Glasgow University Library
As a PhD student I spent a lot of time studying in the University of Glasgow's library, and I often wondered: is there any other library in the world with a view as good as this?
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The following short piece is taken from a memoir that I’ve been working on for a while now, about my experiences living in Cornwall, Glasgow and Berlin between 2005 and 2009, as I worked on my PhD. Maybe one day this memoir will see the light of day, but for now I think I will start publishing extracts of it here in Substack…
I began my PhD at the University of Glasgow’s History of Art Department in 2006, and spent the majority of my first year studying in the university library. I’ve never had a problem with self discipline, so working 9 till 5 in the library most days quickly became the norm. During that first year in the library I worked my way through books on art history, German history, urban history, philosophy, and German literature, just to name a few of the subject areas I covered.
Glasgow University’s library is housed in a tower block that was constructed in 1968, and is the centrepiece of an extensive post-war sprawl that constitutes the university’s Hillhead campus. The building is a twelve-storey high slab of concrete brutalism, which has its services housed in separate, adjacent towers. It is situated close to the peak of the hill that runs down past the university’s more recognisable neo-Gothic Gilbert Scott building, through Kelvingrove Park, to the banks of the river Clyde.
Not unsurprisingly, the view over Glasgow from the library’s top floors was impressive, and the library’s architects exploited this by creating floor-to-ceiling windows on the building’s southern façade. Happily, the library’s art history section was situated on the tenth floor, so this view of the city became my wallpaper for much of my time in Glasgow. I happily spent upwards of eight hours a day on the tenth floor, breaking only occasionally for cups of tea and snacks from the vending machines ten floors down. And when my eyes strained from the words on the page, I only had to look up to find that panoramic view stretching out past the Gilbert Scott building, the Clyde, Govan and its docks, Glasgow Rangers’ Ibrox stadium, and in the far distance, the hills of the Scottish lowlands.
My year of study took me through the winter months, and Glasgow’s northerly latitude meant that it was possible, in one sitting, to watch the sun rise in the east, track low across the southern sky, before setting below the hills to the west. Sometimes on changeable days – of which there were many, this being Glasgow after all – I watched squally showers blow in from the west, casting the shadows of racing clouds across the hills and streets below, before throwing glass needles of rain against the library windows. Minutes later, the landscape could be bathed in glorious low sunlight, refracted through a myriad tiny raindrops clinging to the outside of the windows.
I did not spend all my time on the tenth floor, poring over books on art history and philosophy and oggling the landscape outside. As I read and wrote, my thoughts coalesced into ideas, and my approach to my PhD became increasingly multidisciplinary. So I eventually spent time in library sections with less impressive vistas; in sociology (floor 6), German literature (floor 8), maps (floor 7) and science (floor 3). And while some parts of the library looked as though they’d been recently refurbished, with clean and unblemished desks and modern adjustable chairs, others gave the impression of having lain untouched for years. I recall seeking out a book on Werner von Siemens and his business enterprise in an almost hidden nook of the third floor, where books about engineering were kept. On every one of the few occasions I ventured into this part of the library I never saw another soul, and the wooden desks and chairs and other fixtures and fittings, all of which were of the same vintage as the building itself, made me feel as though I’d slipped back into another time.
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Further reading (and viewing)
A 3-hour-long video of studying in the Glasgow University Library, created by YouTube user Merve.
Hey, what a cool, and descriptive, piece. I particularly dig your last para and the atmosphere you evoke.
HAUNTING the LIBRARY...
Your photos remind me of potent images from "Wings of Desire," the Wim Wenders film shot in Berlin. Many scenes of angels hanging out in the library!