Wheelchair Stairs?

I WAS SURPRISED TO SEE A DISABLED ACCESS THAT INVOLVED A FLIGHT OF STAIRS.

Naturally, I took a photograph to show you all. Please double click on the image to see an enlarged version.

Not only is this disabled access a narrow passage which could prove restrictive to anyone coming the other way, but the entire building is atop one of the steepest hills in the city centre.

Things are certainly getting worse when signs are simply put up to comply with some obscure bit of legislation.

Pass The Rennies

GLASGOW’S MOST FAMOUS ARCHITECT IS CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH, WHO WORKED WITH THE LOCAL FIRM OF HONEYMAN AND KEPPIE.

I feel sorry for the chap.  One can imagine that his friends and colleagues never discovered his silly middle name, “Rennie”. I recall that he had the nickname of “Tosh”, and was generally called Charles.  Maybe he got “Chick” or “Chuck”, and he signed “CR Mackintosh”.

However, these days, since his fame overtook that of Alexander “Greek” Thomson, we see everywhere, “Mockintosh” and all sorts of things purporting to be in his style.

His name seems now to be “RENNIE Macintosh” — the “Charles” has all but disappeared!  I see various spellings of the surname — “MacKintosh” (capitalised “K”), “McIntosh”, “MacIntosh” and “McKintosh”.  I feel sad for Charles that his silly, embarrassing middle name is now his most distinctive legacy.

The above sign reads:

“French Doors/ Rennie MacKintosh/ Doors / SUPPLIED & FITTED/ Complete with Brassware”

Mackintosh was never really known for doors, let alone “French Doors”. What exactly ARE “French Doors”?  My understanding of “French Windows” is a set of double Georgian glazed doors.  It is just possible that there is some confusion, and that these “Doors” are in fact “French Windows” — but not in any style associated with Charles Mackintosh!

No wonder he gave up architecture to become a watercolour painter!

Brand New – Old Story

IT HAS TAKEN A LONG TIME, BUT FINALLY THE NEW SAINSBURY’S SUPERMARKET OPENED FOR BUSINESS.

I was surprised to discover, by virtue of the posted notice at the entrance (click image to enlarge photograph), that the brand new store had a very poor energy rating.

Things are indeed getting worse when buildings can be created that cost the earth.  One wonders if the sum total of the legislation in this regard results merely in the posting of a notice at the entrance.

Tenemental Cables

WALKING ALONG DEANSTON DRIVE IN SHAWLANDS RECENTLY, I WAS STRUCK BY THE MESS OF TV AERIAL CABLES ON ALL OUR VICTORIAN TENEMENT BUILDINGS.

Please click on the image to enlarge.

These really are an eyesore; they dangle down unfixed to the building in any way.  They cast shadows in the sunshine, drip with water in the rain, and flap about in the wind. They are fixed at just two points — the antenna and the entry point (usually a hole drilled through the window frame).

Many are actually redundant, having been replaced by newer cables fitted to newer aerials that get Channel Five and Freeview Digital.

Things are getting worse when we allow tradesmen to get away with such poor quality work; cables ought to be run as inconspicuously as possible.  In this style of architecture, there are plenty of opportunities for doing this — ledges, carved features, rhones, pointing and the like.  There is simply no need to drop cables from the roof 12 -16 metres or more serving individual window entry points.  Cables could easily be grouped down and run far more sensitively and neatly using cheap and readily available cable clips and ties.

If scaffolding or tall ladders are the problem, then perhaps the cables could be brought down the outside of the property at the rear only.  Another possibility could be to use some form of trunking to collect and tidy up all the cables.  Anything would surely be better than the present situation.

Emergency Procedure?

I WAS RECENTLY SENT THIS PHOTOGRAPH OF AN ELEVATOR EMERGENCY TELEPHONE.

The telephone is a panel screwed to the wall inside the lift itself, it states:

“EMERGENCY TELEPHONE

PRESS ALARM
BUTTON FOR
3 SECONDS
IF UNANSWERED
PRESS AGAIN”

I don’t know about you, but this is not very reassuring; you are in a loop of pressing an alarm and waiting, pressing an alarm and waiting…

Things are getting worse when an emergency telephone has the possibility of being “unanswered”!

