Hello there, if anyone is still reading this blog, I’ll start with an apology for being so quiet these last months. I simply took on a bunch of extra work and with other responsibilities – volunteer and home, the blog and a whole lot of other things were squeezed out. I’ll try to get back on the horse, so to speak, by sharing briefly about this event we attended last night.
The city of Glasgow operates a few museums (all free and wonderful for anyone tempted to visit!). We heard about an event where they would show some of the historical ceramic tiles they have in their archive.
As D. and I looked for an apartment, we were in many older Victorian apartment buildings that had beautiful common entryways and stairwells lined with tiles. Locally, these are called “the close”, as mentioned in my previous blog on apartment hunting.
To glimpse how lovely these can be, here’s an article from a local news source that shows some really gorgeous examples of tiled entryways still in existence. Unfortunately, we didn’t move into one of those buildings, though I would have loved to do so.
Last night, we got to see a a few really beautiful tiles from shops, factories, and apartment buildings around Glasgow. The city’s collection of over 3,000 tiles were salvaged as buildings were torn down or “improved”. We also learned that tile became so popular during the Victorian era (just as Glasgow was booming) as they were very keen on improving health and hygiene and tiles were considered sanitary and easy to clean.
Here are some pictures of the tiles we saw (sorry for the glare on some of the pictures).
I think it’s fantastic that the Victorians thought to make common spaces, factories, and shops not only hygienic, but beautiful and colorful too. I hope you enjoyed this tour of these special remnants of Glasgow’s history.
Beautiful art work. Thank you for sharing!