X-Nico

56 unusual facts about Glasgow


2003 in Scotland

24 November - The High Court in Glasgow imposes a minimum sentence of 27 years for Al Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of bombing Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Ailsa Craig Engines

Named after the island Ailsa Craig, the company began as a bicycle manufacturer in Glasgow in 1891, later moving to Putney, in London where the then owner went into partnership and set about building early vehicles, going on to produce the world's first V12 engine and even a petrol engined vacuum cleaner for Hubert Cecil Booth in 1904.

Barren County, Kentucky

Glasgow, the county seat, has numerous manufacturing facilities, and is also a medical and retail hub for the area.

Belt-driven bicycle

When his project was complete, Sanders chose entrepreneur and former Greg Norman manager James Marshall and a Glasgow manufacturer to turn his award-winning design into a product.

Bridgeton Central railway station

Bridgeton Central railway station was located in Glasgow, Scotland and served the Bridgeton area of that city.

Caol Ila distillery

In 1863 the business was acquired by Bulloch Lade & Co, of Glasgow, traders in whisky stocks.

Carl Wilhelm Heine

After assisting his father in his orthopaedic institution he visited several European countries and stayed in Paris, London, Glasgow and Dublin.

Castle Semple

At one time, Glasgow and Ayr Railway passed through the Castle Semple estate and in the immediate neighbourhood of the loch.

Charles J. Phipps

Theatre Royal, Glasgow (1880) and (1895) the largest surviving example of his work.

Costas Evangelatos

He has presented sections of his works in solo exhibitions in Athens, Rochester, New York, Thessaloniki, Arezzo, Avignon, Chantilly, Paris, Glasgow, Amsterdam, Nicosia.

Don Greenlees

Born in Bridgeton, Glasgow, Greenlees started his professional career with nearby St. Mirren where he gained a reputation as "one of the best half-backs in Scotland".

Dulcitone

The instrument was designed by Thomas Machell of Glasgow and manufactured by the firm of Thomas Machell & Sons during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

East Liverpool, Ohio

Though in the bordering states of West Virginia and Pennsylvania, the communities of Chester and Newell, West Virginia and Glasgow, Pennsylvania owe their existence to East Liverpool's rapid population growth of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Ernesto Jaconelli

Born in Townhead, Glasgow to Italian parents-Riccardo and Amelia (originally from Valvori, Italy).

George V Bridge

George V Bridge, Glasgow, across the River Cylde in the centre of Glasgow, Scotland

Gilbert Dawson

Dawson was later found dead in his crashed car on 24 May 1969 in Paisley, Glasgow, Lanarkshire.

Glasgow bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games

Nearby Tollcross Park Aquatics Centre, which already has one Olympic standard 50 metre swimming pool, would be extensively upgraded, and a second 50 metre pool would be added for the Games' aquatic events.

Glasgow, Bothwell, Hamilton and Coatbridge Railway

The Glasgow, Bothwell, Hamilton and Coatbridge Railway was a railway company in Scotland that was formed to run trains between Shettleston and Hamilton.

Hercules Ross

He was the ninth son of John Ross (fifth son to a second wife, Elizabeth Fullarton), an excise officer in Port Glasgow of narrow means and a probable descendant (via the Rosses of Kirkland and Tartraven) from Ninian Ross, 3rd Lord Ross.

In 1782, with his fortune made, Ross returned to Scotland, where he was elected an Honorary Burgess of Glasgow and purchased an estate at Rossie, near Montrose, on which he later built a large house, Rossie Castle.

James Howe McClure

James Howe McClure was born on 8 July 1851 in the Barony district of Glasgow, the son of James Howe McClure (1812–1891) and Grace (née Buchanan).

James Radley

In June 1910 he flew his Blériot XI at the first aviation meeting held in Scotland at Pollokshaws, Glasgow making seven flights.

