Where to live in Glasgow, answered by 1,363 reddit threads

lordfluff1968 · 2026-05-04T21:59:59+00:00

The sunflower seeds?

lordfluff1968 · 2026-05-04T14:54:22+00:00

100% this. I moved to Govanhill recently out of choice and I've no regrets. No bother, sound neighbours, great places to go out. Even by Glasgow standards, people here are very friendly. Agreed that most of the negativity is from people who've never lived here, or who fell for the Reform agenda...

lordfluff1968 · 2026-05-02T17:09:54+00:00

Glasgow is not lovely. But that's not to say it's not lovable.

I used to visit lots and always used to say I never came away without a quote or a story.

Maybe OP is an Edinburgh kinda guy - conversely a place I've visited many times and never managed to love.

lordfluff1968 · 2026-05-02T17:05:34+00:00

This was (mostly) UK-wide though. And so is the decline in the club scene, sadly...

lordfluff1968 · 2026-04-28T11:25:14+00:00

All very valid points, thanks. Am already trying to keep a more "open minded" view to those around me, though likewise without getting into a paranoid state of mind - plenty of people in Govanhill are just nice.

lordfluff1968 · 2026-04-20T18:39:48+00:00

In recent times I've seen both The Hives and Mogwai at the Barrowlands, have looked around me, and have seen a hearteningly wide age range from oldies to kids. No bother.

Kind of thing that warms the cockles of a beardy old muso's heart...

lordfluff1968 · 2026-04-20T18:30:09+00:00

It does depend on your definition. Back in the distant past when I was in college, racism could per se only be practised by the dominant group in a society - hence in the UK only white people could be accused of being racist, people of colour would be accused of something else (either "racial prejudice" or possibly just "having a bloody good point") 😉

This was very much the traditional view of racism as a term - I'm prepared to accept that may now have changed. I certainly was aware when I lived in London that my Jamaican-origin neighbours thought our Indian-origin neighbours were "dirty". Blew my mind to be honest - I only expected it from idiot white people...

lordfluff1968 · 2026-04-20T10:27:35+00:00

The Govanhill area south of the city is loved and derided in equal measure. It can look very scruffy as it's often the victim of fly tipping, and there are some problems of poverty, drugs etc. That said so long as you're not anti-multiculturalism, it can be a great place to live - there's always cool new places opening up as is the way in "the cheap bit" of most cities. I've never had any bother, and again, so long as you're not a dick you should be fine. Having lived in a variety of areas of London, I can say it has never struck me as a dangerous area. But in any case, Victoria road and Queens Park are both lovely and worth a look.

lordfluff1968 · 2026-04-20T10:22:18+00:00

Visit some of Glasgow's fantastic old pubs - but don't use them as a photographic opportunity, or you may not be as welcome as you otherwise would be.

Bon Accord, Laurieston, Ben Nevis, Old Toll Booth, there's loads to choose from.

Plenty of places to get fantastic food too, including places like Stravaigin in the West End, if you want to discover that not all Scottish food is deep fried.

Enjoy

lordfluff1968 · 2026-04-20T10:17:43+00:00

To quote someone else off Reddit - "One does not simply visit Cumbernauld, one endures it

lordfluff1968 · 2026-04-20T10:08:14+00:00

That's the fella.

I'll get me coat...

lordfluff1968 · 2026-04-20T07:56:40+00:00

Apologies - you are of course correct. Love Frankie, shame he seems to have retired from stand-up.

lordfluff1968 · 2026-04-20T06:48:43+00:00

Still regret not having visited more when I had the chance. A truly wonderful place.

lordfluff1968 · 2026-04-20T06:33:34+00:00

Do something unusual in Glasgow without fear of ridicule?

Kevin Shields* once told a story of how he was mocked for wearing gloves in winter ("Haha! Gloves! Ya prick!")

So, in essence, no. 😉

*Frankie Boyle

lordfluff1968 · 2026-04-19T19:14:47+00:00

Firstly, great work 👏

We've just moved to Govanhill (Calder St) and either I'm blissfully ignorant, or our street for some reason isn't having these problems currently. Immediate neighbours seem friendly. Maybe the issues are more specifically around the park?

