Glasgow's immortal stories

The Scottish Mask & Puppet Centre, for example. The city's oldest surviving railway station still in operation. The Tall Ship, moored on the Clyde... and Glasgow Crematorium.

It may have an unavoidable association with sombre occasions, but the crematorium, in the extensive grounds of the Western Necropolis in Maryhill, has a serene air - and it contains a fascinating slice of Glasgow history within its 119-year-old revival-Gothic walls.

There are, for example, dozens of brass plaques, commemorating many of the thousands of people who have been cremated here, including a family who perished during the Clydeside Blitz of 1941.

This is also the place where Keir Hardie, the first Labour MP and the first leader of the Labour party, was cremated, a century ago next year.

And in one curtained-off part of the crematorium, beneath a cupola, you will come across level upon level of poignant little wooden boxes containing people's ashes. There are hundreds of them.

Fascinating? Most definitely.

David McVicar, immediate past chairman of the Scottish Cremation Society, said: "For a lot of people, it is a novel approach for a crematorium to do something like this.

"It will be an interesting idea to see round a place that people normally think of as somewhere to when something sad has happened.

"This was the first crematorium in Scotland.

"The building is very heavily listed, which means you can't do anything to it without Historic Scotland's agreement."

The crematorium was the result of a private meeting in Glasgow in August 1888 involving two doctors, a sanitation engineer, and an architect.

This was a time, in the late Victorian era, when burial had come to be seen, in Mr McVicar's words, as "unhealthy."

The four men at that first meeting shared the view that burial was not just expensive - it also had "dangerous effects" on public health in overcrowded Glasgow.

"'Unhealthy' is a strange word to use, but it is a fact, and it led to the idea of cremation being discussed as an alternative," says Mr McVicar.

"There were already one or two crematoria down south, but this was the very first to be opened up here.

"It obviously met with some difficulties in trying to persuade people that cremation was a good idea."

The Glasgow meeting led to the birth, in 1890, of the Scottish Burial Reform and Cremation Society. But cremation remained an awkward subject for discussion - it was just too distressing to talk about.

One man who did approve of the idea, however, was Keir Hardie. He became one of the society's original shareholders by handing over a crumpled pound note to John Mann, the society's first honorary secretary.

The distinctive design of the Glasgow crematorium was the work of James Chalmers, a Glasgow architect who was an associate of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

The first cremation was in April 1895, but Glasgow people were still slow to latch on to the idea.

In its first decade, the crematorium carried out only 191 cremations. Even 30 years later, the annual figure had increased to just 346.

But by the late 1940s, when the crematorium had increased in size, the idea of cremation had become widely accepted.

Today, with most people across Britain opting for cremation over burial, Glasgow Crematorium has an average of 1500 cremations every year.

"That figure will probably increase from now on," says Mr McVicar, "because we have just installed the very latest in cremation equipment."

Now it is preparing itself for its first Doors Open weekend, on September 20-21.

Anecdotal guided tours, each lasting one hour, will be offered on both days, and will include parts of the building the public never see.

There will even be a "theatrical promenade" staged by the Tram Direct Theatre Company. Lucille Furie, manager of the Scottish Cremation Society, says: "The actors will be doing a sketch that sheds light on how the cremation movement was born."

She and Mr McVicar both say one aim of the weekend's activities will be is to dispel some of the "myths and fears" surrounding cremation.

Together, they take the Evening Times on a tour of the crematorium. It is, Ms Furie points out, open every day except Good Friday, Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

We take time to read some of the substantial array of memorial brass plaques. They go back many decades.

Among those that catch the eye is the large plaque commemorating the Hutton family, who were killed "by enemy action" during the Blitz on March 13, 1941.

Outside, in the bright autumn sunshine, the Wall And Garden Of Remembrance is a restful place. It includes a plaque dedicated to several dozen Glasgow servicemen who gave their lives in the Second World War.

They come from all parts of the country's war effort - from the Royal Artillery, the RAF, the Royal Navy, and even the 6th City of Glasgow Battalion Home Guard.

The Garden Of Reflection, a separate area with a stone focal-point, is where ashes are scattered.

Despite all its associations, then, the crematorium is an intriguing place. Visit it for yourself and see why it is known as the place where "the ashes rest among the angels."