John Caswell

He was acquainted with the Scottish mathematician Robert Simson and provided a supporting testimonial when Simson was under consideration for appointment as Professor of Mathematics at the University of Glasgow.

John Robinson estate scandal

On January 10, 1764, Glasgow merchants trading in Virginia complained about unburned notes in the colony's treasury to the Lords of Trade.

Kalidhindi B. R. Varma

He was a postdoctoral researcher with the Dept. of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Strathclyde University, Glasgow, United Kingdom.

Kelvinbridge

Kelvinbridge is also used to refer to the area in the neighbourhood of the bridge, encompassing parts of the districts of Woodside, Woodlands, Kelvinside and Hillhead.

Kingston Bridge

Kingston Bridge, Glasgow, a bridge across the River Clyde in Glasgow, Scotland

Limeade

Most major beverage companies now offer their own brand of limeade, such as A.G. Barr plc of Glasgow and Newman's Own since 2004, with Minute Maid even introducing a Cherry Limeade drink in response to the popularity of Limeade.

Loch Lomond RFC

The club has a clubhouse and playing / training facilities at its base in Bonhill, 25 miles west of Glasgow and runs a 1st and 2nd XV together with a junior section.

Louis Edmond Duranty

He was a friend of Edgar Degas, who painted a celebrated portrait of him in 1879 (Burrell Collection, Glasgow).

Make Model

Make Model were a Scottish 6 piece indie band formed in Glasgow and formerly signed to EMI.

Mary Hannay Foott

Mary Hannay Foott was born at Glasgow to a merchant, James Black, and his wife Miss Grant.

Mount Vernon North railway station

Mount Vernon railway station served the Mount Vernon area of Glasgow, Scotland on the Glasgow, Bothwell, Hamilton and Coatbridge Railway between Shettleston and Hamilton.

Mount Vernon railway station

Mount Vernon railway station is located in the Mount Vernon area of Glasgow, Scotland.

Newbank, Glasgow

Although many residents of Newbank would consider themselves residents of Parkhead or Tollcross, they have been officially placed within the Braidfauld Ward of Glasgow City Council.

Newbank is a working-class district in the East End of Glasgow, near the home ground of Glasgow Celtic F.C. It sits just north of the River Clyde, adjacent to Parkhead, and is bounded to the south by London Road.

Oberon Old and New

A staging that parked an aeroplane on the roof of Glasgow's Theatre Royal on the opening night only seemed to sink the already preposterous plot further into the mire, although Burgess was so taken with the music that he went on to arrange the overture to Oberon for guitar quartet.

The libretto was commissioned by Scottish Opera, and first used in Glasgow on 23 October 1985, in a performance conducted by Sir Alexander Gibson and directed by Graham Vick, with production design by Russell Craig.

Patrick Fairbairn

After that time, he pastored churches in Bridgeton, Glasgow, and Salton, East Lothian.

Percy Fairclough

In 1878, shortly after his twentieth birthday, he was selected by England for the match at Hampden Park, Glasgow against Scotland on 2 March.

Peugeot E7

It is licensed to operate in 93% of all local authority areas across the UK, including cities such as Birmingham, Leeds, Leicester, Sheffield, Newcastle upon Tyne, Sunderland, Southampton, Stafford, Bristol, Cardiff, Belfast, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

PSTN network topology

In the early days of manual exchanges, outlying areas (eventually called dependent exchanges) were connected through progressively larger locations (eventually called group switching centres) into one of the main cities - Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, and Manchester.

Queen's Cross Church

Queen's Cross Church, Glasgow — designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and consecrated in 1899

Ralston, Renfrewshire

To the east, Ralston's painted stone cottages and their proudly-maintained front gardens define the Glasgow Road all the way to the Renfrewshire border and beyond, merging unobtrusively with the cottages of neighbouring Crookston.

Royal Pump Room Gardens

The current bandstand was designed by Walter MacFarlane & Co and founded in Glasgow.

