FIRE!

[zotz]

There was, of course, a fire in a nightclub in Glasgow last week. Someone said on one of the local newsgroups that this was actually the building Weird was supposed to live in in Espedair Street. Is this true? Failing which, is there an actual building the "church" is based on, and where is it? I always thought there would be, as the other locations are pretty accurate, but I don't know the area on that side of the Motorway well enough.

Comments

[zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com]

That's always the one I pictured him living in, but I don't know if it's the one Banks meant.

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

I asked Banksie this very question once, and he says that the church doesn't actually exist.

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

... at least not in the exact form or in the exact place that it is in the novel. I seem to recall he said that it's the sort of building that one might find (which is presumably why it seems so authentic to those who know Glasgow), based presumably on a number of models. Of which this building that burnt down could well be one.

[original-aj.livejournal.com]

I used to sit on their steps to eat lunch when the weather was decent - the office I worked in in Glasgow is on the diagonally adjacent block. It would fit for the book, yes. Never thought about it before. Must get on with assignment.....

[akicif.livejournal.com]

I was past there on Monday morning on the way to help run one of our workshops, when one of the folk guarding the security fence said he thought they were going to blow it up. I was tempted to hang on after the workshop got off the ground, as I like explosions and pyrotechy stuff, but it was as well I didn't 'cos when I was back in Glasgow this morning, they'd not blown it up at all -- apparently they need to keep both outward-facing walls.