The last bit, I promise.
Picking up my car at the Glasshouse NCP I noticed again the weird annoying noise that is filling the stairwell to put off ne’er do wells and prevent people from hanging around making a mess. I think there are devices called mosquitos as they are too high pitched for adults but an annoying register for under 25s. This one was annoying for people of all ages though, a mixture of white noise, annoying screeching sounds and no real pattern that you could turn into a tune. It obviously hadn’t stopped everyone though as there was a piece of silver foil showing some burn marks on the rear of it, indicating someone had been “chasing the dragon”, burning drugs and inhaling the vapours. Sad really.
I jumped in the car and set the satnav to Blackpool, I had originally planned to visit Skinningrove on the East coast but the time it would have taken would have made it difficult to get home before late and I was working the next day. Skinningrove was a target originally, not for any brutalism but to see where Chris Killip had photographed some of his work.
East Diversion
Blackpool was a second choice and would see me home a bit earlier so off I went. Only when I was on the main road I saw a sign for East Kilbride, which was also on my plans for the weekend and I’d forgotten about it until now. A swift turn off the road and a reprogram of the Google Maps on carplay had me dive off in the direction of the Dollan Aqua Centre. A swimming pool and leisure centre designed by Alexander Buchanan Campbell and opened in 1968 it features a wonderful concrete exoskeleton that supports the arched, almost vaulted roof. I’d seen this structure as I was preparing for the road trip and wanted to pop in to see it, and it was well worth the wait. I almost wanted to walk over the top of it and down the other side.
Weirdly, it was a school day and minibuses and coaches were there dropping and picking up kids so I was being careful to point my camera at the floor when any youngsters were about. As I began photographing the building again, a minibus driver that I’d nodded to as I paid my 20p for 2 hours parking, approached me and I thought he might have a go but he opened up with “are you a photographer? I do a bit of photography myself”. We proceeded to have a good chat about how he used to climb up onto the roof when he was 16 years old to drink and smoke atop the structure. He said that the police (actually pronounced poleeeeece) came to shout at them and then they slid off the opposite direction or hid in the areas they couldn’t be seen. He also told me many stories about his work as an event organiser with his company originally called The Clann and how he’d been responsible for shutting down Amsterdam’s Dam Square for the first time since WW2. He also explained how a place in Romania called Turda was a good place to go for photography. He said the cemetery contained many famous people and there was a good selection of sights to be seen. After our chat, I made my way around the rear of the building which had cleaner more original lines and before I left him I took his photo sat on the fence near the concrete arch he would have climbed many years ago.
Around the back of the building was a sight without the glass screens that had been added more recently and it offered a great view. There was also a skatepark next door too which was a nice place to photograph from being all concrete also.
Seaside
After a stop here I jumped back onto the motorway and wound my way to Blackpool Promenade then parked at the shopping centre before going for a walk. I walked behind the Funland Amusements building to visit the Bonny Street Police Station, but it was no more. It has been demolished and the whole area of the station and the courts nearby are now an open flattened space. I’m glad I was able to get up here a couple of years ago to capture this place before it was lost to the demolition teams.
The rest of the resort here felt like a dirty mess and was not a pleasant place to visit, I can see why it has a reputation as a bit of a shithole and there seemed to be very little pride about the place. I walked onto the pier and along the seafront promenade but the areas that dint smell of urine were reeking of cannabis being smoked.
After this I headed home and arrived early enough that I could go out to the cinema with my son as he wanted to watch, guess what? The Mandalorian and Grogu. Why not see it a third time? It’s not a bad film with some genuinely funny and moving parts in it. It was also nice seeing it with my son who is a bit of a star wars fan, must have done something right eh?
Thunderbolts and Lighting
When I got home and lay in bed there was a huge lightning storm taking place all around the town, so at 2am I arose to try out the pre-continuous shooting feature on my R5 Mk II and I had soon filled the memory card up but I did capture some interesting photos of fork lighting going across the sky. Now I need to learn how to blend them together using a lighten blending tool.
Road Trip Reflection
The buildings I saw and photographed on this trip can be summarised here:
Lancaster Services Pennine Tower, St Peters Seminary, Forth Road Bridge, Queensferry Crossing, Forth Railway Bridge, Scottish Parliament Holyrood, National Museum Of Scotland, Cables Wynd House, Edinburgh Cancer Centre, The BOAC building, Gallery Of Modern Art, College Of Building and Printing (Met Tower), College Of Commerce, The Savoy Centre, The Bourdon Building, Glasgow Subway, Boyd Orr Building, Queen Mary Union, 42 Bute Street, Hunterian Art Gallery and Mackintosh House, and the Dollan Baths.
These are split over the previous three posts and if you’d like any more information please reach out and I’ll answer as best as I can. I get most of my information from the buildings official websites and also a couple of books that help no end. Modern Buildings in Britain by Owen Hatherley, Brutalist Britain by Elain Harwood and Brutal North by Simon Phipps.
It was a trek to get around these buildings and I really enjoyed seeing some wonderful architecture and also learned a bit to appreciate the other styles of architecture that sit in these city centres. Using my digital cameras felt the most natural thing to do but I felt that at St Peter’s Seminary, it was an ideal time for a film camera. The use of the drone here was also worthwhile as well as at Lancaster Services but I wish I’d used it the Edinburgh Cancer Centre and also the Dollan Aqua Centre to capture some more interesting angles. I couldn’t carry everything with me at all times though so I had to make some calls.
The brutalist and modern buildings I’ve seen this week and documented might not be around for long, as per the Bonny Street cop shop. I like to think that I’ve captured something for posterity and that i t might someday please someone to see a reminder of a long lost memory.
I found that talking to Ian at the Dollan Baths was a good experience and it allowed me to connect the building with a human story but it takes too long to politely listen to people’s stories especially if they’re not relevant to anything. I’m a bit of a miserable bugger and would prefer to focus on the task at hand, if I hadn’t spent time talking to him so much I might have had time to chuck up the drone and do some of that so it feels like an opportunity missed for photography but an opportunity gained for hearing a personal story about the buildings I’m interested in.
Making my way around the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow on foot and using buses etc gave me some different experiences, places that I was surprised by, experiences with people that I chuckled at afterwards, plenty of steps on my apple watch and a few random photos that I never would have found had I went from one place to another in a taxi.
The bus trips with City Sightseeing Bus Tour Company were ok, but on a couple of occasions the headphones did not work in the plugs on the chairs, I had to move to another seat. The tours tell you where you are but not much detail about what you are seeing. I found the Glasgow one to be mostly driving in a loop around the SECC, Hydro and BBC on the Govan side of the river and very little around the city. It was £34 for the two days and this isn’t too bad I suppose as it helped me get from one place to another with less walking, more sunbathing and a bit of sight seeing.
The hotel I stayed in was the Ibis Styles near George Square and the hotel was ok for the time that I was in it. I prefer to make the most of my surroundings and spend as least time in the hotel as possible but in Glasgow city centre after dark I felt a bit nervous. There was probably nothing to fear, being a 6ft 2in geezer who looks quite big too would stop a few people from having a pop but with the drugs and drink ravaging the streets in the daytime I felt that that the risks were too high to spend too long wandering around at night.
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