After the Garden Festival...

Recording the form, story and legacy of the 1988 Glasgow Garden Festival with @LambLex, @GordonBarr & @urbanprehisto (Pic J McDougall, CC 2.0)

[After the Garden Festival... @AtGF1988]

Beautifully restored by Kirkintilloch Men’s Shed

[Kenny Brophy @urbanprehisto]

@AtGF1988

[After the Garden Festival... @AtGF1988]

@mayo_mammy @PastGlasgow There was some discussion around that early on - but the redevelopment of what's now Pacific Quay was always going to be quicker than that of the Graving Docks (and that's how it's turned out) so Bell's Bridge was always more likely to be made permanent.

[Past Glasgow @PastGlasgow]

It's 38 years to the day since the Glasgow Garden Festival threw open its gates to the general public, with Charles and Diana coming along the following day to cut the ribbon. It attracted 4.3 million visitors during its 152 day run.

#Glasgow

[Lex Lamb @LambLex]

Announcement: preview pages and the opportunity to pre-order 'The 1988 Glasgow Garden Festival' (a 220pp hardback book, lavishly illustrated and featuring a full gazetteer) will be available next week, along with a surprise item! Publication will take place this summer.

[After the Garden Festival... @AtGF1988]

@FestivalGardns Great stuff (it’s really exciting to hear more about another Garden Festival being investigated). Have you spotted these stones in any photos from 1984?

[After the Garden Festival... @AtGF1988]

Though Harding himself didn’t produce work for the Garden Festival, his stamp and influence is all over the Artworks Programme, with his successor Malcolm Robertson, assistant Stan Bonnar and the likes of Shona Kinloch all producing significant work for the event.

[This Is My Glasgow @is_glasgow]

I was sad to hear of the recent death of David Harding, the first town artist for the new town of Glen Rothes in Fife, the former head of Environmental Art at the Glasgow School of Art and the god-father of post-war public art in Scotland.

Cont./

#glasgow #publicart #sculpture

[After the Garden Festival... @AtGF1988]

Bit pricey, this - but it is an extremely unusual bit of GGF merch. https://t.co/nlLpJ6Toun

[Kenny Brophy @urbanprehisto]

Good news. Next up needs to be the Glasgow Garden Festival waterfall in Festival Park and Kelvingrove Park’s Kelvin Wheelies skatepark.

[Lex Lamb @LambLex]

Garden Festival Book update: read-through and fact-checking with another two veteran GGF designers this morning went well. Also currently awaiting confirmation (or otherwise) that a future Turner Prize winner worked as a chef in a Garden Festival cafe!

[Scottish Roads Archive @ScotRoadArchive]

Two major #glasgow roads for the price of one in this stunning aerial photo from around 1990. The M8 and Clydeside Expressway are both visible, as is a still new SECC! The Garden Festival site has been cleared but what else stands out?

#archives #1990s

[After the Garden Festival... @AtGF1988]

Bell's Bridge being lowered into place by the 250-tonne Mersey Mammoth floating crane, 4th November 1987. What is now the Crown Plaza hotel is just beginning to be built. (Credit: Bob Jones archive)

[Lex Lamb @LambLex]

One of the very last remaining new-to-me Glasgow Garden Festival survivors on the list, so I seized an opportunity to seek out the Walter Segal self-build house at Monimail Tower. Heavily modified but probably one of the only two currently inhabited original GGF structures.

[Lex Lamb @LambLex]

I finally have written conformation of the previously merely anecdotal appearance of live pink flamingoes as part of a garden display in the SEC during the Garden Festival. (Oddly, via an article quoting the father of one of the biggest contributors to the @AtGF1988 archive.)

[Kenny Brophy @urbanprehisto]

Thanks for flagging this up again Niall, of interest of course to @AtGF1988 - and another sad indication that for some organisations, 1988 is not old enough to be considered as our heritage....

[Niall Murphy @MurphyNiallGLA]

Dear @ScotRail all I want for Christmas this year is for you to please do something about improving the state of Glasgow artist Willie Rodger’s mural at Exhibition Centre Station.

We exchanged tweets about the condition of the artwork in March 2024 but since then it’s only gotten progressively worse.

Given that last year 1.773 million people used the station to get to places like the SEC, it’s not a good look for Glasgow and nor is it for you as the mural was commissioned by you, Scotrail, in 1988 for the Glasgow Garden Festival.

Considering this year is the 850th anniversary of Glasgow securing Burgh status, and the mural’s 29 panels depict over one hundred years of Finnieston's history, perhaps it might be a nice gesture to Glaswegians to do something about it especially as no one else can gain access across a live railway line?

[Kenny Brophy @urbanprehisto]

@LambLex and I are in Kirkintilloch this evening giving a talk about before and after the @AtGF1988 to the local antiquarian society. Big audience!

[After the Garden Festival... @AtGF1988]

Even more importantly, it looks like there might be another (green) engine at the back for reversal purposes - and if the paint's retained there, too, then that's the unsponsored loco, leaving only the House of Fraser one unaccounted for. (Credit: Severn Lamb Ltd)

[After the Garden Festival... @AtGF1988]

This is rather fine news: a recent photo has appeared of the GGF train that was relocated to Rusutu Resort, Japan - and it turns out it's still got its Tate & Lyle sponsorship paint job! Hello, Mr Cube.