@AtGF1988 profile picture
After the Garden Festival... @AtGF1988

Recording the form, story and legacy of the 1988 Glasgow Garden Festival with @LambLex, @GordonBarr & @urbanprehisto (Pic J McDougall, CC 2.0)

Joined October 2021
  • Tweets 1,637
  • Following 324
  • Followers 1,922
421 Photos and videos
Beautifully restored by Kirkintilloch Men’s Shed
Kenny Brophy@urbanprehisto
May 25
Replying to @AtGF1988
@AtGF1988
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After the Garden Festival... retweeted
Past Glasgow@PastGlasgow
Apr 28
It's 38 years to the day since the Glasgow Garden Festival threw open its gates to the general public, with Charles and Diana coming along the following day to cut the ribbon. It attracted 4.3 million visitors during its 152 day run. #Glasgow
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After the Garden Festival... retweeted
Lex Lamb@LambLex
Apr 14
Announcement: preview pages and the opportunity to pre-order 'The 1988 Glasgow Garden Festival' (a 220pp hardback book, lavishly illustrated and featuring a full gazetteer) will be available next week, along with a surprise item! Publication will take place this summer.
Front cover of a forthcoming book on the 1988 Glasgow Garden Festival

ALT Front cover of a forthcoming book on the 1988 Glasgow Garden Festival

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Though Harding himself didn’t produce work for the Garden Festival, his stamp and influence is all over the Artworks Programme, with his successor Malcolm Robertson, assistant Stan Bonnar and the likes of Shona Kinloch all producing significant work for the event.
This Is My Glasgow@is_glasgow
Mar 12
I was sad to hear of the recent death of David Harding, the first town artist for the new town of Glen Rothes in Fife, the former head of Environmental Art at the Glasgow School of Art and the god-father of post-war public art in Scotland. Cont./ #glasgow #publicart #sculpture
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Bit pricey, this - but it is an extremely unusual bit of GGF merch. ebay.co.uk/itm/317985082982?…

Glasgow Garden Festival 1988 Apron Interchurch Garden Vintage RARE | eBay UK

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Glasgow Garden Festival 1988 Apron Interchurch Garden Vintage RARE at the best online prices at eBay UK! Free delivery for many products!

ebay.co.uk
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After the Garden Festival... retweeted
Kenny Brophy@urbanprehisto
Mar 11
Good news. Next up needs to be the Glasgow Garden Festival waterfall in Festival Park and Kelvingrove Park’s Kelvin Wheelies skatepark.
Govanhill Go!@GovanhillGo
Mar 10
HES are seeking views on the proposal to designate the archaeological remains of the pavilion at First Hampden as a scheduled monument historicenvironment.scot/abo…
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After the Garden Festival... retweeted
Lex Lamb@LambLex
Mar 5
Garden Festival Book update: read-through and fact-checking with another two veteran GGF designers this morning went well. Also currently awaiting confirmation (or otherwise) that a future Turner Prize winner worked as a chef in a Garden Festival cafe!
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After the Garden Festival... retweeted
Scottish Roads Archive@ScotRoadArchive
Feb 27
Two major #glasgow roads for the price of one in this stunning aerial photo from around 1990. The M8 and Clydeside Expressway are both visible, as is a still new SECC! The Garden Festival site has been cleared but what else stands out? #archives #1990s
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Bell's Bridge being lowered into place by the 250-tonne Mersey Mammoth floating crane, 4th November 1987. What is now the Crown Plaza hotel is just beginning to be built. (Credit: Bob Jones archive)
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After the Garden Festival... retweeted
Lex Lamb@LambLex
Feb 18
One of the very last remaining new-to-me Glasgow Garden Festival survivors on the list, so I seized an opportunity to seek out the Walter Segal self-build house at Monimail Tower. Heavily modified but probably one of the only two currently inhabited original GGF structures.
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After the Garden Festival... retweeted
Lex Lamb@LambLex
19 Dec 2025
I finally have written conformation of the previously merely anecdotal appearance of live pink flamingoes as part of a garden display in the SEC during the Garden Festival. (Oddly, via an article quoting the father of one of the biggest contributors to the @AtGF1988 archive.)
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After the Garden Festival... retweeted
Kenny Brophy@urbanprehisto
19 Dec 2025
Thanks for flagging this up again Niall, of interest of course to @AtGF1988 - and another sad indication that for some organisations, 1988 is not old enough to be considered as our heritage....
Niall Murphy@MurphyNiallGLA
19 Dec 2025
Dear @ScotRail all I want for Christmas this year is for you to please do something about improving the state of Glasgow artist Willie Rodger’s mural at Exhibition Centre Station. We exchanged tweets about the condition of the artwork in March 2024 but since then it’s only gotten progressively worse. Given that last year 1.773 million people used the station to get to places like the SEC, it’s not a good look for Glasgow and nor is it for you as the mural was commissioned by you, Scotrail, in 1988 for the Glasgow Garden Festival. Considering this year is the 850th anniversary of Glasgow securing Burgh status, and the mural’s 29 panels depict over one hundred years of Finnieston's history, perhaps it might be a nice gesture to Glaswegians to do something about it especially as no one else can gain access across a live railway line?
This is Glasgow artist Willie Rodger’s 1988 mural at Exhibition Centre Station. The 29 panels of the mural depict 100 years of Finnieston’s history but sadly are in a bad way with many having fallen off.

