Glasgow - Part 3

We start of Part 3 of our exploration of Glasgow's clocks in the morning rain. The first stop is St Enoch Square, and the delightful building that was constructed for the underground railway. It was built in 1896, as evidenced by the date underneath the clock.

The building has now, unfortunately, been given over to retail use which adds a layer of vulgarity, but it still retains its overall charm. And most importantly for this blog, the clock is well-maintained and keeps good time.

Keeping with the transport theme, the next stop is Glasgow Central railway station just a little further west on Argyle Street.

This is a nice clear, keeping good time clock over the busy concourse. It is a nice feature, but you do wonder how many people use it to tell the time when the digital indicator boards are so close by. At least it is indoors, so I didn't have to get wet taking the photograph (although trying not to be bowled over by the tidal wave of commuters was a different matter).

We are on a roll with transport-related clocks, so a quick change of mode and a move northwards to Buchanan Bus Station. Outside is the "running man" clock, a tall sculpture in the shape of two legs with a cuboid clock on top. Full marks for the artistic intention, but a big fat zero for having a clock that doesn't work, especially as knowing the right time would be useful if you were running for a bus. Incidentally, the sculpture is running away from, and not to, the bus station - I am not sure if there is any deep message behind this (probably not - it's more likely to be a planning regulation thing).

Inside the bus station is a different matter altogether. One end wall of the concourse has this enormous clock.

This is one of my favourite clocks in the city, as the size and simplicity of design makes it easy to read, and it shows the correct time. Although not the most beautiful of clocks, it serves it purpose perfectly and fits in well with its surroundings.

The next clock moves away from the direct transport theme, but there is still a link. This is H Samuel jewellers in the St Enoch centre. The link is not that you are transported away into a land of gold, silver and diamonds, but that the shopping mall is on the site of the old St Enoch railway station, demolished in 1977. As shopping malls go this is not too awful, but I waited until the security guards moved on before taking the picture as they can get quite funny about these things.

Back outside to the grey skies of Glasgow, and on to St Vincent Place. This is a rather unusual arrangement of two clock faces on the frontage - normally there would be either a single face, or two faces back-to-back at right angles to the main building. I have no idea why this particular design was chosen.

Whatever the reason for the design, the time in this street seems to be permanently stuck at 9.52.

Ah, blue skies again! This is the St Paul's building of the University of Strathclyde, on the junction of John Street and Martha Street.

And finally, for this part of the Glasgow jaunt, to the Holiday Inn on West Nile Street / Renfrew Street.

A relatively small clock high up on the West Nile Street frontage.

But things are much worse on the Renfrew Street side, where the clock has disappeared altogether: