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Paisley - My Pics Of Old Or Unusual Buildings Or Places Of Interest.


Sonny

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There's so many good building, like the Fire House, which are just lying empty, but they're building modern flats not far from the Abbey. Seems a bit daft to me.

Ok, the council buildings were your classic 60's concrete monstrosity, but shouldn't they be trying to bring the old buildings back into use before building more?

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There's so many good building, like the Fire House, which are just lying empty, but they're building modern flats not far from the Abbey. Seems a bit daft to me.

Ok, the council buildings were your classic 60's concrete monstrosity, but shouldn't they be trying to bring the old buildings back into use before building more?

Couldnt agree more ricardo. I'll be showing plenty of brilliant old building that are empty that could be converted into flats and some that have so it proves that it can be done. There was some comment on this a few pages back about how the Council should help developers bring back these great old buildings into modern use before they start on new developments.

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Did Gordon street always pass round both sides of it? It always seems so cut off from everything to me, like it's stuck on a traffic island.

Lovely looking building mind you, can't imagine it as a fire station considering what they all look like now.

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Did Gordon street always pass round both sides of it? It always seems so cut off from everything to me, like it's stuck on a traffic island.

Lovely looking building mind you, can't imagine it as a fire station considering what they all look like now.

A good question - certainly for as long as I can remember although I do think I remember at least one side of it being cobbled in the 70s?

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Thanks Bluto - every day is a school day around here!

The new bridge would be Mill Street yes? I'm pretty sure I've heard my dad mention in the past that they took longer to build that bridge that the did the Forth crossing - I'm not sure if this is just how he felt about it at the time since my gran's side of the family stayed in the Anchor Buildings it maybe caused him more disruption than others (and he is often prone to exaggeration).

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Only the north part of what you're considering as Gordon Street existed. There were tenements across from the chippy and the entrance to what was the bus station. You can see the join still, on the causeyside street buildings.

All ripped down to allow for the new bridge to take traffic through to the new ring road, dual carriageway of Canal street.

George street used to be the main thoroughfare, discharging traffic including buses via Johnson street across the old (sole) bridge to Cotton street, which used to be a sort of terminus for all westbound buses.

Only Glasgow buses used to go along wellmeadow and the high street.

So.. The fire station did have Gordon street behind it, but it was hardly used. It was not the isolated building (along with the magnificent art deco maclennan kirk) that it is now.

My faither's cousin was firemaster, till he moved to Gullane to become Fire Training Officer for Scotland. They had a nice (we thought stunning/amazing) flat with an indoors lavvie in there!

I was going to post something similar but you have done it very eloquently, Bluto. Like a lot of us I hate to see it abandoned as it is and I hope it gets the attention it deserves.

I never knew that was the name for the church. Strange name.

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I was going to post something similar but you have done it very eloquently, Bluto. Like a lot of us I hate to see it abandoned as it is and I hope it gets the attention it deserves.

I never knew that was the name for the church. Strange name.

McLennan was the architect who designed it Rick - the church itself is called St Matthews.

Edit: also one of Paisley A Listed buildings and considered to be one of Scotland's finest Art Nouveau churches.

Edited by Eddy
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Does anyone remember "syncopating Sanny" doing a marathon on the piano at Smithhills Street in the 1950's. I think he did it in the old theatre. When you were at the cross you could hear him playing. He played night and day for several days.

Brilliant smile.png I seem to remember that as you turned left from the cross into Smithills that there was a square grassy area right on the corner where New Look is now , and the theatre was next to it , is that correct?

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Only the north part of what you're considering as Gordon Street existed. There were tenements across from the chippy and the entrance to what was the bus station. You can see the join still, on the causeyside street buildings.

All ripped down to allow for the new bridge to take traffic through to the new ring road, dual carriageway of Canal street.

George street used to be the main thoroughfare, discharging traffic including buses via Johnson street across the old (sole) bridge to Cotton street, which used to be a sort of terminus for all westbound buses.

Only Glasgow buses used to go along wellmeadow and the high street.

So.. The fire station did have Gordon street behind it, but it was hardly used. It was not the isolated building (along with the magnificent art deco maclennan kirk) that it is now.

My faither's cousin was firemaster, till he moved to Gullane to become Fire Training Officer for Scotland. They had a nice (we thought stunning/amazing) flat with an indoors lavvie in there!

If you have Google Earth on the computer (you can download it) it has a feature where you can turn back the time of the aerial maps to 1945. This shows the layout well.

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The inside of St Matthews is possibly even more spectacular than the outside... Again, access isn't an issue Sonny, if your ever looking for inside pics smile.png

Thanks KTF. I have a couple more outdoor shots I'll put up later but I heard the inside was amazing and sometime I would like to take some inside shots. I'll add it to the list and contact you again later so we can make arrangements for all these internal shots as I am sure you have access to loads of places. You're not a member of a secret society are you? smile.png

Edited by Sonny
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Does anyone remember "syncopating Sanny" doing a marathon on the piano at Smithhills Street in the 1950's. I think he did it in the old theatre. When you were at the cross you could hear him playing. He played night and day for several days.

Yes, my mother took me into the old theatre to see him. There were only a few dozen people in and it was a really kind of eerie atmosphere. When we were there he began to collapse and a couple of attendants rushed to help him. They closed the curtains for a couple of minutes but he kept playing the piano with one hand and when they opened the curtains again he was propped up on a kind of chaise longue playing away. From memory he played for a whole week. When he almost collapsed it nearly frightened the life out of me but later I was told he did that regularly for the publicity.

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Thanks FTF. I have a couple more outdoor shots I'll put up later but I heard the inside was amazing and sometime I would like to take some inside shots. I'll add it to the list and contact you again later so we can make arrangements for all these internal shots as I am sure you have access to loads of places. You're not a member of a secret society are you? smile.png

Now there's a thought Sonny - once you've run out of these 'outside' shots, you can do it all over again with inside ones and we can guess where they are - this could keep you busy for years to come tongue.png

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Now there's a thought Sonny - once you've run out of these 'outside' shots, you can do it all over again with inside ones and we can guess where they are - this could keep you busy for years to come tongue.png



The way things are going Eddy I will be busy with outside shots for years to come - there are just so many interesting buildings and places in Paisley.

When you consider the 'town' has been here since 600 AD when St Mirin built a church and the USA wasnt even a twinkle in anyone's eye for another 1,200 years then there are a lot of places of interest. Many are due to the golden days of Paisley (and I dont mean Robertsons smile.png ) when the rich benefactors of Coats and Clark gave so many great buildings to the people of Paisley and built many fine buildings for their own use. And the other rich benefactors who for example built and gifted the Russell Institute and the JNI to name but two, to the people of Paisley. Our heritage is amazing and pretty well ignored outwith Paisley and even within the town by its own inhabitants. Time to bring it alive again and I hope some of these photos rekindle some interest. Edited by Sonny
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The way things are going Eddy I will be busy with outside shots for years to come - there are just so many interesting buildings and places in Paisley.

Hopefully they'll be making an appearance but my favourites are the mad european looking hooses on the south side - think they were linked to Brown + Poulson?

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