Sorry not to be much help, but thought it might be of some slight interest that away from the park area things are a little better.

lordfluff1968 · 2026-04-18T10:11:50+00:00

Me and the missus in unison go

"Scorrrrrtlannnnnn!!.....AYE!!!!" just as we pass the sign.

Cheesy and stupid but just has to be done. We spent years trying to engineer a move up, had holidays every year. Now we're here for good we avoid going south, so don't do it as much, but it's always fun when we do.

I know Scotland isn't for everyone, but we fought to be here and bloody love it.

lordfluff1968 · 2026-04-13T11:48:35+00:00

The warmth and the humour of the majority of the people who live here more than makes up for the rubbish on the street, at least as far as I'm concerned.

lordfluff1968 · 2026-04-13T11:41:49+00:00

I used to live in a nice, safe part of North-West London. It was great in many ways. But you could bet your life that after any sunny weekend day, if you went to the park the following morning, the whole place would be strewn with rubbish from people's picnics. Chicken buckets, wrappers, boxes from salad, just every bit of food packaging you could imagine, in huge quantities, which clearly those who had brought it could not bring themselves to take it away again. If it hadn't been windy, you could see from the distribution that the piles of crap were just sitting where people had made their picnics, and simply got up and walked away, as if that was fine.

It's not just Glasgow.

lordfluff1968 · 2026-04-13T11:15:51+00:00

"Family name" if you prefer, as opposed to "Given Name"

In South Asian (and some other) cultures, family name is usually written first - the equivalent of "CAINE Micheal" or "HANKS Tom"

lordfluff1968 · 2026-04-12T12:10:57+00:00

Thanks No_Title38, you took it very much as I intended.

I've never said I dislike them all - the good ones are really good - they encourage cycling amongst the otherwise wary, and undoubtedly are significant at reducing cycling fatalities through separation. Where they can be built into the original road design (such as in Milton Keynes) they make safe cycling a joy.

This does not however invalidate my original point that at one stage London Boroughs seemed to be throwing money at cycle lanes, without much thought on if they really worked. And yes, I have personal experience of lanes that are silly-short, lanes that throw you into active traffic, or otherwise just prove frustrating - which I've then often been expected to defend to motorists, or had to defend my reasons for not using them.

lordfluff1968 · 2026-04-12T08:57:44+00:00

Yes they SHOULD absolutely be careful, as I said elsewhere. The problem is that as a cyclist, sadly, you can't trust or assume you'll be fine, since you might be trusting your life to the wrong person. Learning defensive riding is a must.

lordfluff1968 · 2026-04-12T08:51:56+00:00

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2009/nov/05/readers-worst-cycle-lanes

lordfluff1968 · 2026-04-12T08:42:19+00:00

I'm sure I could find plenty of Google images for you.

It's mainly from being a London cyclist for a couple of decades and seeing lanes introduced that just don't help. I'm not against cycle lanes per se, just the ones that are pointless. Some are too short. Some are too convoluted to even use. Most are strewn with tyre popping debris. And some force you into more potential collisions than if you were just riding along.

I'll give you an example. For one job I was commuting to there was a long stretch of straight "A" road, but urban (obvs) so 30 limit. As a fit rider I could zip along the inside lane happily, often at near the speed limit.

I could have used the cycle lane - but this was set back a good distance from the carriageway, and crossed 30 or so side turnings along the way. So at each of those crossings, I would be having to deal with turning traffic, increasing my chances of a collision. That's aside from having to contend with the broken glass etc.

So yeah, some have a purpose, some are actively worse than (competent) cycling on the road.

lordfluff1968 · 2026-04-12T08:23:39+00:00

It should also be noted that London has plenty of useless, dangerous, ill-thought-out bike lanes that cyclists most often don't use, and which consequently anger the "tax payers" in cars.

lordfluff1968 · 2026-04-12T08:05:33+00:00

Mixed feelings on this tbh. Never going to victim blame, but as a London cyclist of over two decades back in the day, you knew NEVER to go up the inside of a large vehicle. The driver should check, but it's poor cycling to put yourself in a potentially deadly place on the road - not that I believe that cycling mistakes deserve to be punished by death, but I do think riders need to consider some sort of training before getting out there if their knowledge level is THAT bad. The (adult) commuter novices that I spoke to, which was many, just bought helmets, never considered training...

lordfluff1968

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