On Monday was my first little campus tour. It took us through the main building of the University of Glasgow. (Folks just call it "uni" here. Trying to get used to that.) This building was built in 1870 in the neo-Gothic style. The original university, called the "Old College", was in the East End of Glasgow since it opened in 1451. (Yep, that's right.) But apparently with all the industrialisation in the 19th-century, that area of the city had become almost uninhabitable...at least for ivory tower folks. So they moved everything to the lovely, green, undeveloped West End. Hence, the new-ish building.
It's a very impressive building and little did I know, until this tour, that it had a couple of courtyards. You step out from the building into a large green courtyard, which was totally unexpected for me and it absolutely, much to my chagrin,--as I was totally excited about this-- reminded me of Harry Potter and Hogwarts. To get to the second courtyard, there is an area called "The Cloisters" to be walked through. All very picturesque. Also, inside are several halls - as in large rooms--with lovely timbered, arched ceilings. One in particular, Bute Hall, is very nice and is used for graduations, as well as other events. And it does look just like a particularly fancy dining hall in Hogwarts. But with a real ceiling, of course.
Then on Wednesday was another treat. After a slide lecture on Glasgow architectural history, my department got to climb the tower. First, there is an elevator up to the sixth floor, then 225 steps of a winding, spiral stone staircase to the top. Many years the weather has been too poor to allow for a trip to the tower, but we have been very fortunate this year. The climb was pretty painful, but was worth the view from the top. Luckily I had my iPhone with me to take some pictures.
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