Barclay Curle is the Clyde’s forgotten Titan crane – everyone sees the Finnieston Crane on the news every night, and it’s right in the city centre, but Barclay Curle is in the middle of an industrial area with no good way to see it from the other side of the river – it someimes looms surprisingly on the skyline, but getting close is impossible.
Which is why this took a year’s planning 😉
Tod and McGregor claimed to be the “fathers of iron shipbuilding on the Clyde” – in 1835, they launched the Vale of Leven, the first iron vessel actually built on the banks of the Clyde. Tod and McGregor had started out as foremen at Camlachie Foundry, and set out on thier own as marine engineers in 1834. Their first yard was further upriver, then they moved south of the river, before moving to a new, large site at Meadowfield where the River Kelvin joins the Clyde.
Glasgow is getting a new, posh transport museum – the current one is very cramped and can only show a small proportion of the exhibits. The new Riverside museum is being built right where the River Kelvin joins the Clyde, and it’s a very striking design by Zaha Hadid. The new museum isn’t going to open until Spring 2011, but I went along for a sneak preview…
