Glasgow Story Collective

Please get in touch with Q***r Lives if you would like to be interviewed.

UPDATE: Dr Sue Morrison, the wonderful professional historian, has now interviewed a few people who live in the NORTHERN HIGHLANDS (off the A9 route from Inverness to Wick). She would like to interview a few more people in July/August so there is still time to record your story, but you will have to be quick! x'

Our Professional Oral Historian is offering people living in the NORTHERN HIGHLANDS the opportunity to be interviewed for this project!
Q***r Lives: Barriers from cradle to elderly care-An oral history.
We are looking for more project RESPONDENTS aged from 18-108 years (who may use a pseudonym if they so choose) and more creative VOLUNTEERS to contribute material for the project website.
If you’re interested in taking part, then please message this page or email Rachel Kelly, Project Coordinator at [email protected]. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

photo source: Commons Wikimedia.org

Q***r Lives: Barriers from cradle to elderly care-An oral history.

We are looking for more project RESPONDENTS from 18-108 (who can go under a pseudonym if they so choose) and more VOLUNTEERS (all welcome to apply to volunteer to contribute material for the website)for this community oral history project. If you’re interested in taking part, then please message the page or email Rachel Kelly, Project Coordinator at [email protected]. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Photo source:Penguin

Respondents and volunteers wanted.

LIMITED SPACES LEFT ON OUR FREE PROFESSIONAL ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW SKILLS TRAINING DAY on the 22nd of May in Glasgow.
We are looking for more project RESPONDENTS (who can go under a pseudonym if they so choose- as in all oral history projects) and volunteers (all welcome to apply to volunteer to train to do interviews and/or contribute material for the website)for this community oral history project. Contact: the page or [email protected].

Q***r Lives: Barriers from cradle to elderly care-An oral history-

LIMITED SPACES LEFT ON OUR FREE PROFESSIONAL ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW SKILLS TRAINING DAY on the 22nd of May in Glasgow.

We are looking for more project RESPONDENTS (who can go under a pseudonym if they so choose- as in all oral history projects) and volunteers (all welcome to apply to volunteer to train to do interviews and/or contribute material for the website)for this community oral history project. If you’re interested in taking part, then please message the page or email Rachel Kelly, Project Coordinator at [email protected]. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Photo source: Working Title Films.

Our latest project's website is now live!

Glasgow's Highstreets An oral history of stores, shopping and spectacles The Home page of the Glasgow's Highstreets An oral history of stores, shopping and spectacles website.

Volunteers and respondents wanted for this exciting community oral history project.

Q***r Lives: Barriers from cradle to elderly care-An oral history
We are looking for respondents and volunteers (all welcome to apply to volunteer to train to do interviews and/or contribute material for the website)for this community oral history project. If you’re interested in taking part, then please message the page or email Rachel Kelly, Project Coordinator at [email protected]. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Photo: Cicely and Roslyn fictional le***an couple. Founders of the town of Cicely, Alaska in early nineties CBS show Northern Exposure. Source:CBS.

FREE professional oral history interview training in Glasgow City Centre on Saturday the 16th of March. ALL WELCOME to get in touch about the opportunity. We're also looking for respondents. Please message the page or email Rachel Kelly the project coordinator @ [email protected]. Thanks!

Picture: Self portrait of Ethel Walker, artist. Source: The National Portrait Gallery.

Everyone had a great day on Saturday making collages at The Art Day for 'Glasgow's Highstreets: An oral history of stores, shopping, and spectacles.'

Thanks to the artist Rachel Toner for her amazing guidance and to everyone at The Marie Trust who kindly hosted us and gave us a wonderful lunch. And last, but certainly not least; many thanks go to the participants who have created some top class collages for the project.

"Glasgow's High Streets: An oral history of stores, shopping, and spectacles." MAKE ART DAY.

ADVANCED BOOKINGS ONLY PLEASE.🙂

If you would like to take part and can come along on Saturday the 25th of November, then please email Rachel Kelly (different Rachel), Project Coordinator @ [email protected] and I will give you a phone. Or, phone me on 07453442443. Please get in touch ASAP as spaces are limited. FIRST COME FIRST SERVED. Please contact by Tuesday the 21st of November at the latest. Unfortunately, the class is only available to over 18 year olds.

