I created my first web site in 2001 to illustrate the Carnegie Libraries of Scotland after I became aware of their charm when I carried out surveys of the Glasgow libraries in 1985.
I have built up a collection of Carnegie memorabilia, which formed the basis of my Landmarks of Literacy exhibition.

                     
Having caught the internet bug, I developed my second website which features buildings on the south side of Glasgow which can be visited from stations on the Cathcart Circle railway line, Cathcart Circle Architecture.
I live in Cathcart, and have a keen interest in the architectural heritage which can be uncovered in the older districts of Glasgow's south side.

My most ambitious project to date is Glasgow and Edinburgh -Scottish City Architecture , which is dedicated to the wonderful range of buildings to be seen in Scotland's two largest cities.
I began the project with a few famous Glasgow landmarks which gradually grew into enough material for a few web pages. When I started to add drawings of Edinburgh from my regular trips through to the capital, I suddenly found that I had a full sized web site on my hands.

The Dictionary of Scottish Architects provides an extensive database of biographical information and full lists of works for all architects known to have worked in Scotland during the period 1840-1940.

The Scottish Assessors Association maintain a constantly updated portal, allowing free access to information from the Valuation Rolls for Scotland.
The portal's database will assist you in identifying owners and occupiers of all non-residential properties in Scotland. It also provides Council Tax valuation bands for all houses in the country.

When Im sifting through the net searching for the best architecture sites, I often start with Archiseek which has developed many interesting pages covering lots of different countries. This site also features some very lively discussion forums.

Intute is an extensive information hub which provides searchable access to a collection of quality internet resources for the arts and creative industries.
Assessments are carried out by subject specialists, who choose sites for their relevance to further and higher education and usefulness for academic research.

Sapling.info is an Architecture, Planning & Landscape Information Gateway. It is an impressive source of relevant web links, featuring over 900 reviewed websites covering architecture, planning and landscape related themes. It also contains events listings, news headlines, bookstore and forums.

Rampant Scotland features an comprehensive Scottish web directory.
The site also contains lots of web pages covering different aspects of Scotland and the Scots.

Glasgow City of Sculpture is a valuable source of information regarding the varied sculptural compositions that grace many of Glasgow's buildings.
It also contains detailed biographical information about many of the sculptors and architects featured in my sites.

Glasgow's Merchant City gives details of the Merchant City Townscape Heritage Initiative which has a five year grants programme aimed at regenerating the historic heart of Glasgow. The architecture in this district is featured in my own Merchant City page.

Glasgow City Heritage Trust is an independent charitable company, supported by Glasgow City Council and Historic Scotland.
The Trust is responsible for distributing grants to assist in the repair, enhancement and conservation of the city's historic architecture.
The Trust also provides help and advice to owners of historic buildings in the city.

Hidden Glasgow hosts some very active discussion forums for people with an interest in the lesser known aspects of Glasgow. The forums feature interesting photographs of Glasgow's buildings and structures and are constantly evolving into archives of the unusual.

Urban Glasgow is a useful resource for anyone interested in the on-going exploration of Glasgow's heritage. The forums include contributions regarding various categories of buildings, such as churches and city centre blocks.

The Glasgow Guide website contains a wealth of valuable information about the city, including images, maps, games, quizzes, as well as up-to-date news and weather reports. The site also provides a comprehensive listing of pubs, clubs, restaurants, hotels, museums, art galleries, cinemas, and places to visit in Glasgow. In addition there's a discussion board and a web link directory of local sites.

The Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland site details the work of its members in promoting historical architecture. The society has a large programme of lectures, tours and other events throughout Scotland.

The Glasgow Digital Library project has created and collected lots of useful material about Glasgow.
It also maintains and organises links to information about the city which can be found elsewhere on the Internet.

Project Gutenberg contains the web's largest single collection of free electronic books.
An on-line worldwide library of books which are now out of copyright.

The Virtual Mitchell project has digitised many of the old photographs held by the City Archives and the Mitchell Library in Glasgow.

In the 1920's and 1930's the City Assessor's Department employed a photographer to maintain pictorial records of commercial properties to assist the surveyors in their task of valuation.
Many of these photographs, mostly of shop fronts, were gifted to the City Archives and can now be viewed on the Virtual Mitchell site.
In those days the City Assessor made significant valuation differences to account for the quality of shop fronts and corner display windows. This happens to a much lesser extent today in the era of shopping malls and uniformity of style.
Assessors staff are still finding old photographs in the files, which are passed on to the City Archives for safekeeping.

The Glasgow Cinemas website has been developed by Stuart Neville to become the definitive source of information about these interesting 20th century buildings. Many of the cinemas, which were beloved by Glaswegians in the heyday of the movies, have since disappeared.

Stuart is also behind Glasgow Pictures which features his photographs from the 1970's. The topics covered include the St Enoch Station & Hotel as well as the Subway and snapshots of various districts in the city.

Peter Stubbs has a very informative site featuring Victorian photographs and engravings of Edinburgh buildings.
Edinphoto provides historic details of Edinburgh's earliest professional photographers and also features many of Peter's own photographs of buildings and landscapes.

Glenn A Walsh of Pittsburgh has a site with lots of links to Carnegie Libraries in the United States such as North America's first at Braddock, Pennsylvania (right).
History of Andrew Carnegie and Carnegie Libraries

Glenn, who has a passion for preserving the Pennsylvania libraries as historic monuments, has also added links to lots of other Carnegie related sites throughout the world.

In August 2002, the 68th General Conference of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions IFLA took place in my home town, Glasgow.
The conference featured a "Carnegie Librarians Worldmeet" with a lounge dedicated to Carnegie librarians to discuss and exchange information about their buildings.
A highlight of the event was the Carnegie Workshop & Library Visit, which took place in Dunfermline on 22nd August. The guest speaker at the workshop was architect Jeffrey Scherer, whose topic was "Carnegie Libraries: Their Design and Adaptation". Jeff, who is a partner with Meyer, Scherer and Rockcastle in Minneapolis, has been involved in many Carnegie library refurbishments in the United States.

My architectural explorations on the web were all arranged by building type and location rather than by individual architects. As a tribute to one of Scotland's greatest architects, I decided to put all my illustrations of Alexander Thomson's Glasgow works in a specially dedicated Alexander Greek Thomson page. A great many of his buildings have survived comprehensive redevelopment thanks to the gradual recognition of Greek Thomson as an architect of international stature.

There is also lots of information about the man and his architecture at the Alexander Thomson Society website. The society is based in a Thomson building in Walmer Crescent in Glasgow's south side. They organise site visits and lectures and produce regular newletters for its members.

During the summer of 2007, my Thomson meets Mackintosh exhibition was on display at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow.
The exhibition allowed me to show my drawings of the buildings of Alexander Thomson and Charles Rennie Mackintosh, (below) for the first time. My Charles Rennie Mackintosh Photograph Album is being developed as a photo study of his best known architectural works.

 

I have also created a dedicated Charles Rennie Mackintosh page which brings all my drawings of Glasgow's other architectural hero and his buildings together in one place. His early 20th century modernism has left a remarkable legacy to the city in the fields of both architecture and design.
Mackintosh's Glasgow buildings were designed when he was in his twenties and thirties. He then moved on to bring his highly original imagination into the fields of art and design.
My Charles Rennie Mackintosh Photograph Album is being developed as a photo study of his best known architectural works.

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Site created and maintained by Gerry Blaikie
All original artwork and text Copyright© G.Blaikie 2002-2008.

Unauthorised reproduction of any image on this website is not permitted.