Blond sandstone tenements along Byres Road, and the library Still Game used for Jack and Victor's lunch break.
What Hillhead looks like
runs through as the shopping street, red and blond sandstone tenements four storeys tall lining it with shops below and flats above. The side streets climb away from Byres Road at a steep grade, the same tenement design repeating from one corner to the next, bay windows and carved door surrounds under pitched slate roofs. Some corners, like , carry a turret with a conical roof.
is a cobbled backstreet off Byres Road, lined with restaurant and bar fronts, a short walk from Hillhead subway station. The Grosvenor Cinema's terracotta front and the Ubiquitous Chip's courtyard both open onto the lane.
faces the University of Glasgow across University Avenue, a Corinthian columned portico in pale stone. From several streets nearby the university's own spire rises above the tenement rooflines, visible past a corner turret or at the end of a block.
Kelvingrove Park and the River Kelvin curve around the area's southern and eastern sides. A footbridge crosses the river under tree cover, and a path through the park runs under a line of blossom trees on the slope facing the tenement streets. Buses pass Òran Mór's domed corner where Great Western Road meets Byres Road at the top of the hill.
Shot in Hillhead
on Byres Road has appeared twice in the sitcom Still Game. Series two used it for Jack and Victor's tomato soup lunch break, and series four returned there for Tam's proposal to Frances.
Still Game
Hillhead Library
Jack and Victor's lunch break in series two and Tam's proposal to Frances in series four were both filmed at Hillhead Library. The concrete front and entrance are unchanged, under the building's current name, Hillhead Library and Learning Centre. Street View
Marchmont's four storey blond sandstone tenements carry the same bay windows and steep cross streets as Hillhead's, built across roughly the same decades. Warrender Park Road and the streets off it repeat one tenement design block to block, the way Hillhead's do around Great George Street. Marchmont's own streets run wider and flatter than Hillhead's side streets, so a shot needing a real incline should stay off Warrender Park Road itself. Try searching sandstone tenement bay windows now.
Jesmond's Victorian terraces line a shopping street of small parades and awnings, built across the same late nineteenth century decades as Byres Road. The side streets climb gently away from that shopping street, the same pattern as Hillhead's. Jesmond's brick and stone mix reads differently in close facade shots than Hillhead's sandstone, so a wider street shot holds the match better than a close one. Try searching Victorian terraces shopping street now.
Botanic Avenue runs from the university down through a shopping street of small independent shops and flats above, the same relationship Byres Road has to the University of Glasgow. The red brick terraces are a different material from Hillhead's sandstone, but the street's scale and the university at the end are close. Belfast's red brick would need to stay out of close facade shots, since Hillhead is sandstone throughout; a wider shot of the shopping street reads closer. Try searching university shopping street now.
