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“Scotland was a coal economy and it was from the coalfields of Fife, the Lothians, Lanarkshire and Ayrshire that modest six-coupled steam locomotives of late-Victorian design hauled trains of wagons to the towns and cities, where coal was then used for heating, industry and transport. Practically every room in every household had a coal fire and the belching chimneys of factories ensured that the air in industrial areas was usually filthy with sooty smoke and, in autumn and winter, thick smogs enveloped the cities. The porous sandstone from which most of central Scotland's buildings were constructed was consequently uniformly black with absorbed pollution. People smoked everywhere - at home, at work, on transport, in cafes, bars and restaurants and even at their seats in the cinema. Clothing became saturated in smoke from coal and tabacco alike and so, for housewives, doing the washing was a constant burden.”

SmokingPollutionScotlandCoalSmogInterwar YearsLanarkshireAyrshireFifeLothians
Book:Art Deco Scotland: Design and Architecture in the Jazz Age
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“In SMT Magazine and Scottish Country Life, Alastair Borthwick informed would-be visitors that 'Facing you as you enter... are the Cascades - seventeen waterfalls pouring 400 feet down the hillside - and the Grand Staircase, which is a double flight of steps running on either side of the cascades'. Soaring above these at the crest of Bellahouston Hill was the exhibition's 'sensational and symbolic centrepiece' - the 300-feet-high Tower of Empire which Thomas S. Tait designed with assistance from Launcelot Ross and from structural engineer James Mearns... In height, it was equivalent to a skyscraper - a building type most Scots would have known only from illustrations in newspapers and magazines - but the effect of slenderness Tait achieved also made it suggestive of some sort of futuristic scence fiction fantasy structure that might be used to tether airships, for example. Its design captured the imaginations of all who saw it and it was undoubtedly the exhibition's one truly awe-inspiring building.”

Glasgow1938Art DecoBellahouston ParkBritish Empire ExhibitionThomas S TaitTower Of Empire
Book:Art Deco Scotland: Design and Architecture in the Jazz Age
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“The outbreak of war and the hiatus in non-essential building that it necessitated meant that the Empire Exhibition came to be looked back upon as a period ensemble, rather than the springboard to a new Scotland that those who planned it had hoped for. The international political situation meant that the demolition of the tower was not unexpected, and the imminent war was causing more pressing worries. By the time thar economic and political will for radical updating returned in the 1950s, concepts of what was modern in architecture and planning had moved on. Nonetheless, several of those subsequently involved in Scotland's post-war development would have been visitors, retaining memories of spaciousness, cleanliness, coordination and colour.”

DevelopmentScotlandWorld War 21938Glasgow Empire Exhibition
Book:Art Deco Scotland: Design and Architecture in the Jazz Age
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