Glasgow - the River 1960-88

Passing a Clyde Pilot cutter (I think - don’t quote me, if you know better let me know and I’ll correct this) at the Fairfield yard. These first six were taken in the course of a trip to Rothesay, probably in the summer of 1960 or 1961, with my first camera, a Kodak Bantam Colorsnap. They’re included for their historical interest, not their quality.
On the stocks at (I think) the Harland and Wolff yard.
H & W definitely - buildings show it must be upstream from Govan Cross.
That knowledgeable Mr Google tells me that the ship on the right, the MV Daghestan, was built at Harland & Wolff’s Govan yard in 1960, an 11,000 ton ore carrier for Common Bros. of Tyneside. Can’t read the name on the classier ship on the left.
Atrocious image quality which I hesitate to include even here. King George V dock, perhaps?
I'm pretty sure the tenements on the right form part of St Vincent Crescent, so these dockside cranes would have been at the Queen's Dock. The name on the ship is Panamante.
Where the Govan Ferry used to ply to and from, at the foot of Water Row. The ferry was withdrawn in January 1966, after the opening of the Clyde Tunnel, though it enjoyed a temporary revival in 1978-9 when the subway system was closed for renovation. February 1974
The linkspan-ish mechanism near the south slip of the Finnieston Ferry. I would guess that it relates to the days when there was a double-deck vehicular ferry as well, or maybe it had another purpose entirely.A vehicular ferry plies across the harbour at Finnieston, its main feature being an elevating deck raised and lowered by bevel and worm gearing, bringing the deck to the same level as the quay at any state of the tide. Glimpses of old Glasgow, by Andrew Aird, 1894
The south rotunda of the Harbour Tunnel. August 1975 (this date applies to the whole tunnel sequence).
The south entrance. Note the ghost beckoning me down (I think) with two fingers.
The ghost. I give you my word, friends, that I haven’t faked this - it’s there on the negative.
Inside the south rotunda.
Looking back up to the south rotunda.
Into the belly of the beast.
The Harbour Tunnel, approaching the north rotunda I think. August 1975
Tunnel-master’s office in the north rotunda.
North rotunda. June 1975
Finnieston Crane. June 1975
The yard of Carse & Holmes Ltd, shipwrights, boat builders and joiners, which was located between the north rotunda and the foot of Finnieston St. Sadly I lacked the brass neck, and the foresight, to go into places like this and a hundred others, and make a really valuable record of businesses, small and large, which were at this time facing extinction due to changing circumstances.
Finnieston Ferry at the north slip. The following dozen or so photos are all of the Finnieston Ferry, and were taken in June and July 1975 and March 1977.
Leaving the north slip.
Leaving the north slip.
Leaving the north slip.
The south slip.
Approaching the south slip.
Finnieston Ferry, south to north. Part of the negative is missing. June 1975
The south slip.
Heading north, but marking time while two ships pass down-river.
There was one of these at each end.
Approaching the north slip. Betty’s Bar awaited the drouthy mariner.
Approaching the north slip.
Approaching the north slip.
Six weeks before the axe fell. Google hasn’t yielded much about the MV Victore lying at General Terminus Quay. There’s an Indian container ship company which uses the name for some of its vessels.
Glasgow Herald, Saturday April 30th 1977. Notice how in those innocent days the papers routinely printed everyone’s full address.
The Kelvinhaugh Ferry, which wasn’t withdrawn until 1980, nosing into the north slip, on the outer arm of Yorkhill Quay. There’s a wonderful aerial photo on VirtualMitchell of the ferry approaching the slip, dwarfed by a huge liner (Clan Line?) berthed in the east basin. The ship lying at the quay this time is the MV Staffordshire, a 41,000 ton Liberian-registered bulk carrier belonging to the Bibby Line of Liverpool. March 1977
Unlike the Finnieston Ferry which shuttled back and forth straight across the river upstream from the line of the Harbour Tunnel, a trip of about 140 yards, the Kelvinhaugh Ferry took a comparatively adventurous course, half as long again, diagonally over to the foot of Highland Lane in Govan. Originally it too had gone straight across, but the expansion of the Graving Docks in the 1880s required the south slip to relocate. The cranes in the distance are those of the Fairfield (or UCS, or Kvaerner) yard. A dozen years before the whole skyline would have bristled with cranes, but Harland & Wolff, who, nervous about the political situation in Ireland, had established a presence on the Clyde in 1912, shut the doors of their Govan yard in 1962. August 1975
I think this may have been where the Govan Ferry crossed to, with Fairfield's on the left and part of the Meadowside Granary on the right. This focussing on the foreground to the detriment of the wider view wasn't me trying to be arty, one of the lenses of my cheap Russian 35mm had taken a knock and (unknown to me till the film was developed) the focus was playing up. There's more evidence of this on other shots from this time. June 1975
Fireboat, tram, south rotunda, Glasgow Garden Festival. August 1988
Sir William Wallace river-bus, fireboat, Glasgow Garden Festival. August 1988
Looking downriver from, I think, Springfield Quay. August 1985
The Waverley at Anderston Quay. May 1987
The Waverley laid up for the winter at Finnieston Quay. December 1975
The great scul?tor George Wylie’s straw locomotive, suspended from the Finnieston Crane during the Garden Festival. August 1988
Stobcross Quay. c1990
Two big ships, the Ems Ore and the Victore, at General Terminus Quay as the Waverley paddles homeward on a golden evening. September 1976