"Hello everyone, I’m Rachel, a community artist based in Glasgow. I’m thrilled to have been invited to spend a day with you, and it’s truly delightful. The purpose of this day is to explore some artistic endeavours and see how we can enhance your on-going project “Glasgow’s Highstreets: An oral history of stores, shopping, and spectacles.”
This is a day’s workshop suitable and designed for-*ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS and BEYOND*.
One exciting medium we can work with for this project is collage. It’s a versatile way to create wonderful pieces of art by cutting and pasting various materials like magazines, newsprint, fabric, different textures, and colours of paper. Additionally, you can also draw or paint on these collages. Whether you prefer to work as a group or individually, we can decide on the day.
This day is all about providing you with a safe and creative space to have an enjoyable time. It will also contribute another layer to the already fantastic work you’ve accomplished. I’ll bring my creative toolkit filled with intriguing supplies. I’m really looking forward to meeting all of you.

Let’s make the most of this day.”

The Poly!

"Glasgow's Highstreets: An oral history of stores, shopping, and spectacles."

Our respondent Patricia Dickson remembers some positively Victorian features of the 'restroom' at Tréron’s on Sauchiehall Street. Please share any memories that you have of the heyday of the grand stores of Glasgow.

“There was Tréron et Cie in Sauchiehall Street too. And sometimes we went into Tréron et Cie for a cup of tea, for afternoon tea. And I do remember as a young girl going in and needing to go to the toilet. And when you went in you didn’t just go to the toilet. There was a restroom for ladies. And you went into…and you could sit down and write a letter at the writing desk. And there was pencil, pen and paper and envelopes. If you were in for lunch. And you could write a letter that you’d maybe just remembered about. And then you could go and freshen yourself up in the toilet. And there were seats in Tréron et Cie for just having a rest. If you didn’t want to sit in the restaurant itself. And, again, all of these stores were of a similar nature and really a lovely shopping experience to go in and enjoy.”

Particia Dickson

If you would like to volunteer to do some creative writing and/ or art work for the project website, then please either message the page, email [email protected] or phone/text Rachel Kelly, the project coordinator on 07453442443. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Photo sources: Trerons: Pinterest
Writing desk: online retailer

Many thanks to the Campsie Local History Group for the warm welcome and the reminiscences in Lennoxtown yesterday. It was a great afternoon.

"Glasgow's Highstreets: An oral history of stores, shopping, and spectacles."

Our respondent Kay Morrison remembers going to the dancing at the Locarno on Sauchiehall Street in the early 1950s. Please share your memories of Glasgow's dancehalls, discos and clubs.

“I preferred going to dance things. There were a lot of good ballrooms. The ballrooms were terrific. They…The Locarno was in Sauchiehall Street. And it was very popular. You’d to queue to get into The Locarno. And it was quite difficult. You’d to find somebody to go with. You couldn’t really go a girl on your own. So, you’d to find one of your other girlfriends willing to go with you. And they weren’t all…They were very doubtful about going. Oh, the tales. They had been picked up and this, that and the other. You know. What if you missed the last tram? Well, you make sure you don’t miss the last tram. And, several at school. I mean I was still at school when I used to go first. And they would say-‘Well, how did you get on?’ I said-‘I got on fine.’ ‘But who? But you didn’t know anyone.’ I said-‘But, people just came up and asked you to dance.’ Most of my friends wouldn’t do that. Just wouldn’t do that. “

Kay Morrison

If you would like to share your stories with the project and/or carry out desk based research for it then please either message the page, email [email protected] or phone/text Rachel Kelly, the project coordinator on 07453442443. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Photo source: Tram advert from 1950s for The Locarno, Sauchiehall Street-The Riverside Museum via Wikipedia.

"Glasgow's Highstreets: An oral history of stores, shopping, and spectacles."

Our respondent Sher Allan remembers her own particular take on glamour whilst working in Chelsea Girl in Glasgow in the early 1970s. Please share any memories that you have of Glasgow's Highstreets during their heyday.

"The uniforms we had when I started...It was brown, high waisted trousers, a cream shirt with pink hearts on, cause pink and brown were the Chelsea Girl colours of the time, a long fitted brown cardigan with pink edging and a pink tie belt... And then went to some form of black uniform. Black and green I think it was.

And then after that we didn't have a uniform. But, we were told-'Come dressed as if you're going out for a night out.' So everybody went over the top with the glam. The glitter came out. The ABBA lookalike came out. The silver thigh boots came out. I mean people took all that to extremes.

