Frank McNab, Glasgow artist

November 17, 2007 5:07 AM

Empty Cathedrals. Tenement closes. Glasgow artist Frank McNab documents the communal entrances sans nostalgia or sentimentality. Gets it just so damn right! His 'Thoughts' and 'Projects' need a little more work however.
posted by Wrick (11 comments total)

Culture warning: "tenement" has a distinctly different meaning in Scotland than it does in the US (where it tends to denote a ramshackle or decrepit apartment that's awaiting demolition). Over here it just refers to a particular type of apartment block built around a common stairwell, and the term "tenement" can refer to both decrepit slums and high-quality luxury apartments.

(I speak as an Edinburgh tenement dweller.)
posted by cstross at 5:29 AM on November 17, 2007

Nice stuff; I'm a sucker for pictures of stairwells, and I particularly liked this.

Language warning: The word close (as in "the common closes found in them") is pronounced with a voiceless s, like the adjective ("close to home"). Most famous use (popular rhyme based on the West Port murders):

Up the close and doun the stair,
But and ben with Burke and Hare.
Burke’s the butcher, Hare’s the thief,
Knox the boy who buys the beef.

posted by languagehat at 6:08 AM on November 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

Web 1.0. Whole site site needs work.
posted by cjorgensen at 6:14 AM on November 17, 2007

Most famous use

I think you'll find "like chucking a white puddin' up a closey" is more famous.

Good photos, but.
posted by the cuban at 6:28 AM on November 17, 2007

Snark Warning: Web 1.0. Whole site site needs work.
posted by mattoxic at 6:49 AM on November 17, 2007

I think I've only been to Glasgow about three times, but the tenements cropped up in so many of the books I read set there. Nice to get a visual take on them too. Do mothers still toss jam pieces down to the kids up to some mischief below? Or should I read something set a bit later than the Red Clydeside era?
posted by Abiezer at 6:54 AM on November 17, 2007

languagehat: Nice stuff; I'm a sucker for pictures of stairwells, and I particularly liked this.

Yes, that is one of the best there; very nice. I am not too sure about "sans nostalgia or sentimentality", though.
posted by Bovine Love at 7:33 AM on November 17, 2007

These are nice. I particularly like the more whimsical ones - the woman with her shopping floating up the stairwell, and the folks flying along by their umbrellas.
posted by serazin at 8:00 AM on November 17, 2007

Love these! Neat post. Living in a 130 year old NYC tenement (this is the block where I live) , quite like the ones in the paintings, I never thought of them in an artistic light before, not the stairwell or lobby, anyway. This is the dream of anyone living on the fourth or fifth floor of a five storey walk-up, Floating up, while carrying bags of groceries, bags of laundry, bags from the hardware store.

Wrick, Going to see the building's public spaces with happier eyes thanks to these evocative paintings.
posted by nickyskye at 8:14 AM on November 17, 2007

Nice. Nostalgic, too; lived up a wally close (that is, one with decorative tiling) in Cessnock for a bit. Woe betide you if you missed your stair-cleaning rota (which of course was never written down - you just just had to know). Nice place; shame about the sectarianism.
posted by scruss at 9:06 AM on November 17, 2007

When I was younger I used to be fascinated by the murals that were painted on the ends of tenement walls. Never truly appreciated the sectarian sentiments behind some of them, but the artwork was exceptional.

My gran used to live in one of the tenements opposite the Art Galleries and next to the Kelvin Hall. I loved every minute spent there and living up a close was, for me, like being in a tiny little village with a real sense of community.

Nice find wrick.
posted by Nugget at 9:20 AM on November 17, 2007