A heavily worn Automatic Telephone Manufacturing Company access cover from George Square in Glasgow. It most likely dates from between 1911 and 1932 (when the company changed its name to the Automatic Telephone and Electric Company). Despite the company's name, it's part of an old automated traffic light system. The font for the ATM logo is just so wonderfully Art Nouveau.
#accesscover
Time for some Glasgow geekiness. This is a rarely encountered Partick Electricity Supply access cover on North Gardner Street in the West End of Glasgow. As far as I can work out, this refers to a local electricity network run by the Burgh of Partick between 1899 and 1912, when the burgh lost its independence and was absorbed into Glasgow.
Cont./
#glasgow #partick #manholecover #accesscover #glasgowhistory
A branded Victorian or Edwardian access cover on Minvera Street in the Finnieston area of Glasgow. The names featured on such covers are usually either a local plumber or the foundry which made it.
#glasgow #accesscover #manholecover #glasgowhistory #victorianglasgow #ironwork
Cast iron calling cards. These old access covers from the streets of Glasgow all feature the name of the plumbing company which installed them. While no longer common, you can find similar ones advertising different plumbing and building companies throughout the city. Most of the businesses no longer exist, but the one in the bottom left, John Richmond and Co Ltd, is still trading today, some 135 years after it was established in 1885.
Old branded access cover in the Govanhill area of Glasgow. A cursory search hasn't located R Morton and Son, but I presume they were plumbers. A deeper dive into the records should confirm this, but the site of their premises at 277 Ballater Street is now occupied by the Gorbals Leisure Centre.
Love the Art Nouveau style logo on this Automatic Telephone Manufacturing Company access cover from George Square in Glasgow. Despite the company's name, this access cover is associated with early traffic light systems.
#glasgow #accesscover #atm #automatictelephonemanufacturingcompany #manholecover #artnouveau
What I think is William Borland and Co manhole cover fron the grounds of Gartnavel Hospital in the West of Glasgow. The address of 90 Dunlop Street is more celarly visible than the name, and the Borland and Co were based there in the early 1900s. They made and installed hearths, ranges and stoves for cooking and heating, so I presume this was part of the hospital's heating system.
#glasgow #manholecover #accesscover #glasgowhistory #gartnavelhospital
#glasgowhistory
In 1909, he took the somewhat unexpected step of becoming a partner in the Govan Skating Rink in Summerton Road. This was one of three roller skating rinks which opened in Govan in 1909 during a short-lived craze for the pastime. While he died in 1924, William Anderson Ltd continued on until at least the 1960s.
#glasgow #manholecover #govan #govanoldparishchurch #glasgowhistory #accesscover #plumbing
William Anderson became one of the first registered plumbers in Glasgow after an accreditation scheme was introduced across Scotland in 1888, and in 1894 he became a founding member of the Glasgow Building Trades Exchange (a professional trade body which helped standardise contracts and solve disputes) along with the architect John Keppie, the engineer William Arrol and the painter R.J. Bennett.
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#glasgow #manholecover #govan #govanoldparishchurch #glasgowhistory #accesscover #plumbing
A William Anderson Ltd, Plumber, access cover in the Govan Old Parish churchyard in Glasgow. The son of the slater John Anderson and starting in the 1870s, William Anderson built up a large plumbing business with branches across the city.
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#glasgow #manholecover #govan #govanoldparishchurch #glasgowhistory #accesscover #plumbing
Water was pressurised using massive steam engines at a pumping station on High Street and then sent through 30 miles of pipes below the streets to power industrial machinery in workshops across the city. These access covers, marked with the letters HOP are one of its few surviving remains, and you can come across them in small numbers throughout Glasgow.
#glasgow #anderston #hydraulicpower
#glasgowhistory #industrialhistory #accesscover #manholecover #hop
Hidden by these double yellow lines at the side of Elliot Street in the Anderston area in Glasgow is an access panel for the city's Hydraulic Power system. Built in 1895, Glasgow was one of the few British cities to have a centralised hydraulic power system.
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#glasgow #anderston #hydraulicpower
#glasgowhistory #industrialhistory #accesscover #manholecover #hop
Sometimes it's easy to miss the subtle little signs workmen use to warn us that they'll soon need access to a particular manhole cover!
An access cover from Glasgow's Hydraulic Power system on Argyle Street in Anderston. From a centralised pumping station on High Street, pressurised water was sent through iron pipes with one inch thick walls to power machines across city. It operated from 1895 to 1964, and so far this is the most distant remnant of it I've come across.
#glasgow #anderston #hydraulicpower #accesscover #glasgowhistory
A John Richmond and Co Ltd access cover on Kessington Gate in the West End of Glasgow. John Richmond established his metal merchant and plumbing supply business in 1885 at 56/58 West Regent Street, and it remained there until about 1948, when the building became home to the Nosh Bar, which, in turn, became the much-loved Burns Howff in 1967.
#glasgow #metalwork #accesscover #plumber #glasgowhistory #streetfurniture #dowanhill
The nameplate on a Glenfield and Kennedy manhole cover in the Gorbals Rose Garden in Glasgow. Started by Thomas Kennedy in Kilmarnock in the 1860s, at one time it was one of the biggest industrial manufacturing companies in the British Commonwealth. Access covers bearing its name (mostly for fire hydrants) are a common sight on Glasgow's streets.
#glasgow #kilmarmock #accesscover #ironwork #glenfieldandkennedy
McFarlane's Saracen foundry would go on to become one of the most famous and highly rated decorative iron foundries in the world.
A Moses McCulloch and Company access cover on Albert Drive in Glasgow. Founded around 1810, McCulloch and Company started life at the Cumberland Ironworks on Stockwell Street, and until they ceased trading in 1962 they were one of the oldest such businesses in Scotland. Walter McFarlane spend 10 years working at this foundry before setting up his own foundry at Saracen Lane in 1850.
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Once a common sight on British streets, in some places such FP covers were used as the basis for a kid's game where if you noticed someone was standing on one, you got to give them a Free Punch (FP). When these covers were replaced with modern ones embossed with FH, for Fire Hydrant, the game was quickly changed to Free Hit! I've no idea if this game was ever played in Glasgow.
#glasgow #thegorbals #architecture #glasgowbuildings #accesscover #firepoint #urbanredevelopment #glasgowhistory
An old Fire Point (FP) style fire hydrant cover on Old Rutherglen Road in the Gorbals area of Glasgow. It seems that this cover has somehow survived the wholesale destruction of the Gorbals in the 1960s, and the more recent round of redevelopments from the 1990s onwards.
Cont./
#glasgow #thegorbals #architecture #glasgowbuildings #accesscover #firepoint #urbanredevelopment #glasgowhistory
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