Gardens and drinking on sunny days

There will never be enough gardens in the world and there is certainly a massive shortage of them in the West End of Glasgow where I live. I am one of the lucky ones – I have a little south facing terrace garden between my front door and the street big enough for some plants and some friends to come and admire the view. Before I acquired this invaluable bit of outdoor space I can remember what happened on those rare hot sunny days that we used to have; frantic phone calls to arrange somewhere to go and sit and soak up the sun with a drink in your hand. I have a very detailed mental map of all of the bars with beer gardens within a 2 mile radius of Hillhead underground station. A tip to the uninitiated; don’t even bother with Ashton Lane or Cottiers. Head straight for the hidden beer gardens – The Finneston or The Drake spring to mind…and avoid Booley Marleys at all costs lest people think you actually like it and its clientele!

Now on sunny days I just pull a bottle from the fridge – set up the folding table and chairs and sit in my garden and survey the progress of my plants. It is in one of these moments that I am writing this and I am pondering the reasons why there are not many more garden areas in my immediate vicinity. The settlement model of the quadrant tenements is perfect for a private communal rear garden and there are a few examples in the west end of really successful versions of this model. It is a model very common in Berlin and Paris. In fact I remember a very pleasant Sunday spent wandering through the communal courtyard gardens of Herman Hertzbereger’s IBA housing in Berlin marvelling at how these spaces were private yet at the same time communal with plenty of spaces to sit down and quietly read the paper in the sun. It has been successfully resolved in the New Gorbals as well – but as they are newly built is very difficult to actually mess this aspect up. Creating communal gardens in existing back courts is the challenge. Creating communal gardens on left over space is another subject - however the Woodlands Community Garden is worth a look to see what is achievable. 

I have spent a very large amount of time closely studying the lanes in Glasgow’s west end whilst researching the planning appeal for my mews cottage in Westbourne Gardens and I think have come to a solution regarding the backcourt garden issue.  The key to it is the bins; a subject that greatly vexes the owner occupiers in my building and seems to irritate everyone else as well.

I’ll propose a solution in a later post – right now back to my glass of wine and the crossword; the sun is still shining.