‘Botany’
Fighting tiredness I couldn’t resist heading out late last night lured out by clearing skies and occasional stars peeking out. I didn’t have the energy for the long drive in search of dark skies so I just popped down the road to Maryhill to a location on the Port Dundas spur of the Forth & Clyde Canal. I’d visited this spot 3 years ago to check out the fabulous brick building that sits there. The area is called Botany. One internet source says prisoners were loaded on ships here destined for Botany Bay in Australia. Another more prosaic source says the name came about because the locals were all so rough they were felt destined for Botany Bay. The local gang was ‘The Butny’. Sadly the most credited explanation is even duller: a school called The Botany stood in the area. The fabulous brick building on the right was built for Glasgow Lead and Colour Works (Alexander Ferguson and Company). It was on the ‘At risk’ register for several years but in 2019 conversion of the upper floor into residential flats started.
It always feels way scarier standing in populous areas like this with blokes passing by en route to last orders at the bar or the all-night McDonalds rather than some quiet, dark abandoned building...
‘Botany’
Fighting tiredness I couldn’t resist heading out late last night lured out by clearing skies and occasional stars peeking out. I didn’t have the energy for the long drive in search of dark skies so I just popped down the road to Maryhill to a location on the Port Dundas spur of the Forth & Clyde Canal. I’d visited this spot 3 years ago to check out the fabulous brick building that sits there. The area is called Botany. One internet source says prisoners were loaded on ships here destined for Botany Bay in Australia. Another more prosaic source says the name came about because the locals were all so rough they were felt destined for Botany Bay. The local gang was ‘The Butny’. Sadly the most credited explanation is even duller: a school called The Botany stood in the area. The fabulous brick building on the right was built for Glasgow Lead and Colour Works (Alexander Ferguson and Company). It was on the ‘At risk’ register for several years but in 2019 conversion of the upper floor into residential flats started.
It always feels way scarier standing in populous areas like this with blokes passing by en route to last orders at the bar or the all-night McDonalds rather than some quiet, dark abandoned building...