Part of the window in the Debating Chamber of the City Chambers. (pic by Alison Thewliss)
The miracles of St Kentigern (also known as St Mungo), the city’s Founding Father, provide the symbols of the tree, the bird, the bell and the fish that together with Mungo himself constitute the Coat of Arms.
Since St Kentigern’s time, the history and development of the Coat of Arms mirrors that of Glasgow itself. For example, the City’s formal adoption of the Coat of Arms in 1866, as granted by the Lord Lyon, was coterminous with the start of the City Improvement Trust’s redevelopment of much of the City Centre. Their tenements have the depiction of the formalised Glasgow branding set in stone while the civic and municipal buildings that followed incorporate the emblem not only in stone but also in glass, wood and even the leather of the furnishings.
The @GlasgowCoA twitter account was a start for me in trying to archive the many different representations of the city's coat of arms. As with the myriad deployments of the formal crest by the various incarnations of the Council, it quickly became clear that Glaswegians are forever coming up with novel forms of, and contexts for, the tree, the bird, the bell & the fish.
I hope you enjoy this site and the map. I also hope you will contribute to the map - contacts below - so you can be part of this project helping Glaswegians and visitors alike to enjoy this unique aspect of the greatest west of Scotland city in the world!
Cheers,
Dr Caroline Scott
Since St Kentigern’s time, the history and development of the Coat of Arms mirrors that of Glasgow itself. For example, the City’s formal adoption of the Coat of Arms in 1866, as granted by the Lord Lyon, was coterminous with the start of the City Improvement Trust’s redevelopment of much of the City Centre. Their tenements have the depiction of the formalised Glasgow branding set in stone while the civic and municipal buildings that followed incorporate the emblem not only in stone but also in glass, wood and even the leather of the furnishings.
The @GlasgowCoA twitter account was a start for me in trying to archive the many different representations of the city's coat of arms. As with the myriad deployments of the formal crest by the various incarnations of the Council, it quickly became clear that Glaswegians are forever coming up with novel forms of, and contexts for, the tree, the bird, the bell & the fish.
I hope you enjoy this site and the map. I also hope you will contribute to the map - contacts below - so you can be part of this project helping Glaswegians and visitors alike to enjoy this unique aspect of the greatest west of Scotland city in the world!
Cheers,
Dr Caroline Scott
© Caroline Scott - Licensed for use under: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
