I don’t know when the name officially entered Glasgow’s list of street names (that fact may be recorded in some well buried council minutes), but it has to have happened after the Glasgow Garden Festival, when the derelict land it lives on was recycled after the 1988 festival.
I just can’t get used to it since I don’t associate anything ‘Pacific’ with Glasgow.
It’s not going away any time soon, so I will have to get used to it.
I was crossing Bell’s Bridge (which WAS created as pedestrian access across the River Clyde for the festival), when I happened to turn around a look downriver, and the scene looked have decent and worth reaching for the camera, mainly because the IMAX was almost centre view, and I had recently mentioned it had lost its operating leaseholder, which mean that unless somebody steps in and takes over, all that really there is a cute, but empty, building.
Pacific Quay has interesting residents – STV moved there from Cowcaddens (sorry, that building is off to the left, too far to include in this shot), and ended up next to the competition, as the BBC moved there from its home in Queen Margaret Drive.
So, there’s the BBC on the left, then the (maybe former) IMAX blobby building (it may look odd, but it seemed to suit the IMAX installation), then the Glasgow Science Centre (seemingly as success now after barely being able to attract finding when it opened), the Glasgow Tower (which has been a disaster since the day it was built, and a record holding embarrassment), and finally, rather small since I was standing at the wrong end of this few in terms of scale, the paddle steamer Waverley.
Not ONE of those features is controversy free.
The BBC is constantly beset by whining protestors complaining about it being English, despite the name BBC Scotland.
As noted, the IMAX theatre has just lost its leaseholder.
The science centre was a funding nightmare when it opened, and had to close almost immediately, before being reopened.
The useless tower was bust from the day it opened, and also had to close repeatedly as it turns out the bearing that should have allowed the whole building to rotate with the wind were junk, and had to be replaced. It’s also a bit of a joke, given the number of people that can get into the lift (if/when it works) and make the trip to the top for the view. Somebody did NOT think this thing through, and the words ‘Vanity Project’ flit through my mind when I see it nowadays.
The poor old Waverley, the last sea-going paddle steamer, has to constantly beg for funds since ticket sales don’t make enough to fund her, and sadly, she seems drawn to piers as if by a magnet, and crashes with some regularity, losing paying days while in dock, possibly being sued for injuries, all of which means the economics must be a nightmare.
Seriously – why can’t I write about all of those items in terms of success and profit, instead of being able to think of only bad things seen in the news?
Oh well…
At least it’s a nice pic.
And, again, I’m sorry it was the taken from the wrong ‘end’, and the Waverley was the smallest and furthest away subject.
Pacific Quay
Secret Scotland 