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


Sonny

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Couple more wee shots of PICTURE 14 and some info .....

'St Matthew's Church of the Nazarene in Gordon Street was originally known as St George's East. It was built in 1905-1907 in a mix of Gothic and Art Nouveau styles by Paisley architect W D McLennan, who was a member of the congregation. The church is regarded by many as Scotland's most significant Art Nouveau church. McLennan originally intended the design to include a massive spire but it was decided late in 1907 to abandon this costly embellishment. '

Edited to add: Found an image taken inside the Church. Looks impressive.

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Edited by Sonny
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I doubt if anyone doesnt recognise this building. It may have changed use over the last decade but I would imagine most most people would still refer to it for its earlier function .....

PICTURE 15

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Edited by Sonny
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bluto's map is from before it was built, if you look you'll see the PO further up Gilmour Street towards the Cross. Certainly looks like a goods yard on the map.

Edited by salmonbuddie
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Was christened and married in St George's East now St Matthew's. Was also in the St George's East Scouts for a number of years

The "pub" used to be the General Post Office and was a huge rambling place with the goods yard behind. Often used to see the Scammell units coming out with their trailers of goods to do the deliveries

Happy Days !!!!

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Aye, that pub is a stoatir! rolleyes.gif

Originally a railway goods yard.

(looking at this map )

bluto's map is from before it was built, if you look you'll see the PO further up Gilmour Street towards the Cross. Certainly looks like a goods yard on the map.

Not disputing that.Only saying P.O. was built on the square in front of goods yard, eventually.So that makes it behind the P.O.that was eventually built there. That became that stoatir of a pub.

Edited by pod
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PICTURE 15 The Old Paisley Post Office ...

'The former post office building is on the west side of the square. Built of red sandstone, it was designed by W W Robertson, and opened in 1893. In 1912 an extension in the Glasgow Baronial style by W T Oldrieve doubled its size.' B Listed. Great looking building.

Today's may be less obvious.....

PICTURE 16

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Edited by Sonny
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Love your wee story Bluto :)

For a brief period I too lived in one of these flats and thought they were great if a bit more run down looking than they are now. Paisley has/had many building that had archways through to the back of them. A couple more will appear in this series.

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My uncle and aunt lived in a room and kitchen just on the left through those gates, within the arch. That used to be the entrance to a massive Co-operative bakeries, which were set behind the flats/tenements.

I posted on here... Decades ago.... of how the signs on both sides of the arch always perplexed me as a wean.

They said: DESALDOW

"What could that possibly mean?"' I wondered...

It was written vertically and it took me years to realise that it was intended to be two words slightly offset, not one word.

And was for the drivers of the big bread vans that had to squeeze through there.

Dead slow... D e s a l d o w

It was also the home of the co operative Funeral Directors i Believe ?

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My uncle and aunt lived in a room and kitchen just on the left through those gates, within the arch.

For a brief period I too lived in one of these flats.

It was also the home of the co operative Funeral Directors i Believe ?

One of you smartypants want to actually tell me where it is?

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It's just a great building, with its swoops and curls and curves, and deceptively differing heights and the wrought ironwork and the glass... and I could go on. smile.png

And in answer to sonny's original query about how often do you pass it and not notice? Er... I always notice it. Shame that like the fire station it's kinda out on a limb. Wonder what size of congregation it gets these days? So many of the Buddies it was built to serve have gone, along with the houses they inhabited.

Must be hard to sustain.

About 18months ago I was staying in The Watermill for a weekend and there happened to be a wedding in the church about lunchtime on the Saturday. It looked a fairly high class affair and nearly all the men were in kilts and there were a few pipers. It was nice to see the guests out in the sunshine getting photographs taken. It was though a bit like being in the middle of a busy roundabout.

When I got back to the hotel about midnight it turned out I was about the only resident who hadn't been to the wedding and they were all going great guns, the pipers giving it laldy. I needed another drink like I needed a hole in the head but what does a guy do? I joined in and had a ball. Best wedding I was ever at plus I missed the boring bits. Some of the guests were members of the church so I think it's in safe hands.

I couldn't place the name St.Matthews but I see now it changed its name from St.George's East. That brought it all back.

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I thought they were based in the huge building to the left at the end of these tenements and before the Regal, where their vehicles were stored/serviced? Sanny Foulds worked there with them. (Mighty Eighth BB captain.)

Fwiw... The uncle mentioned above went on to become an undertaker - with Goudie's.

I recognised it instantly. Five years in Camphill meant that I quite often passed it a couple of times a day. It was a busy,busy street every day in the week. I remember Sanny but didn't know he worked in there. A friend of mine Frankie Clark (Mighty Fourth BB) worked in the funeral parlour for a while after he left school. I've seen Frankie's photo in here somewhere. He was the singer in the Kleevers. He used to tell us some real horror stories about the goings on in the parlour. He lives in Inverary now. As I recall, I thought the funeral parlour was through the arch too, but I'm not sure.

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