Glasgow record sleeve with machines

[marcapra]

I found an interesting stiff cardboard sleeve in my collection from Glasgow, Scotland. I think it dates from about 1929 or 30, but not sure. Instead of the sleeve being from the record maker, it advertises a phonograph and radio store in Glasgow. On one side, it shows a His Master's Voice models 520 and 521 radio/gramopone, while on the other side it advertises some Columbia Viva-Tonal machines. The record is British Parlophone F 1710 featuring the British comedy team of Kenway and Young. The record was made in 1940, so I don't think it's contemporary to the sleeve.

[PeterF]

My dad was from Glasgow, born there about 5 years before the sleeve’s vintage.

He’s gone, but three of his six Glaswegian brothers survive. I’ll ask one of my uncles what kind of neighborhood that shop was in!

[epigramophone]

I was born in Glasgow, but can remember nothing about it as my family moved south when I was three.

Stockwell Street derives it's name from a well which stood there from mediaeval times but is now long gone. The Scotia Variety Theatre, one of Glasgow's first music halls, opened on Stockwell Street and Harry Lauder made his first stage appearance there.

An internet search found this old photo of Young's shop :

[PeterF]

I heard back from my octogenarian Uncle George:

“Hi Peter. I worked at a printer's delivering to offices etc and often went down Stockwell street, in Glasgow's business district heading south from the big shopping Argyle St to the River Clyde. Across the bridge was the notorious Gorbals district. Visitors avoided the Gorbals. Glasgow is all changed now. If you look at a satellite map you see lots of parks where heavy industry and crowded tenements once crowded each other. It's a much more pleasant city now, though drugs are a problem.”

My dad’s family was raised in the Cowcaddens district, second worst after the Gorbals. Perhaps the river insulated our record shop from that rough part of town, as the Clyde is quite wide at that point and perhaps the bridges weren’t enough for the danger to travel.

The story goes that upon meeting a stranger in Glasgow you’d ask what part they were from, and if they said the Gorbals, you should immediately run away as fast as you could. Even if you’re from the 2nd toughest, Cowcaddens. You don’t want to get a Glasgow Smile! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_smile

In the 1990s I was standing in line in a California grocery store and noticed the two older women next to me had Glaswegian accents. I struck up a conversation and they asked where my dad was from, and when I said Cowcaddens they both took an involuntary step back.

Everything is completely different now of course. The old tough tenements are long gone and replaced by posh gentrification. My cousin still lives there, and says about Stockwell St:

“It's quite a trendy area now - around the merchant city area and by the trongate. Small, independent theatres and plenty of coffee shops and restaurants/bars.“