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City in Scotland

Glasgow

Glasgow's most famous statue wears a traffic cone, its subway is nicknamed the Clockwork Orange, and its name may mean 'dear green place'.

Glasgow
Photo: 瑞丽江的河水, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Key information

Nation
Scotland
Population
about 620,000 (2022 Census)
Known for
Shipbuilding, Mackintosh, the Old Firm, live music, the Clydeside waterfront and the patter
What locals are called
Glaswegians, or 'Weegies'
Famous people
Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Billy Connolly, Sir Alex Ferguson, Kenny Dalglish
Football clubs
Celtic, Rangers, Partick Thistle, Queen's Park

About Glasgow

The statue with the traffic cone on its head

Outside the Gallery of Modern Art, the Duke of Wellington sits on his bronze horse wearing a traffic cone. It has been there, on and off, since the 1980s, and the council's attempts to stop it have only made it more famous. When plans to raise the plinth to put the cone out of reach emerged in 2013, Glaswegians protested loudly and the idea was dropped. The cone is a good introduction to the city's character: irreverent, quick to puncture pomposity, and fiercely proud of its own sense of humour. The same spirit runs through the Glasgow patter, the dialect that turns a sandwich into a 'piece' and a headbutt into a 'Glasgow kiss'. The city's most common nickname for its people, 'Weegies', is a shortening of Glaswegian, and locals use it with affection.

A saint, a fish and a ring

Glasgow's coat of arms is a small book of miracles. It shows a bird that never flew, a tree that never grew, a bell that never rang and a fish that never swam, all tied to St Mungo, the 6th-century holy man said to have founded the settlement. The fish carries a ring in its mouth, a reference to a story about a lost queen's ring that Mungo supposedly recovered from a salmon. Mungo's tomb lies in Glasgow Cathedral, one of the few great medieval Scottish cathedrals to survive the Reformation more or less intact. Behind it, the Necropolis climbs a hill of Victorian tombs, a city of the dead with views over the city of the living. The name Glasgow itself is often explained as 'dear green place', which is why the city is still known by that nickname. There are more than 90 parks to back it up.

From tobacco lords to the Clyde yards

In the 1700s Glasgow got rich on tobacco. Merchants known as the Tobacco Lords shipped leaf from Virginia and built grand townhouses in the streets still named after them, such as Glassford Street. Then came cotton, coal, iron and, above all, shipbuilding on the Clyde. At its Victorian peak Glasgow called itself the Second City of the Empire. Clyde-built ships went around the world, including the Queen Mary and the QE2, both launched at Clydebank. The University of Glasgow, founded in 1451, was where Adam Smith taught and where James Watt worked on his steam engine improvements. The city's population passed a million in the early 20th century. The 1900s brought decline in heavy industry, and the 1980s brought a reinvention: the 'Glasgow's Miles Better' campaign, a Garden Festival in 1988 and a turn as European Capital of Culture in 1990. In 2008 Glasgow became a UNESCO City of Music, and it hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2014 and will do so again in 2026.

The city that invented the international

The first official international football match was played in Glasgow. In 1872 Scotland and England drew 0-0 at Hamilton Crescent in Partick, then the home of the West of Scotland Cricket Club. Queen's Park, founded in 1867, are Scotland's oldest club and still play in the city. Then there are Celtic and Rangers, the Old Firm, whose rivalry is one of the fiercest in world football. Rangers were founded in 1872. Celtic followed in 1887, set up by Brother Walfrid to raise money for the poor of the East End. In 1967 Celtic became the first British club to win the European Cup, beating Inter Milan in Lisbon. Hampden Park, Scotland's national stadium, hosted the 1960 European Cup final, when Real Madrid beat Eintracht Frankfurt 7-3 in front of 127,621 spectators. Ibrox and Celtic Park add to a city with some of the loudest football grounds anywhere. Sir Alex Ferguson, born in Govan, and Kenny Dalglish, born in Dalmarnock, both grew up in the city before going on to manage and play at the highest level.

Mackintosh, music and a very old subway

Charles Rennie Mackintosh, born in Glasgow in 1868, left his mark on the city in the Glasgow School of Art, the Willow Tearooms and the Scotland Street School. His angular, flowing style made him one of the great designers of his era. Alexander 'Greek' Thomson, another Glasgow architect, built churches and terraces that still stand. Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is the city's treasure house, with a Spitfire hanging from the ceiling and Salvador Dalí's Christ of St John of the Cross on the wall. Down at the river, the Riverside Museum covers transport and the Clyde's shipbuilding, and the Clyde Auditorium, nicknamed the Armadillo, sits nearby. Glasgow's subway opened in 1896 and is one of the oldest underground railways in the world. The little circular line is nicknamed the Clockwork Orange. Some students and revellers attempt the 'Subcrawl', a pub at every one of its 15 stations. The live music scene is legendary. At King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in 1993, Alan McGee of Creation Records saw a little-known band called Oasis and signed them on the spot. Franz Ferdinand, Primal Scream, Simple Minds and Belle and Sebastian all came out of the city.

Curry, pies and the claim to chicken tikka masala

Glasgow has a serious claim to be the birthplace of chicken tikka masala. The Shish Mahal restaurant on Park Road says a customer sent back a dish as too dry in the 1970s, and the chef improvised a sauce with a tin of tomato soup, yoghurt and spices. Whatever the truth, curry is part of the city's identity, and the Dennistoun and Finnieston areas are lined with excellent restaurants. The traditional fare is more modest: square sausage, a 'roll and sausage', meat pies, a fish supper, and plenty of Irn-Bru, the bright orange fizzy drink that outsells Coca-Cola in Scotland. The Barras market in the East End, with its famous Barrowland Ballroom nearby, has been a place for bargains and bands for generations.

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