Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and the third largest in the United Kingdom after London and Birmingham; as well as being the most populous unitary authority area. It is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands. People from Glasgow are known as Glaswegians. Glaswegian is also the name of the local dialect of Scots, commonly known as the Glasgow Patter.

About the city:

Glasgow is one of the liveliest and most cosmopolitan destinations in Europe. The city has been reborn as a centre of style and vitality set against a backdrop of outstanding Victorian architecture.
Glasgow boasts world famous art collections, the best shopping in the United Kingdom outside London, and the most vibrant nightlife in Scotland.
A must see is the Art Nouveau sple ndour of Scotland's best known architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, whose inimitable style adorns attractions such as The Lighthouse, Glasgow School of Art, and House for an Art Lover.

History:

The city was formerly a royal burgh, and was known as the "Second City of the British Empire" in the Victorian era. It established itself as a major transatlantic trading port during the Industrial Revolution. The Clyde was the world's pre-eminent shipbuilding centre, building many revolutionary and famous vessels such as the Cunard liners RMS Lusitania, RMS Aquitania, RMS Queen Mary, RMS Queen Elizabeth and the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2, and the Royal Yacht Britannia.

The city grew in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to a population of over one million people, peaking at 1,088,000 in 1931. However, with population decline, mainly due to the large scale relocation of people to new towns like East Kilbride and Cumbernauld on the outskirts of the city, and successive boundary changes by national governments in an attempt to reduce the relative power of the city within Scotland, the current population of the City of Glasgow is 629,501, based on the 2001 census. Approximately 1.7 million people live in the Greater Glasgow urban conurbation, defined as the City of Glasgow and the Greater Metropolitan Area.

Theatres, museums and galleries:

Glasgow is home to a variety of theatres including The Kings Theatre, Theatre Royal and the Citizens Theatre and is home to many municipal museums and art galleries, the most famous being the Burrell Collection, GoMA and Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.

The history of football in the city:

The city is home to Scotland's largest football stadia: Celtic Park (60,832 seats), Ibrox Stadium (50,411 seats) and Hampden Park (52,670 seats), which is Scotland's national football stadium.

Glasgow has three professional football clubs: Celtic and Rangers, which together make the Old Firm, and Partick Thistle. A fourth club, Queen's Park, is an amateur club that plays in the Scottish professional league system. It had two other professional clubs in the late 20th century: Clyde, which moved to Cumbernauld, and Third Lanark, which went bankrupt. There are a number of Scottish Junior Football Association clubs within the city as well, such as Pollok, Maryhill and Petershill, as well as countless numbers of amateur teams.

The history of football in the city, as well as the status of the Old Firm, attracts many visitors to football matches in the city throughout the season. It is the only city in Europe with three stadia each with a capacity of at least 50,000 seats. Hampden Park and Ibrox have also been awarded UEFA 5 star status, meaning that they are capable of hosting the final of the Champions League and Celtic Park has recently completed upgrades which will allow it to achieve 5 star status after an official UEFA inspection.. Hampden has hosted the final on three occasions, most recently in 2002.
The Scottish Football Association, the national governing body, and the Scottish Football Museum are based in Glasgow, as are the Scottish Football League, Scottish Premier League, Scottish Junior Football Association and Scottish Amateur Football Association.

Glasgow and Rugby:

Glasgow also boasts a professional rugby team, the Glasgow Warriors, which plays in the Celtic League alongside teams from Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

In the Scottish Club leagues, Glasgow Hawks was formed in 1997 by the merger of two of Glasgow's oldest clubs: Glasgow Accademicals and Glasgow High Kelvinside (GHK). Despite the merger, the second division teams of Glasgow Accademicals and Glasgow High Kelvinside re-entered the Scottish Rugby League in 1998.

Airports:

The city has two international airports: Glasgow International Airport (GLA) in Paisley, Renfrewshire (13 km west of the city) and Glasgow Prestwick International Airport (PIK) in Prestwick, Ayrshire (46 km to the south-west). It is anticipated that by 2008, both airports with be served by a direct rail link from Glasgow Central station on completion of the Glasgow Airport Rail Link project at Glasgow International Airport.

Twinned Cities:

- Havana, Cuba
- Turin, Italy
- Nuremberg, Germany
- Rostov-on-Don, Russia
- Marseille, France
- Dalian, People's Republic of China
- Bethlehem, Palestinian Territories
_{This article is licensed under the [GNU Free Documentation License]. It uses material from Wikipedia}

External Links:

University of Glasgow
Glasgow City Council
Glasgow - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Greater Glasgow & Clyde Valley Tourist Board
Glasgow Airport
Google Images of Glasgow

---

Tags: scotland, united kingdom, river clyde, glaswegian	[edit tags]

Date Added: 14 July '06

---

Add a link to this page on any related website, blog or forum using this code :

---