
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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