Glasgow and the Clyde
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-> Glasgow and the Clyde
Rejuvenated, upbeat Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, has not traditionally enjoyed the best of reputations. Once an industrial giant set on the banks of the mighty River Clyde, it can still initially seem a grey and depressing place, with the M8 motorway screeching through the centre and dilapidated housing estates on its outskirts. However, Glasgow's image of itself has changed irrevocably and few visitors will be left in any doubt that the city is, in its own idiosyncratic way, a cultured and dynamic place well worth getting to know.
The city has much to offer: here are some of the best-financed and most imaginative museums and galleries in Britain - among them the showcase Burrell Collection of art and antiquities - and nearly all of them are free. Glasgow's architecture is some of the most striking in the UK, from the restored eighteenth-century warehouses of the Merchant City to the hulking Victorian prosperity of George Square. Most distinctive of all is the work of local luminary Charles Rennie Mackintosh, whose elegantly streamlined Art Nouveau designs appear all over the city, reaching their apotheosis in the stunning School of Art. Recent development of the old shipyards of the Clyde, notably in the space-age shapes of the new Glasgow Science Centre, hint at yet another string to the city's bow: combining design with innovation. The city boasts thriving live-music venues, distinctive places to eat and drink, busy theatres, concert halls and an opera house. Above all, the feature that best defines the individualism and peculiar attraction of the city is its people, whether rough-edged comedians on the football terraces or bright young things dressed to the nines in the trendiest of style bars.
Despite all the upbeat hype, Glasgow's gentrification has passed by deprived inner-city areas such as the East End, home of the Barras market and some staunchly change-resistant pubs. This area has historically been the breeding ground for the city's much-lauded socialism, celebrated in the wonderful People's Palace social history museum. Indeed, even in the more stylish quarters of Glasgow there's a gritty edge that's never far away, reinforcing a peculiar mix of grime and glitz which the city seems to have patented.
Quite apart from its own attractions, Glasgow makes an excellent base from which to explore the Clyde Valley and coast, made easily accessible by a reliable train service. Chief among the draws is the remarkable eighteenth-century New Lanark mills and workers' village, a World Heritage Site, while other day trips might take you to the new National Museum of Scottish Country Life near East Kilbride or on a boat heading "doon the watter" past the old shipbuilding centres on the Clyde estuary.
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