Glasgow Celebrates its Built Heritage in Doors Open Day Festival

This fantastic event is Glasgow's way of celebrating its buildings, its streets, its parks and its people.

From Monday, September 15th to Friday 19th the festival hosts walks, talks, seminars, and exhibitions. Then, on the weekend from Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon more than 135 extraordinary buildings to visit are opened for free for the public to go visit and snoop around.

Some of the seminars provided include some by top directors of important Scottish trusts. Last night Liz Davison, project director of the Merchant City Heritage Initiative, discussed at a seminar evening held at the Glasgow City Heritage Trust, the background and aims of the three year grants project. She also looked at its achievements and progress to date, and what challenges the future holds.

The project is grants-based operated by the Townscape Heritage Initiative, partly funded by Lottery Fund, and partly by the City of Glasgow Council as well as the Scottish Enterprise. It is based on providing grants for small private owners of important heritage buildings in the heart of the city. The work done by the trust is basically regenerating what is most likely to be adding noise to the aesthetic cohesion in the city; this includes shop fronts, façades, signs, paving, and giving more attention to historical architectural details. By preserving the already existing built heritage of some of the most important buildings in the city – some of which are A-listed even in the realm of the UK- the initiative is hoping to restore a sense of place and character, to sometimes forgotten, sometimes abandoned or in dire conditions Scottish heritage symbols.





Also last night Stephen Mullen from the Glasgow Building Preservation Trust presented a fasciating lecture which examined Glasgow's mercantile past from 1660 onwards, with links to tobacco,salvery, and the abolition movemnet and the city's urban environment.

The event is surely not to be missed – especially if you’re nosy enough, and wanting to know where all the Scottish millions are going?!!:D Be sure to visit the event website for more information. See you there!