The venue for this week’s livestream has been chosen as it is the oldest part of the city and is absolutely brimming with interesting stuff to talk about.  Glasgow was founded in the later 6th Century by its patron saint Mungo who built a church on the site of the present day cathedral and throughout the Medieval period the town grew steadily southward along what is now High Street toward the River Clyde.

The Merchant City

In the 18th Century the city prospered as goods from the American colonies were landed on riverside quays and merchants, often known as tobacco lords, grew wealthy and powerful by trading not only in tobacco, but also rum spices cotton and, if the truth be told, slaves. They built their mansions in the area to West of the High Street which had up until then had been green fields and even though little material culture from their time has survived, an abundance of old Victorian warehouses and banks testify to their influence.  The name Merchant City is a modern thing, being coined in the 1980s when major redevelopment of the area was being carried out.  Today it is a hot spot for bars and restaurants, but the presence of the tobacco lords is still reflected in street names such as Bell Street, Ingram Street and Glassford Street all being named after these merchants.

The Trongate

The tour will also be covering the Trongate which along with the Gallowgate intersect High Street at Glasgow Cross.  Tron is a Scots word which means weighbridge where merchants at one time would have brought their products to be weighed and sold and gate – sometimes spelled gait – actually means the road itself and not a big iron door.  It’s a case of a word changing its meaning over time.  It’s related to the German geht as in Wie geht is ihnen or how goes it?  English and Scots are in fact Germanic languages. From this it can be seen that the Trongate is the road that takes you to the tron.

At Glasgow cross can be seen the wonderful 17th Century Tollbooth Steeple one of the oldest buildings in the city.  At one time it was part of the town house or town hall.  The rest of the building was demolished in the 1920s to ease traffic congestion, would you believe it!  It didn’t work either.  Also at Glasgow Cross we have the Mercat Cross which isn’t a cross at all.  It’s a sort of squat monument with a tall column with a unicorn on top.  The unicorn is the national animal of Scotland, said to be the natural enemy of the lion which represents… I’ll let you work that out yourself.  The mercat cross signified that Glasgow is a burgh or a place where in Medieval times markets were allowed to be held.  This is not the original however as it was knocked down in the 17th Century.  This one was built in 1929 by Edith Burnet Hughes, one of the first practicing female architects.

Also on the tour we shall be looking at the Britannia Panopticon theater, the oldest existing music hall in the world dating from the 1830.   This is where in 1906 a sixteen year old Stan Jefferson made his stage debut.  He went on to become Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy fame.  Stan was born in Lancashire in England, but his father owned theaters both here in Scotland and in the north of England.  In fact, he owned the Scotia Theatre which at one time stood next to the Scotia Bar on Stockwell Street.

Initially Stan’s father wasn’t keen on his son entering the world of show business as he wanted him to get a ‘proper’ job; however, Stan ignored his father’s advice and snuck off to Panopticon for a sort of open stage event that was going on.   On the big night Stan got up to do his bit when who did he see standing there in the crowd but his father.  And to make matters worse, he had borrowed one of his father’s jackets without asking him!  Poor Stan got into a flap and managed to trip over the jacket much to the crowd’s amusement.  However, he needn’t have worried as his father loved it an became very encouraging toward Stan and his theatrical inclinations from that time on, or so the story goes.

I shall also be looking at the site of the old Glasgow University where Adam Smith father of economics once worked as well as visiting the birth place of John A. MacDonald, the first Prime Minister of Canada, so what’s not to like!  Therefore, make sure you tune in by visiting the Dark Island Guided Tours facebook page tomorrow night (4th July) at 3pm EDT, 2pm CDT, 1pm MDT and midday PDT (8pm UK).  See you there!

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Cheers.

Alec.