Sandyhills

It is in close proximity to other districts of Glasgow namely Baillieston and Mount Vernon.

Sighthill

Sighthill, Glasgow, a housing estate in the Springburn district of the city of Glasgow

SIMY

The project has grown by working with the International Christian College youth work degree course, the local community police, the Prince's Youth Trust (PYT), Glasgow Community Safety Services, St Roch Secondary school and Glasgow Life.

Siobhan Redmond

Originally from Tollcross, Glasgow, Redmond's first television appearances were in the early 1980s.

Taylor G. Belcher

During his tenure with the State Department, he was stationed at Mexico City, Glasgow and Washington.

The Ghost Shirt

In 1891 the shirt was brought to Glasgow, and sold to Kelvingrove Museum by George C. Crager, a member of Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Traveling Show.

The Prayer Boat

However, the band were determined to keep trying, and they moved to Glasgow in 1994, signing a deal with a new independent record label, Almo Sounds.

Transport in Cornwall

However, trunk road access to and from the rest of the UK is at the heart of Cornwall's transport infrastructure and it is now possible to drive on uninterrupted dual carriageway from Glasgow to Bodmin Moor.

Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde Air Squadron

Its headquarters are based in the West End of Glasgow in the Park District and is equipped with two Grob Tutor aircraft which are based at the flying element of the squadron at Glasgow International Airport.

Walcheren Barracks

A former Territorial HLI Battalion in Glasgow, the 7th (Blythswood) Battalion, the Highland Light Infantry was based at 69 Main Street, Bridgeton (now demolished and replaced by a tenement), it was converted to Royal Artillery in 1938, becoming the 83rd AA Regiment.

Wolf pack Vorwärts

Her engines and steering gear were intact, so the crew boarded and managed to take her back to Glasgow, arriving on 15 September.


A Fictional Guide to Scotland

This reading tour visited places as far and wide as Wigtown, Ullapool, Inverness, Edinburgh, Stirling, Lanark and Glasgow and was supported by the Scottish Arts Council.

Alex Arthur

After winning 11 fights in a row and picking up a couple of fringe titles on the way, Arthur managed to get a crack at the vacant British Super Featherweight title when he challenged Dewsbury's Steve Conway at the Braehead Arena in Glasgow on 19 October 2002.

Alexander Scott

Alexander MacCallum Scott (1874–1928), British Member of Parliament for Glasgow Bridgeton, 1910–1922

Apollon XI

She was chartered by Burns & Laird Lines Ltd. for the service between Belfast and Liverpool, also from Cork to Fishguard, Dublin to Liverpool and for the service Glasgow - Dublin - Liverpool.

Archie McLeod

An injury ended his career and he returned home to Glasgow where he worked as a machinist with John Brown & Company.

Battlefield, Glasgow

The area includes one of Glasgow's main hospitals the Victoria Infirmary and further education institutions, Langside College.

Bishop of Paisley

Upon the death of Bishop Black in March 1968 the Rt Rev Stephen McGill was translated by Pope Paul VI from the see of Argyll and the Isles and remained in Paisley until his retirement in March 1988 whereupon he was succeeded by the Rt Rev John Mone an auxiliary bishop of Glasgow and an appointee of Pope John Paul II.

Bob Glasgow

Robert "Bob" Glasgow is a Democratic Party politician from Stephenville, Texas who held office as a member of the Senate of Texas.

British Airways Engineering

Today, British Airways Engineering has hangars at Heathrow (its base), Gatwick, Glasgow and Cardiff International airports as well as hundreds of line maintenance stations (engineers based around the world to do minor 'line' maintenance such as routine daily inspections or minor repairs).

Ceremonial ship launching

SS Daphne was a ship which sank moments after her launching at a shipyard in Govan, Glasgow,Scotland, on 3 July 1883.

Cyril Aldred

He died peacefully at his home in Edinburgh in 1991 but is remembered as one of the leading characters in improving archaeology in Scotland at the Burrell Collection in Glasgow.

