Focus on property Glasgow
Article Extract from The Times Newspaper by Graham Painting published: 31.10.08
With the Commonwealth Games due to be held there in 2014, the Scottish city is moving away from the decline and decay of earlier days.
How it rates
The era of shipbuilding may have long passed but so has the era of decline and decay. Glasgow is a thriving place that the 2009 Lonely Planet guide has included in its top ten cities of the world. The Commonwealth Games are due to be held there in 2014.
Architectural gems
City Chambers in George Square; Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Glasgow School of Art; Queen's Cross, his only church; Hunterian Art Gallery and the Mackintosh house; Kelvingrove Museum, seen above; Burrell Collection in Pollok Park; Museum of Religion; Glasgow Cathedral; the Necropolis.
What's new
The award-winning gh2o development on the Clyde is scheduled for completion next year. Studio flats are from £109,950, one-bed flats from £139,950 and two-bed flats from £175,950 (Dandara, 0800 0087008, www.gh2o.co.uk).
Travel
Edinburgh is just over an hour away by train or car. The M74 heads south to join the M6, the A80 and A82 head northwards to the Highlands, east and west. London is 8 hours by road, 4½ hours by train and about 10 hours by sleeper. Glasgow International is the nearest airport; Prestwick is a bit out in the sticks.
Quality of life
The city has excellent public transport and is close to beautiful countryside; Loch Lomond is only a short drive. It's relatively cheap, especially compared with Edinburgh: a period two-bed flat in the West End, the most fashionable part of Glasgow, costs up to £250,000, whereas a first-floor flat in Edinburgh New Town can fetch up to £400,000. Most locals are warm and welcoming, and have a definite sense of pride in their city.
Smartest streets
Glasgow's West End, in particular around Byres Road and Hyndland Road, for sandstone townhouses and refurbished tenements. Kelvin Grove. Merchant City for stylish flats in 18th-century buildings. In the northwest, Dowanhill, Hyndland, Partick, Kelvindale and, farther out, Bearsden and Milngavie. In the southwest, Battlefield, Pollokshaws, Giffnock and, on the periphery, Newton Mearns.
Restaurants
Rogano, the oldest fish restaurant in town, has a wonderful Art Deco bar for cocktails; the Ubiquitous Chip; the Wee Curry House; the Brunswick hotel and Café Gandolfi, which has a new venture next door, Gandolfi Fish, are in Merchant City; Hotel du Vin at One Devonshire Gardens.
Nightlife
Bar 10 is very cool and has a good interior by Ben Kelly; it offers food, DJs and live music; the Arches, beneath Central Station, is a great club; St Andrew's in the Square, a church that is now a live music venue and Scottish cultural centre; Babbity Bowster's, in Merchant City, is folky, very Glaswegian, with good food and live music; Bon Accord, a fine pub; the Horseshoe Bar, which has the one of longest island bars in Europe. The Royal National Scottish Orchestra is based at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall; next month Neeme Järvi conducts.
Education
Belmont House, Fernhill, Hutchesons' Grammar School and Kelvinside Academy are mixed independents; the High School of Glasgow, St Aloysius College and Glasgow Academy are mixed independents, also junior; Craigholme is a girls' independent, also primary; Jordanhill, a mixed state, also junior. Glasgow Caledonian and Strathclyde universities.
Upside
Plenty of museums, fine buildings, green space, nightlife and shopping. Celtic and Rangers are two of the world's most famous football clubs; for Rugby Union, there is Glasgow Warriors.
Downside
It rains a lot and winter days are very short. The “brash honesty” of some of the locals can be a little disconcerting.
At a glance
155 per cent - The increase in Glasgow house prices over the past ten years (Source: Halifax)
£3.2 million The highest price paid for a house in Glasgow in the past two years (Source: Savills)
1896 - Work begins on the Glasgow School of Art (Source: crmsociety.com)
4 million - The number of tourists each year in Glasgow (Source: glasgow.gov.uk)
114 - The number of picture houses in Glasgow in 1939 (Source: seeglasgow.com)
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