Kelvingrove Park
This Sir Joseph Paxton designed park is a classic example of a Victorian Park. Its design and setting on the banks of the River Kelvin enhance and compliment the many magnificent buildings which surround and the world renowned Art Gallery and Museum prominently featured within it. Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is Glasgow's premier museum and art gallery and has one of Europe's great civic art collections. The museum is the most popular visitor attraction in Scotland,[1] and the most visited museum in the United Kingdom outside London. It is located on Argyle Street, in the West End of the city, on the banks of the River Kelvin (opposite the architecturally similar Kelvin Hall, which was built in matching style some years later, after the previous hall had been destroyed by fire). It is adjacent to Kelvingrove Park and is situated immediately beneath the main campus of the University of Glasgow on Gilmorehill.
The construction of Kelvingrove was partly financed by the proceeds of the 1888 International Exhibition held in Kelvingrove Park. The gallery was designed by Sir John W. Simpson and E.J. Milner Allen and opened in 1901. It is built in a Spanish Baroque style, follows the Glaswegian tradition of using red sandstone, and includes an entire program of architectural sculpture by George Frampton, Francis Derwent Wood and other sculptors.
Although intended as a permanent building, it was designed as a principal building of another International Exhibition in the Park in 1901. This explains why the building appears to be built 'back to front'. Nowadays most visitors enter from the main street, Argyle Street — the "back" of the building.
The museum's collections came mainly from the McLellan Galleries and from the old Kelvingrove House Museum in Kelvingrove Park. It has one of the finest collections of arms and armour in the world and a vast natural history collection. The art collection includes many outstanding European artworks, including works by the Old Masters, French Impressionists and Scottish Colourists.
The museum houses Christ of Saint John of the Cross by Salvador Dalí. The copyright of this painting was bought by the curator at the time after a meeting with Dalí himself. For a period between 2003 and 2006, the painting was moved to the St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art.
Kelvingrove reopened on 11 July 2006 after a three-year closure for major refurbishment. The work cost around £28m and includes a new restaurant and a large basement extension to its display space to accommodate the 8000 exhibits now on display.
The University of Glasgow is the fourth oldest university in the English-speaking world. It dates from 1451 when King James II of Scotland persuaded Pope Nicholas V to grant a lead seal, or bull, authorising Bishop William Turnbull of Glasgow to set up a university.
Growth
For its first nine years, the fledgling university was based at Glasgow Cathedral. In 1460, the University moved to High Street, where, over the next 400 years, it continued to expand both in its scope and size. It was a centre of the both the industrial revolution and the Scottish Enlightenment.
As it grew however, the University was restricted by the encroaching overcrowding and squalor of the city and the expanding factories and railways, fruits of the industrial expansion it had helped to shape. As a result, in 1870, it moved to its current familiar west end location at Gilmorehill, then a greenfield site enclosed by a large loop of the River Kelvin.
Gilmorehill
As part of the move, Pearce Lodge and the Lion and Unicorn Staircase were moved stone by stone from the old site to the new and both can still be seen today. Meanwhile, the rest of the campus at Gilmorehill was centred on a neo-Gothic main building designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott; his son John Oldrid Scott, added the spire. From that time on, the University has stood as a landmark across the city, with its distinctive profile silhouetted against the skyline.
Glasgow, Scotland
Updated 29 August 2008 05:50
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