WALK beneath the Finnieston Crane today and it’s difficult not to marvel at its sheer size. It stands 175ft tall, with a 152ft jib. Its capacity – it was erected in 1931 especially to load huge locomotives – was 175 tonnes.
Over the decades the cantilever crane witnessed the boom years and the gradual decline of some of the city’s docks, to say nothing of Glasgow’s once-famous locomotive manufacturers.
The landscape in the vicinity of the crane has steadily since been transformed: new roads, such as the Clydeside Expressway have been opened. Hotels, office buildings, bridges, apartments, the Glasgow Science Centre, the Glasgow Tower and the SECC campus have all sprung up even as older buildings have vanished.
The A-listed crane has become a landmark in its own right. “No longer working, it has become an artwork,” says Professor Robert Crawford in his book, On Glasgow and Edinburgh. “Glaswegians view it with pride, nostalgia, and a sense of the need to move on.” As he points out, the last locomotive the crane hoisted was sculptor George Wyllie’s straw locomotive, back in 1987.
In 1968 the New Glasgow Society established a working party to discuss the idea for a new tourist hub for Glasgow, based on its river. Under the plan, the crane would have been used as a viewpoint tower. More recently, there was talk of a restaurant being established at the top of the crane.
Danny MacAskill, the street trials rider, has been filmed on his bike at the top of the crane. In April 2019 it was climbed by campaigners from Extinction Rebellion Scotland.
Seven years ago an art project, Silent Echoes – Finnieston Crane, by Bill Fontana, involved live sounds and images from the crane being transmitted via satellite to the city’s Gallery of Modern Art.
Read more: Herald Diary
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here