Woodlands Community Garden @ 10
2020 marked the 10th anniversary of our Community Garden.
To celebrate this milestone we interviewed 10 people : a mix of people who helped create the garden along with some of our longest serving staff. The interviews offer some unique insights and memories of how the garden came about as well as what makes it such a special place .
Interviews were conducted either by Zoom or in person during August and September 2020.
Big thanks goes to Eo Stearn for co-ordinating this project.
A Very Quiet Street?
Exploring the hidden histories of West Princes Street and Queens Crescent
For Doors Open Day in September 2020, local writers Zoë Strachan and Louise Welsh developed a self-guided audio trail along West Princes Street & Queen’s Crescent engaging with two hundred years of social and cultural history, including North Atlantic slavery, city planning, art, literature, music, crime, LGBTQ+ lives, new communities, scientific innovation, esoterica and more.
Originally part of the 1840s and 50s’ grand city plan, West Princes Street is now adjacent to the M8 motorway. Community activism challenged some of the planning proposals of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Home of Postcard Records, host to Scotland’s first ‘gay movement club’, site of one of Glasgow's most famous miscarriages of justice, birthplace of a Nobel Prize winner, inspiration to novelists and poets.
Here’s a wee taster audio of some of the stops on route of the tour.
We are working with Louise and Zoe to explore ways of bringing back the tour for Doors Open Day in September 2021.
Keep an eye on our What’s On Page for more details.
If you have memories or interesting tales about Woodlands that you would like to share with Zoe and Louise, then click on the button below to get in touch.
Louise Welsh
is the author of eight novels including The Cutting Room and Plague Times Trilogy. She has written libretti for four successful operas, most recently Anthropocene (music by Stuart MacRae). Louise is co-director (with Jude Barber) of the Empire Café, an award winning collective exploring Scotland and empire. Louise is Professor of Creative Writing at University of Glasgow and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Zoë Strachan
is an award-winning novelist. As an editor, she has collected six new writing anthologies, and she also publishes short stories, essays and criticism. She is Reader in Creative Writing at University of Glasgow and has a PhD in Scottish Literature. Works for stage include Panic Patterns (with Louise Welsh) and an opera adaptation of The Lady from the Sea (music by Craig Armstrong) for the Edinburgh International Festival, which won a Herald Angel Award. She makes sound art/experimental radio with composer Nichola Scrutton.