The East End of Glasgow “used to be really rough”
according to a friend of mine. I have to admit there are definitely pockets
(ok, rather large pockets) of slightly worse for wear buildings and newer
houses, and by new I mean 1970s/1980s era (some could be newer but you wouldn’t
know), that bring with them a certain reputation - you know the ones, probably
erected by the council and completely devoid of personality – what the city
planners thought would be a better alternative to tenement buildings which at
least had some aesthetic charm. The area I live in is a mixture of reasonably
well-kept tenement buildings and newer blocks of flats built to look a bit like
a tenement but with all the soul sucked out. My street isn’t perfect and does
have several boarded up windows and a burnt sign above an old shop that says
JESUS LOVES YOU. For some that’s probably too much “rough” already. As with
most things, if you base your judgment of an area purely on the exterior you’re
missing out. The people here are very respectable, very friendly – what you see
is what you get. No messing about.
A trip to the Forge shopping centre and
retail park in the East End reveals more of the newer builds - the Bluevale and
Whitevale towers dominating the skyline – condemned but still remaining, a
somewhat depressing sight. Word is they can’t demolish them using a blast,
they’ve got to take them down floor by floor. Inside the Forge shopping centre
you’re greeted with a selection of high street shops and the kind of stores you
find within indoor markets – the kind that I thought was limited to naff
seaside towns. I remember venturing into the Savoy Centre on Sauchiehall Street
during my last visit to Glasgow and realising quite quickly that this was a
place I didn’t want to be. I think there must be some kind of vibration or
static energy that emits from cheap tat – the heat was intense, the storefronts
were crammed with ‘stuff’ that I’m not sure anyone would actually want to
purchase and the building layout seemed to be designed in such a way that once
you were in it was very difficult to get out – the latter may have been related
to the blind ‘get me out’ panic I was in. The Forge, thankfully, is a little
less claustrophobic and the man who cut my keys was incredibly good looking so
I think that pretty much rules out any bad vibes.
Before moving to the city I remember
reading on a forum that if you didn’t want to live in a rough area of Glasgow -
don’t move to Glasgow. It’s true! You’re never very far away from what could be
considered a rough area. Getting off the tube at the bottom of Byres Road in
the West End isn’t exactly picturesque – it was a bit of a surprise as another
friend of mine had described the West End as “very posh” and I was expecting an
area that matched that description – it’s certainly a little more up-market
than the East End but Clifton in Bristol could easily out-posh the area. It’s
all about attitude and even the most lah-dee-dah person in Glasgow probably
doesn’t have their head up their arse as far as a Cliftonite.
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| Photo by Alan Gold |
Now, if you really want rough why not pay a
visit to Joanna Dee’s Nightclub? Alright, it’s been closed for years now but
honestly, would you go for a drink and a dance in there? I pass this nugget of
a venue every time I take a trip to The Forge. Having read up about it even
local folk find the place scary. It’s sort of plonked on the corner of a road
surrounded by, well, nothing. A bar for the lost and desperate souls of the
East End. “Welcome to no man’s land, kid. What can I get you?”.
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