Скачать или смотреть TRADESTON - Just a Little Bit of Glasgow

Tradeston. Or should that be Trades Town, a district in Glasgow created to stimulate the growth of trade and industry in a city that wanted to be a big player in the Industrial Revolution. Heck, Glasgow wanted to be the main manufacturing city of the Great British Empire, but would accept being second.

Problem was, there were precious few routes out of the city to export your wares. The road to Port Glasgow and Greenock was almost as bad as roads today. And in the very late 18th and very early 19th centuries the nearby Glasgow, Paisley & Ardrossan Canal hadn't been built yet. Not only that, but when it was 'completed' ( I use the term loosely) in 1811, it actually didn't go to Ardrossan. Sure, you had the Forth & Clyde Canal at Port Dundas, but why put in all that effort to get your wares up there when there was a big river on your doorstep: the River Clyde.

Problem was (there were many problems in the old days) when Tradeston was put in place by Glasgow's Trades House in the very late 18th century, the River Clyde wasn't deep enough to allow the passage of large ships at all tide situations. Cue the City Fathers (whoever they may be). Huge engineering projects combined with dredging of the river eventually led to a working river; a transportation route devoid of potholes.

And so Tradeston grew. Every industry under the sun blossomed at Tradeston, but in particular engine works and grain or flour mills. The Industrial Revolution needed engine works. Machinery was required to take the place of the many men, women and children who were being shown the factory door.

But then came more progress, which might have been alright once, according to Ogden Nash, but had gone on too long.

An increasing reliance on foreign imports from the mid-20th century, combined with a resultant decrease in home manufacturing, and roads that could accommodate huge vehicles, not to mention a river that had quite simply had enough of all that dredging malarkey, saw a somewhat terminal decline in use of the River Clyde. And with that decline, came the eventual death of Tradeston.

In 2018 financial institution Barclays started work on a riverside campus at Tradeston. It was a development that would incorporate some of Tradeston's old buildings and breathe life back into the area. And that is exactly what they have done. For Barclays Tradeston campus is an architectural extravaganza that has to be applauded.

Part of that campus is one building called Windmill Croft; a nod to the past when all there was at Tradeston was a windmill on the grassy banks of the River Clyde.