Glasgow City Heritage Trust gathered to unveil a new map of the city, providing a bird’s eye view of Glasgow and showing changes over the past 150 years.
Commissioned as part of the Trust’s Gallus Glasgow project, the map provides a contemporary, detailed snapshot of the city in 2022. Looking north from the Southside of the Clyde, it brings the 1864 Thomas Sulman ‘Bird’s Eye View’ version to life.
Artist Will Knight spent the last ten years observing, recording and interpreting Glasgow’s built environment. Each subject was drawn by hand, and takes the original work into modern day.
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Speaking on the map, Will said: “Sulman’s drawing is of a city in time, recorded with the same forensic detail and accuracy that my work seeks to achieve.
“His drawing hums with life, the urban stage set and props dealt with carefully and artfully with the same hand. The buildings and streets between them recognisable not just by their form, but by the life and that animates them; horses, pedestrians, and boats on the Clyde show the city as a place of movement and congregation and change - depicted by the numbers of gap sites in construction.
“Likewise, the cranes and smoking chimney stacks and stockyards show a city of trade and industry; growing and groaning with Victorian life. I hope this new work encourages and enables people to see the city of today afresh, with its changing skyline, busy motorways and bridges, and pedestrian thoroughfares.
“To see across the whole city from ‘the gods’ and yet, at the same time to be able to place oneself with each and every street to view its life and buildings.”
Will studied Architecture at the Glasgow School of art, which informed his approach to the project. Rachel Kacir, Glasgow City Heritage Trust Manager, said watching the process was ‘fascinating’.
She said: “We’re really excited to have commissioned this map, following in Sulman’s footsteps, and leaving behind our own impression of Glasgow in 2022 for people to explore in another 150 years time.
“Will has done an incredible job, and it’s been fascinating to watch his meticulous process as the map has developed over the last six months or so. It’s interesting to see how some places have barely changed, such as Glasgow Green, which still dominated the bottom right hand corner of the map.
“Other areas meanwhile have changed beyond recognition, and the impact of transport infrastructure including the Kingston Bridge and Central Station is stark.”
The map was unveiled at an event in the Banqueting Hall of Glasgow City Chambers, with over 100 people including friends of the Trust, staff, Trustees and Patrons. Guests also enjoyed a presentation on 15 of the Trust’s projects from the past 15 years.
You can explore the map, and find out more about the project, here.
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