along Ingram, now across the street looms the building my first studio occupied (nearly 30 years ago), ouch! mortallity check. I stop for the briefest moment, was it really 30 years ago that I staggered out of the GSA vowing never to become a teacher, to always be an independant artist. I marvelled that at long last this wonderful old factory facade would once more survive as the quaint frontage of some very modern loft type flats being built behind it.
When we occuped it under the guise of the Glasgow Print Studio, we had the top floor and the attick. Not the smartest place for a fine art print studio, which had serious tonnage of printing presses and associated equipment, but it was cheap and had loads of space. We had a large gallery space, a well fitted out print studio where artists could come and edition prints, and teaching facilities for evening classes.
Because there was plenty of space the GPS was able to provide spare studio space to artists in other disciplines. It soon filled up, and I was lucky enough to have got my studio. I moved into the attick floor, sharing a studio with Bob Hamilton, a fine photographer, always experimenting. Next door was John Byrns studio, where he was finishing of an important commission for the Governors of the Hamilton Bequest, the painting now forms part of Glasgow Museums 20th Century collection. I did not know John well, but on one occasion I borrowed a mal stick from him. The one he lent me and told me to keep, was his fathers (who was a sign writer). I still have that silver banded walking cane and it is in continious use as a mal stick, only now its used for glass painting, so it is still an architectural tool.
Anyway,more of those days another time mabey.
I move along Ingram, and get to the corner of Candleriggs, I am standing with my back to the only certified earthquake proof building, possibly ever built on the British Isles. It was built in the late 1930`s by the wait for it!
THE EARTHQUAKE PROOF BUILDING COMPANY LIMITED
It was a demonstration build for the city of Buenos Aries, Argentina, who had commissioned this Glasgow Engineering company to develop a system that would allow buildings to survive in the earthquake zone the city was in. It apparently sits or floats on giant steel springs.
Across the street I can see the back of Glasgow`s famous City Halls, at last they are starting to sort out the mess it has been these past years.