Me, it was a Maxi skirt. And because I was behind the till and people couldn't see my feet, I wore my fluffy slippers under them. So, there was me coming up from the basement from break, cutting through the floor, holding up my skirt so I wouldn't fall over it with my fluffy slippers on."

Sher Allan

If you would like to share your stories with the project and/or volunteer to carry out research for it then please either message the page, email [email protected] or phone/text Rachel Kelly, the project coordinator on 07453442443.

Photo sources: Pinterest

"Glasgow's Highstreets: An oral history of stores, shopping, and spectacles."

Our respondent Grace Blair recalls seeing a famous Glasgow character creating a spectacle on early 1950's Sauchiehall Street. The one and only A. E Pickard of Britannia Panoptican fame:

"Being astonished to see a car parked between other vehicles (in Sauchiehall Street) with a rotor blade attached to its roof and while we were staring at it a gentleman ‘explaining’ its purpose was to help get sideways out onto the road! We were told that the driver was none other than the late, eccentric A.E. Pickard."

Grace Blair

Please comment with any memories that you have of Glasgow's theatres and other aspects of the heyday of Glasgow's Highstreets.

If you would like to share your stories with the project and/or do some desk based research for it then please either message the page, email [email protected] or phone/text Rachel Kelly, the project coordinator on 07453442443. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Photo sources. Bust of A. E. Pickard: Kelvin Hall Stores
Panoptican sign: Stinglehammer

"Glasgow's Highstreets: An oral history of stores, shopping, and spectacles."

Our respondent Heather recalls music being played in one of Glasgow's famous stores in the 1960s. Please comment with any memories that you have of this or other aspects of the heyday of Glasgow's Highstreets.

"One of the stores on Buchanan Street which is Fraser's store...The interior hasn't changed much. Fraser's is in an atrium. So, you went up each level and round a balcony. And you could always look down into the middle of the store. And, occasionally, they would have someone, perhaps, playing the piano, or maybe a quartet playing stringed instruments."

Heather

If you would like to share your stories with the project and/or volunteer to carry out research for it then please either message the page, email [email protected] or phone/text Rachel Kelly, the project coordinator on 07453442443. Free professional oral history interview training will be provided. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Photo sources: Piano player: The Cineamaholic.com
Frasers: Copyright of The Robert Pool Glasgow Collection

'Glasgow's Highstreets: An oral history of stores, shopping, and spectacles.'

Our respondent Christine McIntosh recalls the glamour of a couple of the Sauchiehall Street shops in the 1950s and 1960s. Please share your memories of these and other Glasgow stores/shops during the heyday of Glasgow's Highstreets:

"My mother liked to go to shops like Trèrons and Pettigrew’s, not always to shop but sometimes to go to a mannequin parade, which I remember taking place in a tearoom in the shop, and noticing a lady in a hat with a wee veil lifting her veil to drink “Russian Tea” - tea served without milk in a tall glass with lemon and a long spoon, which I thought impossibly glamorous."

Christine McIntosh

If you would like to share your stories with the project and/or volunteer to carry out desk based research for it then please either message the page, email [email protected] or phone/text Rachel Kelly, the project coordinator on 07453442443. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Photo sources: Trerons: Glasgowheritage.org.uk
Lady in hat: pinimg.com

Many thanks to The Marie Trust, who do amazing work with people who have become homeless, for your wonderful hospitality on Saturday. Our lovely new volunteers enjoyed their free professional oral history interview training with GSC, and the delicious lunch organised by Fran from The Marie Trust and prepared by people with lived experience of homelessness.

"Glasgow's Highstreets: An oral history of stores, shopping, and spectacles."

Our respondent Marian Cairns could barely stop laughing when she told this story of a chapter working in Stirling's Stevens & Co on Argyle Street in the late 1960 and early 1970s as a teenager. Please tell us any stories that you have of Glasgow's stores and shops during the heyday of Glasgow’s Highstreets.

"I remember 'Mr Stevenson', I think, had said-'Girls there is a range of hot pants and I want you to model them." And we're like-'what?' And he said-'Yes, yes.' And so this is when it got the bargain basement, right. And my Aunt Helen (also her manager) was dubious about this whole thing. That me and my pals would all be walking about the shop in hot pants. With a price label hanging from them (laughs). So, me, by that point, being a bit more bolshy about things, you know. I said-'Oh, right, that's ok, but, em, what we getting for it?' And he said-'You'll do your job and that's it.' I said-'Well. you're not...You can't sell them. We've been walking about wearing them the whole time.' So, I negotiated and we got to keep them. So, I got a pair of black satin hot pants, a denim pair of hot pants and a brown denim pair of hot pants with a bib. So, each of us over the weeks that we had to walk about the shop modelling these hot pants, got three pairs of hot pants (laughs). You wouldn't get away with it now. But, that's what we did. Yeah, uh huh.'

