This City Now: Glasgow and its Working Class Past
By Ian R. Mitchell
Luath Press, 2005
180 pages
REVIEW BY ALEX MILLER
If Edinburgh was the city of the 18th century enlightened bourgeoisie, Glasgow was, and to a certain extent still is, the city of the 19th and early 20th century industrial proletariat.
Despite this, contemporary architectural guides to Scotland's largest city are more than likely to focus on areas of the city traditionally the province of the large and lesser bourgeoisie, such as the West End, Kelvingrove and the Merchant City. In this excellent and entertaining book, Ian R. Mitchell helps to remedy this situation.
Mitchell interweaves a series of accessible urban walks around working-class areas — what he calls "politicising the pavements" — with "the history of the Glasgow working class, its industries, struggles, organisations and notable personalities".
For example, a walk around Pollokshaws allows Mitchell to tell the story of John MacLean, Scotland's most famous socialist agitator, and a stroll round Bridgeton takes in the scene of an 1848 Chartist uprising. Other areas covered include Govanhill, Gorbals, Govan, Yoker, Scotstoun, Partick, Anderston, Maryhill, Possil, Springburn, Dennistoun and Parkhead, as well as Clydebank and Rutherglen, both of which — though not formally part of the city — are in essence Glaswegian.
In my experience, many visitors to Scotland from overseas head for Edinburgh, at best spending a few hours in transit in what used to be the second city of the British Empire. Now both visitors and locals can gain instruction and pleasure from this fine volume: all of the walks are within easy reach of the city centre, and Mitchell is a knowledgeable, witty and affable guide through the streets of the city Lenin once dubbed "the Petrograd of the West".
From Green Left Weekly, February 15, 2006.
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