At the corner of Glasgow’s Union Street and Gordon Street is the smouldering rubble of a Victorian building. A fire started in a vape shop last Sunday and spread to the rest of the building neighbouring Glasgow Central Station, most of which collapsed by the evening and was doused in water for days after.
I admit, the sight of a vape shop spawning a fire that collapses a building erected in 1851 feels like quite the pertinent metaphor for the state of things in Britain. The derelict high street is an often-lamented sight, dirty, deserted, populated only by vape shops, barbershops, and the occasional kebab house. This abandonment is, of course, economically damaging – fewer and lower wages, economic stagnation. But the nothing-works-everything-is-dying pessimism of this country comes from living somewhere where nothing works, and everything is dying. It’s despiriting. So when a blaze beginning in what remains of the high street across Britain collapses a B-listed building, it seems pretty instructive.
The Union Street fire is far from isolated in terms of the collapse of the city’s grandeur. Most obviously, the Glasgow School of Art suffered two fires (in 2014 and 2018) and remains a husk. Meanwhile, Glasgow is beset by endless complaints about its dirtiness as a city. Go onto Google, type in “why is Glasgow so dirty now,” and meet a barrage of lamentations for the state of the city, articles of activism and complaint and even a Reddit post excoriating litterers (using words I won’t venture to repeat). My Glaswegian dad has even taken to saying when he visits that Edinburgh’s relative cleanliness makes it the better city, which to my mind constitutes the biggest change-of-direction since Dylan went electric.
To live in an area where the prevailing decoration is landfill will not inspire pride in or love of your community. The movement away from the two established parties towards those offering change on the Left and Right is borne of disaffection for our surroundings. The cleanliness of your local area, as the most tangible evidence of the state of things, holds great sway over your opinion of the state of things.
Rory Olcayto argues that many Glaswegian senior officials believe they have to choose between making social change and looking after the city’s architecture. In fact, looking after the buildings and what’s around them – renovating when necessary, making unused buildings residential to bring people into an area, getting rid of rubbish – will make social change, making new communities, ensuring they’re welcoming.
First Minister John Swinney has assured that support for the inevitable costs of the fire will be forthcoming. This fire has highlighted the parlous state of Glasgow’s heritage architecture; should a fire break out, work must be done to restore Union Street and shore up the city’s older buildings. But it is also representative of the decay of the environments, the communities that used to thrive and were a great social good. In the midst of the rebuilding, why not try to get them back? People Make Glasgow. They should make it nice.
“Glasgow. Union Street. ‘Black car’” by Daniel Naczk is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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The Union Street Fire: A Symbol of Britain’s Decline
At the corner of Glasgow’s Union Street and Gordon Street is the smouldering rubble of a Victorian building. A fire started in a vape shop last Sunday and spread to the rest of the building neighbouring Glasgow Central Station, most of which collapsed by the evening and was doused in water for days after.
I admit, the sight of a vape shop spawning a fire that collapses a building erected in 1851 feels like quite the pertinent metaphor for the state of things in Britain. The derelict high street is an often-lamented sight, dirty, deserted, populated only by vape shops, barbershops, and the occasional kebab house. This abandonment is, of course, economically damaging – fewer and lower wages, economic stagnation. But the nothing-works-everything-is-dying pessimism of this country comes from living somewhere where nothing works, and everything is dying. It’s despiriting. So when a blaze beginning in what remains of the high street across Britain collapses a B-listed building, it seems pretty instructive.
The Union Street fire is far from isolated in terms of the collapse of the city’s grandeur. Most obviously, the Glasgow School of Art suffered two fires (in 2014 and 2018) and remains a husk. Meanwhile, Glasgow is beset by endless complaints about its dirtiness as a city. Go onto Google, type in “why is Glasgow so dirty now,” and meet a barrage of lamentations for the state of the city, articles of activism and complaint and even a Reddit post excoriating litterers (using words I won’t venture to repeat). My Glaswegian dad has even taken to saying when he visits that Edinburgh’s relative cleanliness makes it the better city, which to my mind constitutes the biggest change-of-direction since Dylan went electric.
To live in an area where the prevailing decoration is landfill will not inspire pride in or love of your community. The movement away from the two established parties towards those offering change on the Left and Right is borne of disaffection for our surroundings. The cleanliness of your local area, as the most tangible evidence of the state of things, holds great sway over your opinion of the state of things.
Rory Olcayto argues that many Glaswegian senior officials believe they have to choose between making social change and looking after the city’s architecture. In fact, looking after the buildings and what’s around them – renovating when necessary, making unused buildings residential to bring people into an area, getting rid of rubbish – will make social change, making new communities, ensuring they’re welcoming.
First Minister John Swinney has assured that support for the inevitable costs of the fire will be forthcoming. This fire has highlighted the parlous state of Glasgow’s heritage architecture; should a fire break out, work must be done to restore Union Street and shore up the city’s older buildings. But it is also representative of the decay of the environments, the communities that used to thrive and were a great social good. In the midst of the rebuilding, why not try to get them back? People Make Glasgow. They should make it nice.
“Glasgow. Union Street. ‘Black car’” by Daniel Naczk is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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