Eastbank Academy

Eastbank Academy is a Scottish secondary school in the suburb of Shettleston in Glasgow.

Gideon Gathimba

His personal best times are 3:33.63 minutes in the 1500 metres, achieved in June 2008 in Rabat; 3:52.98 minutes in the mile run, achieved in June 2009 in Ostrava; and 7:49.65 minutes in the 3000 metres (indoor), achieved in January 2009 in Glasgow.

Hamish Wilson

Hamish Wilson (born 13 December 1942) is a Scottish actor from Glasgow, and is best known for briefly taking over the role of Jamie McCrimmon for part of two episodes in the 1968 Doctor Who serial The Mind Robber when series regular Frazer Hines was ill with chickenpox and unable to attend the recording.

Jackie Lockhart

She started in the buzzing atmosphere that enveloped the Scottish Championships in Glasgow, where her team - largely inexperienced at the highest level apart from herself at skip - overcame Rhona Martin's rink in a three-match final to claim the right to represent Scotland at the World Championships in Bismarck, North Dakota, ahead of the newly-famed Olympic gold medallists.

Jacky Carlier

Bronze medallist over 3000m at the 1989 European Athletics Indoor Championships in La Haye, behind German Dieter Baumann and Spaniard Abel Antón, he got his second podium the following year, in 1990 in Glasgow, beaten in the final by his compatriot Eric Dubus.

James C. Potter

A native of Scotland, he was schooled at the Mechanics' Institutes in Glasgow and was also a member of the 5th Battalion of the Royal Rifles.

James Craig Annan

James Annan subsequently joined his family’s photographic business, T. & R. Annan and Sons of Glasgow, Hamilton and Edinburgh, and in 1883 went to Vienna to learn the process of photogravure from the inventor, Karel Klíč.

John F. McIntosh

Born in Farnell, Angus, Scotland, in February 1846, MacIntosh would be famous for working at St. Rollox railway works, in Springburn, in Glasgow.

John Scouler

In 1834, he was appointed professor of mineralogy, and subsequently of geology, zoology, and botany, to the Royal Dublin Society, a post he held until his retirement on a pension in 1854, when he returned to Glasgow.

John Taylor Caldwell

For many years, Caldwell shared with Ethel MacDonald a third-floor flat in Gibson Street, Hillhead, Glasgow.

Karen Dunbar

Over Christmas 2007, Dunbar made her first appearance in pantomime, at the King's Theatre in Glasgow, playing Nanny Begood in Sleeping Beauty.

Kasper Køhlert

Køhlert's father is Morten Køhlert who currently works as an assistant manager at Varde If and his brother Nicolaj Køhlert who is younger, have played for Liverpool, Glasgow Rangers and is now playing for the Danish side Silkeborg IF.

Kelvin Central Buses

Stagecoach's Magic Bus operation in Glasgow was also purchased, bringing in mainly Stagecoach-standard Volvo B10M-55/Alexander PSs and Alexander Dash-bodied Dennis Darts, and the company slowly returned to profitability, with new vehicle purchases starting again in 1993, these were mainly Volvo B10B/Alexander Striders, Volvo B6/Alexander Dashes and Volvo Olympian/Alexander Royales.

Man Dancin'

The film was shot in twenty-two days during late 2002 in locations in and around Glasgow including Greenock, Govan, Ibrox and Pollokshields, and in Gateshead.

National Museum of Rural Life

National Museums Scotland and partners have developed the National Museum of Rural Life, previously known as the Museum of Scottish Country Life, which is based at Wester Kittochside farm, lying between the town of East Kilbride in South Lanarkshire and the village of Carmunnock in Glasgow.

Nyah Fearties

Nyah Fearties have been described as a kind of hybrid between Celtic folk-punk outfit The Pogues, and Glasgow-based industrial music band Test Dept.

Penilee

The district's southern boundary forms Glasgow's border with the Renfrewshire settlement of Ralston.

