University of Glasgow

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Kate's KBS conference this year was held, June 9-13, at the University of Glasgow (see 50th KBS 2025 Scotland). We stayed nearby on Partick Bridge Street (Partick is a major street in the West End but there is no bridge on Partick Bridge Street). 

KBS sessions and meetings were held in the James McCune Smith Learning Hub — a bit of modern Brutalism surrounded by the classic architecture of the old university. And by "old" I mean really old; apparently the university was founded by a papal bull in 1451 ... the same year Columbus was born! Take that Harvard.

Often times Kate and I would take an Uber to the conference and I'd go exploring the area. Just up the hill are the gates to the old University with the new Library and the Macdonald/Mackintosh House of the Hunterian Gallery across the road. There are some pictures of the Hunterian Museum and the Cloisters in the photo album; that's in the old part — the Gilbert Scott Building. 

There's two courtyards to the Gilbert Scott Building with the Cloisters in between. There 's plaque on a wall there to James McGill who was an alumni and founded University of McGill in Montreal (where Kate did her first undergraduate years).

There is a chapel at the one end of the building very near the Lion and Unicorn staircase (1690). There's another plaque on a nearby building to Lord Kelvin (a peerage title, his real name was William Thomson) and a building named after him. The Kelvin River is a green space to the south side of the University; I walked down there to find my way to the Kelvingrove Gallery and Museum.