Car Parking Twist

IN GLASGOW’S IRONICALLY NAMED PARK AREA, CARS ARE PARKED AT AN ANGLE TO THE PAVEMENT.

The entire enterprise seems to be to narrow a wide road to aggravate drivers and perhaps slow them down.

There can be no other explanation; if the cars were “normally” parked in a parallel fashion to the pavement, there would be just as many cars parked, but the road would be much wider for cars and vans driving past.

Consider the diagram above.  Fig 1 shows the current angled parking. Fig 2 shows normal parallel parking, and the top figure shows both combined.  Hopefully, this diagram shows that the cars take up the same length of kerb regardless of the angle of parking.  The only difference is how much car is sticking out into the road.

Not only does this restrict a perfectly wide road, but it creates a couple of new dangers: cars parking in like this often touch the very high kerbs at the offside bumper, and parked cars have to reverse into oncoming traffic to leave the parking space.

Each bay is a pay-and-display earner for the council.  It would make no financial difference whatsoever to change the angled bays back to normal parallel ones.  It would widen the road for vans, improve road safety and reduce bumper scrapes for car owners in icy conditions.

However, common sense does not prevail in councils, and so the people who have to suffer are the ordinary tax-payers.

Environmental Unhealth

I WAS SOMEWHAT AMAZED TO SEE FOUR THREE-BAR ELECTRIC FIRES ATTACHED TO THE OUTSIDE WALL OF A PUB IN THE CITY CENTRE.

Furthermore, two of them were full on — and it was before 8 am! And as though all that was not enough — they were heating the rubbish bin!

I cannot see breakfasters or diners wanting to sit outside next to the bins, and anyway, I didn’t see any tables and chairs.  It cannot merely be for tobacco smokers?  Not at 8am and next to a smelly gastro-pub bin, surely not!

Could this Argyle Street pub be the source of global warming? Is this a valiant Glaswegian attempt to combat the foul weather?

Perhaps this is to encourage recycling of food — the heat may attract homeless people to rummage through the bins. Then again it may attract vermin — or be a danger to birds or drugged up vandals.  The possibilities for harm and danger are probably endless. One wonders what the insurance is for all the family filled flats in the tenement above? One wonders what the profit margins must be for this place to be able to afford such extravagance.

Things are getting worse when 12kW can be burned away all night long to warm up lung-cancered Glaswegian drunks. This is bad for the environment, so someone ought to call the environmental health about this — refer them here to see the photographic proof; who would otherwise believe this one?

Not an Exit

THIS IS A VERY STRANGE SCENE INDEED. We are grateful to have been sent this photograph; it shows very well that there are two main ways to approach a change of plan, namely: (i) that the original signs be removed, covered or replaced in favour of a new sign, or (ii) that a new, contradictory, sign be added to create utter confusion.

The option is also known as (a) sensible versus (b) daft. My, how things are getting worse!

Guttered

THE COUNCIL ARE SPENDING MILLIONS INSULATING COUNCIL HOUSES.

The trouble is that they are not doing a very good job where the council property meets a privately owned property as shown in the picture to the right.

As ever, double left click on pictures to enlarge.

The above picture shows that it is not confined to new meeting old — even when dealing with a new-new interface, they have screwed this up! What you are looking at are two examples of stupidity.  The rainwater gutter could have been trimmed shorter to allow a full and proper rendering, but instead, the full original length was allowed to remain unchanged, and the insulation and new rendering cut around it!

This is completely unbelievable, it creates a heat bridge and one of the most likely sources of damp in a building I have ever seen. Things are certainly getting worse!

Good For Nothing

I SPOTTED THIS WEIRD CONSTRUCTION IN THE CITY CENTRE RECENTLY, AND WONDERED WHAT IT MIGHT BE (FOR).

Please double click on the pictures to enlarge for better viewing.

Look at it! There is a flight of stairs and a platform with a steel mesh surface.  There are safety handrails all round too — but what is it for?

Can you work it out? We can’t see the point of this thing.  It is sort of like a fire escape or access way, but as it does not connect to anything, these have to be ruled out. There is no swimming pool, so it cannot be an ugly diving board!

Such things are expensive, so things must be getting worse when this becomes a requirement!