Glasgow Interiors by Helen Kendrick is a beautifully produced book with lovely photographs by Neale Smith – of all sorts of Glasgow buildings interiors, it was one of the many books I got last year for Christmas and I’ve been dipping into it throughout the year, so it has taken me until now to reach the end.

The interiors featured include the small but perfectly formed art deco University Cafe in Byres Road, a great place to go for an ice cream and the fish suppers from their take-away next door are the best I’ve ever tasted – and I’ve tried a fair few chippies in my time. That’s the smallest interior I think, most of the others are very grand indeed and quite a lot of them have changed use over the years – from private homes or churches to hotels, restaurants or wine bars.

I now have a long list of places to visit whenever we go to Glasgow in the future as I want to see some of the glories in reality.

The most popular designs in Victorian Glasgow are art nouveau and even the common closes/stairways of tenement buildings often have wonderful tiled walls, with the doors also having beautiful stained or leaded glass window panels in them, very stylish, but something that I really took for granted when I was younger. It’s only recently that I realised that Edinburgh Victorian tenements don’t have the same elegant style, they just have plain painted walls and doors. Glasgow has always had a lot more style than Edinburgh – in the surroundings and the people!

Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s work doesn’t feature in this book though. It’s explained that there are already many books dedicated to his designs which is fair enough.

I read this book for the Read Scotland 2016 Challenge. It’s my number 35.