IF you want to appreciate the splendour and majesty of the Cranhill water tower, you need to get up close to it. It’s located at one of the highest points in Glasgow, standing guard over the housing schemes of Cranhill, Queenslie, Blackhill and Ruchazie. Unlike Garthamlock’s cylindrical water towers – visible across the motorway – Cranhill’s elevated water tank is a concrete square supported by a squadron of steel pillars.
A further design quirk is provided by the structure’s visible central staircase, which lends it a Mackintosh aspect. Others have noted a similarity in its features to the giant alien tripods in War Of The Worlds. I see it as a fort, though.
If Glasgow were ever to be attacked from the north, the Cranhill water tower would be a robust and substantial defensive position with large-calibre gun emplacements from which all raiders could easily be repelled. It was built in 1951 by FA MacDonald and Partners, and you wonder if its counter-intuitive design was by way of giving this benighted neighbourhood, which grew from Glasgow’s post-war slum clearances, something unique and handsome: a source, perhaps, of future community pride. Read More: New bus tours of Glasgow's south side and east end are just the ticket One Saturday afternoon, in the midst of the city’s seasonal downpours, I embarked on a promenade around this tower and re-acquainted myself with some of the streets that surround it.
Attempts at venerating this structure have been made, but .