ISBN: 0 300 09674 7
Glasgow has a wide array of architectural treasures: the greatest medieval cathedral in Scotland;
fragments of a seventeenth and eighteenth century 'merchant city'; the well-preserved heart of
a planned new town, Blythswood; a city centre dense with Victorian and Edwardian commercial
buildings; stately nineteenth century terraces lining the Great Western Road and picturesquely
crowning Woodlands Hill; opulent villas in suburbs like Pollokshields and Kelvinside; and
streets of tenements from the workaday to the grand. The twentieth century has encircled the city
with a broad belt of public housing, and this too has a fascinating history that encompasses
garden suburbs, early experiments in high-rise, comprehensive redevolpments and new
interpretations of the tenement tradition. Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Alexander 'Greek'
Thomson are, of course, internationally known, but the exceptional talents of Glasgow's many
other architects, such as Charles Wilson, James Salmon Jr. and Jack Coia, have helped to shape
the city's distinctive character.
