Kirsty Wark’s guide to Glasgow – ‘my grand old city’

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When I was a girl, Glasgow felt like a mystical and strange place, with impossibly tall buildings, shrouded in the soot of the great industrial city. You could smell the foundries and factories, and people thronged the streets, many of them smoking, my father among them, a lawyer travelling to and from the city by train. We lived 20 miles south-west in Kilmarnock, where Massey Ferguson tractors were built, the famed Johnnie Walker whisky distilled and the first edition of Robert Burns poetry published. But the trip to Glasgow was thrilling. 

Often, I would stay with my granny. As a treat we would go to the cartoon cinema in Renfield Street, have afternoon tea on Byres Road or visit the Kelvingrove Art Gallery. I remember walking with her along the long balcony overlooking the central hall, and at the end coming face to face with Dalí’s Christ of St John of the Cross. The painting terrified me – I was no more than eight years old. It’s a place I still love to visit.

As a student, I found my love of architecture walking in the city, looking up at buildings that took Italianate, French, Dutch and Egyptian architecture and made it all Glasgow’s own. On every corner you can look up at a building with a stylish detail; a window with a stained-glass ship, a scroll carved in the sandstone, a glorious gargoyle or ironwork forged in the city’s foundries. The story goes that New York planners took their inspiration from Glasgow, and the resemblance is still there to me. 

I buy Eusebi’s ‘Yesterday’s lasagne’ after a long day

Glasgow has always been stylish. I’ve just made a two-part documentary on Scottish fashion and our starting point was 1955, the year I was born, when Christian Dior held his first spring/summer fashion show in the city. Another recent combination of Scotland and France is La Fetiche. Founders April Crichton and Orély Forestier met while working at Sonia Rykiel in Paris and have created a fun clothing brand in collaboration with local and French manufacturers. I often visit their atelier in a former school in the Gorbals, on the south bank of the River Clyde. 

I like to stop outside Timorous Beasties – the windows are a riot; surreal montages of psychedelic fabrics crawling with dazzling insects, a sideways take on toile de Jouy. Kate Bush is a big fan. Further into the West End, I reach The University Café, perhaps the most beloved ice-cream parlour in the city, and one of the many wonderful Italian establishments here. It has been owned by the Verrecchia family for four generations. I love to think of my parents going there in the 1940s when they were courting or, as my mother used to say, somewhat unfortunately, “doing a line”. Eusebi’s is another favourite stop. I buy its famous “Yesterday’s Lasagne” after a long day.  

In the ’70s, sweeping demolitions threatened the city. Now we are reinventing spaces. As a family, we go to Cottiers, a theatre, restaurant and bar in a former Victorian church that’s named after the artist Daniel Cottier, who designed the stained-glass windows and frescoes. It still feels as if he inhabits the building. As often as not a drink turns into a meal – the French onion soup is not to be missed. 

One of the best things about living in a grand old city are the treasures to be found at auction, and Great Western Auctions is one of my regular haunts. I love the chase of a piece of fine china and the craic is great. On our walls are paintings by Scottish artists that I’ve bid for successfully, even a couple by minor colourists. Don’t skip the charity shops in the West End, where I search out my crystal glasses and the all-important perfect trifle bowl. 

Wandering back from the auction, it’s worth stopping at Ga Ga on Dumbarton Road. This south Asian establishment is by the Malaysian-Scottish chef Julie Lin – try the sea bream with chilli coconut butter or the sichuan and garlic aubergine. A nightcap on the way home is at Ubiquitous Chip, a Glasgow institution. The walls are decorated by the late, great Alasdair Gray and, ensconced in them, I have a malt – maybe a Highland Park or an Arran – before bed.

Kirsty Wark is a presenter on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row and the host of The Reunion. On 11 May she will be honoured with a BAFTA Fellowship at the 2025 BAFTA Television Awards