Queenslie

  • No Looking Back

    I’ve been doing some research recently for a novel I’m beginning. It’s a crime fiction set in Glasgow and I’ve been using Google Maps to investigate the streets where the story takes place. I had two possible locations in mind: the Southside, where I lived last in Glasgow and where my more recent memories are…

  • Messages, Weegie Style

    It’s funny the memories that stay with you. All the small insignificant episodes and experiences that stick to you from childhood like well chewed spitballs on the classroom ceiling. They’re there, you can see them but there’s no way of getting up there to clean them out. Some memories are disturbing, things you’d rather forget…

  • T is for Train Stations

    Glasgow has two main train stations: Queens Street, which has trains to Edinburgh (spit!) and the North, and Central Station which has trains to the south. Central Station is the larger of the two. It opened in 1879 but by 1890 it was extended slightly only to be found to be inadequate again by the…

  • Q is for Queenslie

    As I mentioned in E is for Easterhouse, I grew up in the greater area of Easterhouse, but my particular wee part of hell was called Queenslie. Queenslie was a small scheme of only four streets built primarily to house the workers at the adjoining industrial estate. I lived on the top floor of a…