Rouken Glen

Amongst the park's owners were Walter Crum of Thornliebank and Archibald Cameron Corbett, M.P. for Tradeston, Glasgow (later Lord Rowallan) who gifted the estate and mansion house to the citizens of Glasgow.

Scottish Enterprise

Scottish Enterprise has approximately 1,100 staff and operates from 13 offices - Aberdeen, Bellshill, Clydebank, Dundee, Dumfries, Edinburgh, two in Glasgow, Glenrothes, Kilmarnock, Paisley, Selkirk and Stirling.

Simon Bedwell

He has shown work internationally in many exhibitions including solo show “The Furnishers” at White Columns in New York, “Galleon and Other Stories” at the Saatchi Gallery in London, “England Their England” at Laden fur Nichts in Leipzig, “Beck's Futures 2004” at the ICA in London and the CCA in Glasgow, and Studio Voltaire London.

Sir Matt Busby Sports Complex

That arrangement ended in Summer 2011, when they would move to Fullarton Park in Tollcross, Glasgow.

Society for Experimental Biology

The main meeting is held in the UK or continental Europe (Swansea, Wales, 2002; Southampton, England, 2003; Edinburgh, Scotland, 2004; Barcelona, Spain, 2005; Canterbury, England, 2006; Glasgow, Scotland 2007, 2009, 2011; Marseille, France, 2008; Prague, Czech Republic, 2010; Salzburg, Austria, 2012; Valencia, Spain, planned for 2013).

Springburn Museum

Springburn Museum was set up in the reading room of the Springburn Library, Glasgow, Scotland, and opened by Tom Weir in 1988.

St Aloysius Church, Glasgow

The church was unique amongst the Catholic churches of Glasgow in that it had a tower and is modelled on Namur Cathedral in Belgium and the Gesu in Rome.

Station Park, Forfar

The ground, as the name suggests, was once close to the town's railway station, situated on the Caledonian Railway's main line from Aberdeen to Glasgow and London, but this station was closed in 1968 as part of the Beeching cuts.

Strathclyde Buses

Whilst the SBG units began operating services within Glasgow's city limits, Strathclyde PTE started or extended services to places including East Kilbride, Cumbernauld, Balloch and Johnstone.

Stuart Christie

Christie was born in the Partick area of Glasgow and was raised in Blantyre, by his mother and grandparents, becoming an anarchist at a young age.

The Omega Factor

Produced by BBC Scotland, the series was shot on location in Edinburgh (making use of a number of Edinburgh landmarks such as the Royal Mile, Holyrood Park, and Edinburgh Zoo), with studio production conducted in Glasgow.

The Phantom Band

The Phantom Band is a Glasgow-based band consisting of Duncan Marquiss (guitar), Gerry Hart (bass), Andy Wake (keyboards), Rick Anthony (vocals and guitar), Iain Stewart (drums) and Greg Sinclair (guitars).

Tim Dedopulos

Early in 1995 he joined the Glasgow office of Seattle games giant Wizards of the Coast to work on their dystopian future-horror game SLA Industries.

Undergraduate gowns in Scotland

A significant example of this is the actions of John Anderson, a professor at the University of Glasgow and founder of what went on to become the University of Strathclyde.

Vivacitas

Vivacitas (subtitled "Live at Glasgow 2002") is a live album recorded by The Nice, who reformed for a set of concerts, augmented by the Keith Emerson Band for the second half of the concert.

Walcheren Barracks

The facility is the only one in Glasgow and the West of Scotland to be formally designated as a Barracks, although there are several other Territorial Army Centres in the area, including 32 (Scottish) Signal Regiment at Kelvinside, 105 Regiment, Royal Artillery in Partick, the 4th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment at Finnieston and Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities Officer Training Corps in Hillhead.

Whistle for the Choir

It was filmed in Glasgow city centre, including Buchanan and Sauchiehall Streets.