BVT is a merger between BAE Systems and VT Shipbuilding, formed in July 2008. BAE owned some shipyards in Glasgow – Govan and Scotstoun. VT was based in Portsmouth. They build and service naval vessels, including the new Type 45 Destroyers. Some of the buildings at the Scotstoun yard were being demolished, so I got in for a look before they were all gone.
This is what they looked like from the water, taken three weeks before:
Howden’s Engineering Works in Scotland Street, Glasgow, are next to the Mackintosh-designed Scotland Street School. Howden is now a huge company, but this is where they started, building turbines and various other heavy engineering. Some of the last things built at Scotland Street were the tunneling machines for the Channel Tunnel.
The first of the large sheds:
This is all my girlfriend’s fault – it’s a quarry, it’s a big pile of rock, how interesting can it be? She convinced me otherwise, though – quarries can definitely be as interesting as buildings 😉
Dinorwic (or Dinorwig) was, around the turn of the century (the 19th, not this one), the second-largest slate quarry in the world, second only to Penrhyn over the hill. Slate quarrying started on the side of a hill called Elidir in about 1780, and at it’s peak the quarry employed over 3000 men, before finally closing in 1969.
The former quarry workshops have now been converted into the National Slate Museum, and there is a public path through the centre of the quarry, but the quarry now belongs to First Hydro, who operate the hydroelectric power station that was constructed under the mountain.
This is an overall view from across the valley:
The University of Glasgow’s Chemistry Department building was two-thirds completed between 1936 and 1939, but war halted construction, and the third wing was finally finished in 1954. It is now an A-listed building, and has mostly been completely refurbished inside. The Chemistry Department’s website has lots more info on the building.
Although this is a building in use, quite a few areas are out of bounds to students and most staff – I had permission and a guide for some areas.
The building from the outside:
In 1892, Glasgow Corporation acquired a rather uninteresting bunch of fields with a disused quarry, to build a park. In 1900, Hugh Reid of the North British Locomotive Company donated a further area of land, along with £12,000 to build the nearby Springburn Public Halls (now also derelict) – a condition of the gift was that the City should construct the Winter Gardens.
The Gardens have now been derelict for about 25 years, and are A-listed.
