Scotland

Glasgow School of Art is one of only two independent art schools in Scotland, situated in the Garnethill area of Glasgow. It was founded in 1845 as... the Glasgow Government School of Design. In 1853, it changed its name to The Glasgow School of Art. Initially it was located at 12 Ingram Street, but in 1869 it moved to the McLellan Galleries. In 1897, work started on a new building to house the school on Renfrew Street. The building was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, chosen for the commission by the school's director, Francis Newbery, who oversaw a period of expansion and fast-growing reputation. The first half of the building was completed in 1899 and the second in 1909. The School's campus has grown since that time and in 2009, an international architectural competition was held to find an architect-led design team who would develop the Campus Masterplan and design the Phase 1 building. The Phase 1 building is opposite the Mackintosh Building on a site now occupied by the Foulis, Assembly and Newbery Tower Buildings. The competition was won by New York based Steven Holl Architects working with Glasgow based JM Architects.
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The Lighthouse in Glasgow, is Scotland's Centre for Architecture, Design and the City. It was opened as part of Glasgow's status as UK City of... Architecture and Design in 1999. The Lighthouse is the renamed, conversion of the former offices of the Glasgow Herald newspaper. Completed in 1895, it was designed by the architect John Keppie, of whom Charles Rennie Mackintosh was an apprentice. It is often mistakenly attributed to Mackintosh. The centre's vision is to develop the links between design, architecture, and the creative industries, seeing these as interconnected social, educational, economic and cultural issues of concern to everyone. The Lighthouse Trust went into Administration in August 2009. At its peak the Lighthouse Trust had around 90 staff. Its Directors moved on: Nick Barley . Following a substantial redundancy programme the remaining staff were transferred to Architecture and Design Scotland and Glasgow City Council .
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The Glasgow Necropolis is a Victorian cemetery in Glasgow, Scotland. It is on a low but very prominent hill to the east of Glasgow Cathedral . Fifty... thousand individuals have been buried here. Typically for the period only a small percentage are named on monuments and not every grave has a stone. Approximately 3500 monuments exist here. Following the creation of Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris a wave of pressure began for cemeteries in Britain. This required a change in the law to allow burial for profit. Previously the parish church held responsibility for burying the dead but there was a growing need to give an alternative solution. Glasgow was one of the first to join this campaign, having a growing population, with fewer and fewer attending church. The planning of the cemetery began formally by the Merchants' House of Glasgow in 1831, in anticipation of a change in the law. The Cemeteries Act was passed in 1832 and the floodgates opened. Glasgow Necropolis officially opened in April 1833. Just prior to this, in September 1832 a Jewish burial ground had been established in the north-west section of the land.
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Tantallon Castle is a mid-14th-century fortress, located 5 kilometres east of North Berwick, in East Lothian, Scotland. It sits atop a promontory... opposite the Bass Rock, looking out onto the Firth of Forth. The last medieval curtain wall castle to be constructed in Scotland, Tantallon comprises a single wall blocking off the headland, with the other three sides naturally protected by sea cliffs. Tantallon was built in the mid 14th century by William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas. It was passed to his illegitimate son, later created Earl of Angus, and despite several sieges, it remained the property of his descendants for much of its history. It was besieged by King James IV in 1491, and again by his successor James V in 1528, when extensive damage was done. Tantallon saw action in the First Bishops' War in 1639, and again during Oliver Cromwell's invasion of Scotland in 1651, when it was once more severely damaged. It was sold by the Douglases in 1699, and the ruin is today in the care of Historic Scotland. In 2009 photographs were published which purported to show a ghost in a window of the castle.
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Shirley Ann Manson is a Scottish recording artist and actress, best known internationally as the lead singer of the alternative rock band Garbage.... For much of her international career Manson commuted between her home city of Edinburgh to the United States to record with Garbage but now lives and works in Los Angeles. Manson gained media attention for her forthright style, rebellious attitude, and distinctive voice, which also won her fans throughout the world. Manson has an contralto vocal range. Manson's musical career began in her teens when she was approached to perform backing vocals and keyboards for Scottish band Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie. Quickly she developed into a prominent member of the group and developed a formidable stage presence. Manson was approached by her band's record label with the idea of launching her as a solo artist, and recorded an album with her band under the Angelfish name. After seeing Manson in an Angelfish video broadcast only once on MTV's 120 Minutes, Garbage invited Manson to record vocals on a few of their songs; she eventually co-wrote and co-produced an entire album with the band.
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Ronald Balfour "Ronnie" Corbett, CBE is a Scottish actor and comedian who had a long association with Ronnie Barker in the television comedy series... The Two Ronnies. He achieved prominence in Sir David Frost's 1960s satirical comedy programme, The Frost Report and later starred in the sitcoms Sorry! and No - That's Me Over Here! Corbett was born in Edinburgh in 1930, the son of London-born Annie Elizabeth and William Balfour Corbett, master baker. He has a brother about six years younger, and a sister about ten years younger than himself. Corbett was educated at the Royal High School in the city, but did not attend university. After leaving school, he decided he wanted to be an actor while performing in amateur theatricals at a church youth club. However, his first job was with the Ministry of Agriculture. He then did national service with the RAF, during which he was the shortest commissioned officer in the British Forces. After National Service he moved to London to act, and started his career by playing schoolboy roles in films. At 5 ft 1 in tall, Corbett was suited to playing younger than his years.
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Dame Muriel Spark, DBE was an award-winning Scottish novelist. In 2008 The Times newspaper named Spark in its list of "the 50 greatest British... writers since 1945". She was born Muriel Sarah Camberg in Edinburgh, the daughter of Sarah Elizabeth Maud and Bernard Camberg, an engineer. Her father was Jewish and her mother had been raised a Presbyterian, as was Spark. She was educated at James Gillespie's High School for Girls . The family lived in the Bruntsfield area of Edinburgh. In 1934–35 she took a course in "Commercial correspondence and précis writing" at Heriot-Watt College. She taught English for a brief time and then worked as a secretary in a department store. On 3 September 1937 she married Sidney Oswald Spark, and soon followed him to Rhodesia . Their son Robin was born in July 1938. Within months she discovered that her husband was manic depressive and prone to violent outbursts. In 1940 Muriel left Sidney and Robin.
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Irvine Welsh is a contemporary Scottish novelist, best known for his novel Trainspotting. His work is characterised by raw Scottish dialect, and... brutal depiction of the realities of Edinburgh life. He has also written plays, screenplays, and directed several short films. Irvine Welsh was born in Leith, a port area to the east and now part of the Scottish capital Edinburgh. His family moved to Muirhouse, in Edinburgh, when he was four, where the family stayed at local housing schemes. His mother worked as a waitress. His father was a dock worker in Leith until bad health forced him to become a carpet salesman; he died when Welsh was 25. Welsh left Ainslie Park High School when he was 16 and then completed a City and Guilds course in electrical engineering. He became an apprentice TV repairman until an electric shock persuaded him to move on to a series of other jobs. He left Edinburgh for the London punk scene in 1978, where he played guitar and sang in The Pubic Lice and Stairway 13, the latter a reference to the Ibrox disaster.
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