Marian Cairns

If you would like to share your stories with the project and/or volunteer to carry out interviews and/or research for it then please either message the page, email [email protected] or phone/text Rachel Kelly, the project coordinator on 07453442443. Free professional oral history interview training will be provided (last chance 27th of May, Glasgow City Centre). We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Photo sources: AYBS: pinterest.com
Hot pants: thingsboomerslike.com

Thanks so much to the lovely folk at The Marie Trust in Glasgow for taking part in the reminiscences event yesterday. You made us feel so welcome. It was great to hear your memories.

"Glasgow's Highstreets: An oral history of stores, shopping, and spectacles."

Our respondent Pat McCash, recalls seeing rooms from another era in Pettigrew & Stephens on Sauchiehall Street when she worked there in the early 1960s.

"Pettigrew & Stephens, which I'd never ever been into to get anything...But, I heard they were looking for girls and they gave you a pound on a Saturday. So, I got myself in there."

"If you'd watched the Selfridges show on televison...it was about the Selfridges store in London opening up. And how people actually stayed in the bit up the stair. They used to keep like old maids or sewing ladies and things like that...had a flat up in this place. So they still had that when I was in Pettigrews...I don't think anybody lived in them but it was all still there."

Pat McCash

Please comment with your memories of working in, shopping in and/ or being a supplier to Glasgow’s stores and shops during the heyday of Glasgow's Highstreets. Do you remember any features or practices that seemed at the time to be from another era?

If you would like to share your stories with the project and/or volunteer to carry out interviews and/or research for it then please either message the page, email [email protected] or phone/text Rachel Kelly, the project coordinator on 07453442443. Free professional oral history interview training will be provided. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Photo sources: Shop girl poster: The British Newspaper archive
Shop worker's or servant's room: pinimg.com
Pettigrew & Stephens: Glasgow City Archives

Glasgow’s Highstreets: An oral history of stores, shopping and spectacles.

A wee treat for followers of the project. A couple of pictures of the real Billy the dog who was found as a shivering, sickly looking puppy in Lewis’s pet department on Argyle Street by Joyce Sutherland Kelly, as a young girl in around 1946. Here’s a healthy, happy looking Billy with Joyce and his best friend and workmate Joyce’s Dad, Daniel Sutherland. If you don’t know the story then please consider clicking into the page and reading about Billy. There are other stories of the heyday of Glasgow’s Highstreets too and we have more to share with you soon. Maybe you can help us find even more by agreeing to be interviewed and/ or by volunteering with us. Please see details below:

If you would like to share your stories with the project and/or volunteer to carry out interviews ( training date the 27th of May) and/or research for it then please either message the page, email [email protected] or phone/text Rachel Kelly, the project coordinator on 07453442443. Free professional oral history interview training will be provided. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Photo sources: Courtesy of Joyce Sutherland Kelly
Lewis’s: Pinterest.co.uk

"Glasgow's Highstreets: An oral history of stores, shopping, and spectacles."

Friend of the project Elaine Angell recalls some of the sights and sounds of Glasgow's Highstreets when velvet, starlings and maxi dresses were everywhere to be seen. Please share your memories of the sights and sounds of Glasgow's Highstreets during their heyday.

"The Walrus & The Carpenter, Sauchiehall Street - a colourful cornucopia of traditional toys (mostly imported from Europe?)"

"Chelsea Girl - velvet jackets, midi and maxi skirts, bikinis and other "must have" items for fashion-conscious teenage girls."

"Birds (mostly starlings) thronging telephone wires, window ledges and rooftops, especially as early evening approached; the increasing volume of birdsong as the afternoon wore on was another appealing aspect of shopping in the city centre."

Elaine Angell

If you would like to share your stories with the project and/or volunteer to carry out interviews and/or research for it then please either message the page, email [email protected] or phone/text Rachel Kelly, the project coordinator on 07453442443. Free professional oral history interview training will be provided. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Photo sources: Starling: voice.gardenbird.co.uk
Velvet jacket: online shop.
Chelsea Girl Logo: online magazine