Want to see Glasgow’s world-famous architecture up close and personal? Well now there’s an app for it.
The world-renowned Charles Rennie Mackintosh has been dragged into the 21st century, which means visitors to the city can take part in a trial using special barcodes to download architectural tours direct to their Blackberries, iPhones and other mobiles.
It is thought to be the first time in the UK the technology has been used like this, and three walking tours created by the Mackintosh Heritage Group will help visitors and enthusiasts to discover works by Charles Rennie Mackintosh as well as Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson and a host of other leading architects who put their stamp on Scotland’s largest city.
The new venture coincides with Mackintosh’s 142nd birthday today.
Together the tours are a reminder of why Glasgow was once described by poet John Betjeman as “the finest Victorian city in the world.”
The ‘Second City’ tour, from Central Station to the City Chambers and the Necropolis, looks at some of the city centre’s finest examples of Victorian and Edwardian commercial architecture.
The ‘Glasgow Style and Modernity’ tour, from Central Station to the School of Art, focuses on the buildings created by Mackintosh and his contemporaries around 1900.
The third tour focuses on the West End, from Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum to Glasgow University and Great Western Terrace, and on the residential suburbs that took shape as prosperous Glasgow expanded during the long Victorian era.
The list of buildings covered by the three tours include Ca’ D’oro on Union Street, designed by Mackintosh’s future employer James Honeyman, Thomson’s nearby Egyptian Halls, the Gallery of Modern Art, the former Glasgow Savings Bank in Ingram Street and Thomson’s St Vincent Street church.
Charing Cross Mansions, the Mitchell Library, Glasgow School of Art, the Botanic Gardens, Kibble Palace, Kirklee Terrace and even a pub – the Griffin Bar, on the corner of Bath Street – also feature.
The tours, which each last around one and a half hours, have been created with the help of Gavin Stamp, writer and architectural historian.
They are accessed by using a QR (Quick Response) code through the camera of a mobile phone.
The two-dimensional barcodes are capable of holding information in a square image using black and white dots.
The codes are displayed on cards which are being distributed to visitors to the Mackintosh attractions and other key tourist spots
Phone owners point at the image with software on their phone. This decodes the pattern and automatically downloads their choice of tour as a portable document.
More than 450 handsets can use QR, including those made by Nokia and Samsung. If your phone does not have a barcode reader, you can get one by texting i-nigma to 07797 882325.
A link will be sent direct to your phone – you simply download the software and install it on your phone.
If visitors don’t have a compatible phone, they can print off the tours in advance from www.glasgowmackintosh.com and consult the print-outs while on the tour.
The Mackintosh Heritage Group see the downloadable tours as a way of getting people more interested in Glasgow’s diverse architecture.
Stuart Robertson, chairman of the group, said: “People are often unaware of the history and the artistry that surrounds them.
“By delivering these tours directly into people’s hands we can help them discover the legacy of Mackintosh and other great Glasgow architects.”
“We’ve always seen Mackintosh as a vehicle to bring in other architects and other details of the city.
“It’s a bit like Gaudi and Barcelona – there are a lot of other architects of the time and round that period who were doing work that maybe did not get the same publicity.”
The group is excited to be able to use modern technology to draw attention to one of the city’s oldest and most venerable attractions. But more may be on the way.
“We could have at one stage an MP3 downloadable version so that there is a narration of some description that people can listen to on their phone or iPod or what have you.
“It’s something that we think would be very beneficial,” added Mr Robertson.
FACT FILE
CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH
- Mackintosh was born in Glasgow on June 7, 1868.
- After being apprenticed to a local architect he switched, in 1889, to the city practice of Honeyman and Keppie.
- His early designs included the Glasgow Herald Building (1894) and Martyr’s Public School (1895).
- In 1896 came his most substantial commission, for a new building for the Glasgow School of Art.
- Other works included The Hill House in Helensburgh (1904), and tea-rooms interiors for Glasgow businesswoman Catherine Cranston.
- He moved to the South of France in 1923, and he spent his final years painting.
- He died in London on December 10, 1928.
ALEXANDER ‘GREEK’ THOMSON
- He was born in Balfron, Stirlingshire, on April 9, 1817.
- He originally trained as a lawyer’s clerk then as an architectural apprentice.
- His increasingly distinctive style left its mark on the city. To many today he remains Scotland’s finest Victorian architect.
- Among his surviving works are the Buck’s Head Building in Argyle Street, the Egyptian Halls in Union Street and the Grecian Chambers in Sauchiehall Street.
- Thomson died in his Strathbungo home on March 22, 1875.
- Source: www.greekthomson.com
