This trail was inspired by a friend, Christina Milarvie Quarrell, a writer and poet, who is deeply involved in the campaign to erect a statue to commemorate Benny Lynch. Christina suggested I go “Walking Wae Benny” around Benny Lynch’s Gorbals, as she knew of some murals in the area.
As the area is on my local bus route into the city it was an easy one for me, but anyone wishing to start from the City Centre it is easy to find and only about 1½km from George Square to the Citizens Theatre which is near to my start and finish points.
As usual, I have included an interactive map showing the route taken. it can be found here
Christina suggested I start at the ‘Crossroads at the Barn’ youth centre in Abbotsford Place, off I wandered and met Katy and some really nice people who were only too happy to let me snap away. I found an interesting set of murals created mainly by EJEK with input from the clients of the centre.
Leaving the Barn, I turned into Cumberland Street and made my way to Crown Street where the hoardings on a large building site provided more of EJEK’s work and work by the local young people, this included EJEKK’s mural used as a header on this page.
I continued along Crown Street and made my way to Ballater Street via Old Rutherglen Road and Commercial Road, continuing South East along towards the Simon Community Scotland building, to see a specially-commissioned mural, by the artist, EJEK.
I then retraced my steps back along Ballater Street and continued to its corner with St Luke’s Place, near the entrance to the Premier Inn. I quickly discovered that this was an EJEK day, as the Gorbal’s Vampire mural, which is based on real-life events at the Southern Necropolis in 1954, when hundreds of primary school kids invaded the cemetery looking for a vampire with iron teeth, who they blamed for killing and eating two young boys, was another created by him.
Back onto Gorbals Street, I passed the Citizen Theatre and turned into Cleland Street to capture, some photographs of wall art I had seen in passing. This work is part of a project consisting of four black and white, five-metre-high panels, one in each of the four alcoves on the North side of Cleland Street underpass, while across the road on the South side of the underpass, three weathered steel panels carry quotations in relief that reflect each of the historic figures. I have combined the panels and relevant quotations together.
From the website about this project, it was stated that:
“The artwork was delivered with support from WAVEparticle as part of the award-winning Art & Living: Laurieston art strategy for the area, which is being delivered in partnership with New Gorbals Housing Association and Urban Union.”
Update 17/12/2018
I popped into the Barn today to see Danny McDermott’s (AKA EJEK) tribute to comic genius Stan Lee with his representation of his greatest characters, it features 22 superheroes including Spiderman, Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk and The X-Men. As in my previous visit, Katy at the Barn was very welcoming and I enjoyed a good blether with a great cup of coffee.
A cultural artefact called The Glasgow Venus, created by Luis MaGill an over 60s Scotish artist, residing in Glasgow’s Southside can be spotted in different locations in the Southside.
As part of the campaign to erect a statue to commemorate Gorbals legend, Benny Lynch, Christina wrote a song called “Walkin’ Wae Benny” a YouTube video of the song can be heard here
Jim's travels 