ALT This is Glasgow artist Willie Rodger’s 1988 mural at Exhibition Centre Station. The 29 panels of the mural depict 100 years of Finnieston’s history but sadly are in a bad way with many having fallen off.

This is the sign for Exhibition Centre Station. Below it is the explanatory plaque for Glasgow artist Willie Rodger’s 1988 mural. Both are on a yellow brick wall.

ALT This is the sign for Exhibition Centre Station. Below it is the explanatory plaque for Glasgow artist Willie Rodger’s 1988 mural. Both are on a yellow brick wall.

This is a detail of Glasgow artist Willie Rodger’s 1988 mural at Exhibition Centre Station. The 29 panels of the mural depict 100 years of Finnieston’s history but sadly are in a bad way with many having fallen off.

ALT This is a detail of Glasgow artist Willie Rodger’s 1988 mural at Exhibition Centre Station. The 29 panels of the mural depict 100 years of Finnieston’s history but sadly are in a bad way with many having fallen off.

This is a detail of Glasgow artist Willie Rodger’s 1988 mural at Exhibition Centre Station. The 29 panels of the mural depict 100 years of Finnieston’s history but sadly are in a bad way with many having fallen off.

ALT This is a detail of Glasgow artist Willie Rodger’s 1988 mural at Exhibition Centre Station. The 29 panels of the mural depict 100 years of Finnieston’s history but sadly are in a bad way with many having fallen off.
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After the Garden Festival... retweeted
Niall Murphy@MurphyNiallGLA
19 Dec 2025
Dear @ScotRail all I want for Christmas this year is for you to please do something about improving the state of Glasgow artist Willie Rodger’s mural at Exhibition Centre Station. We exchanged tweets about the condition of the artwork in March 2024 but since then it’s only gotten progressively worse. Given that last year 1.773 million people used the station to get to places like the SEC, it’s not a good look for Glasgow and nor is it for you as the mural was commissioned by you, Scotrail, in 1988 for the Glasgow Garden Festival. Considering this year is the 850th anniversary of Glasgow securing Burgh status, and the mural’s 29 panels depict over one hundred years of Finnieston's history, perhaps it might be a nice gesture to Glaswegians to do something about it especially as no one else can gain access across a live railway line?
This is Glasgow artist Willie Rodger’s 1988 mural at Exhibition Centre Station. The 29 panels of the mural depict 100 years of Finnieston’s history but sadly are in a bad way with many having fallen off.

ALT This is Glasgow artist Willie Rodger’s 1988 mural at Exhibition Centre Station. The 29 panels of the mural depict 100 years of Finnieston’s history but sadly are in a bad way with many having fallen off.

This is the sign for Exhibition Centre Station. Below it is the explanatory plaque for Glasgow artist Willie Rodger’s 1988 mural. Both are on a yellow brick wall.

ALT This is the sign for Exhibition Centre Station. Below it is the explanatory plaque for Glasgow artist Willie Rodger’s 1988 mural. Both are on a yellow brick wall.

This is a detail of Glasgow artist Willie Rodger’s 1988 mural at Exhibition Centre Station. The 29 panels of the mural depict 100 years of Finnieston’s history but sadly are in a bad way with many having fallen off.

ALT This is a detail of Glasgow artist Willie Rodger’s 1988 mural at Exhibition Centre Station. The 29 panels of the mural depict 100 years of Finnieston’s history but sadly are in a bad way with many having fallen off.

This is a detail of Glasgow artist Willie Rodger’s 1988 mural at Exhibition Centre Station. The 29 panels of the mural depict 100 years of Finnieston’s history but sadly are in a bad way with many having fallen off.

ALT This is a detail of Glasgow artist Willie Rodger’s 1988 mural at Exhibition Centre Station. The 29 panels of the mural depict 100 years of Finnieston’s history but sadly are in a bad way with many having fallen off.

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After the Garden Festival... retweeted
Kenny Brophy@urbanprehisto
4 Dec 2025
Replying to @LambLex
@LambLex and I are in Kirkintilloch this evening giving a talk about before and after the @AtGF1988 to the local antiquarian society. Big audience!
Lex Lamb lecturing

ALT Lex Lamb lecturing
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After the Garden Festival... retweeted
Lex Lamb@LambLex
2 Dec 2025
After the Garden Festival...@AtGF1988
2 Dec 2025
This is rather fine news: a recent photo has appeared of the GGF train that was relocated to Rusutu Resort, Japan - and it turns out it's still got its Tate & Lyle sponsorship paint job! Hello, Mr Cube.
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This is rather fine news: a recent photo has appeared of the GGF train that was relocated to Rusutu Resort, Japan - and it turns out it's still got its Tate & Lyle sponsorship paint job! Hello, Mr Cube.
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Even more importantly, it looks like there might be another (green) engine at the back for reversal purposes - and if the paint's retained there, too, then that's the unsponsored loco, leaving only the House of Fraser one unaccounted for. (Credit: Severn Lamb Ltd)
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The Festival Pavilion, by the South Rotunda. Originally part of a Bothwell tomato nursery, now part of Brookside Garden Centre near Larkhall.
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You've got less than a week, folks! ebay.co.uk/itm/376696543498
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The campanile of Prince’s Dock Auxiliary Accumulator Tower - one of three listed buildings on the Garden Festival site, all of which were refurbished ahead of the event. A sponsor for the intended 'sound and light experience for children' could not be found so it remained empty.
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The other two, of course, were the South Rotunda and the Four Winds building (another accumulator tower; both provided hydraulic pressure to run cranes and coal lifts around Prince's Dock).
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