Four storey red and blond sandstone tenements along Dumbarton Road, and the corner Trainspotting used near Partick Cross.
What Partick looks like
Dumbarton Road runs through Partick as a commercial spine, four storey tenements in red and blond sandstone with shops filling the ground floor behind painted fascias and roller shutters. Corner blocks carry bay windows, and the sandstone continues largely unaltered above the shopfronts for blocks at a stretch. Dumbarton Road meets Byres Road at , where Partick Bridge Street and Coopers Well Street also join.
Off the main road, streets such as climb into rows of the same red sandstone tenements, chimney stacks along the roofline and bay windows repeating from block to block. Cars line the kerb on both sides. A six storey former school building with a stepped gable and tall arched windows stands at one corner, its ground floor windows now curtained.
gathers a subway station, a railway station and a bus station within a few streets of each other. The subway platforms run underground behind dark tile, and a railway line passes nearby on an embankment. The Clyde is a few streets south of the interchange.
Burgh Hall Street holds , built in 1872 in French Renaissance style. Carved panels run above its ground floor windows, and an ornate bell tower rises at roof level.
Shot in Partick
Trainspotting shot two scenes on Partick's own streets. Diane writes to Renton outside a shop on Byres Road at Partick Cross, and Tommy and Lizzy wait outside a video shop on Dumbarton Road for it to open.
Trainspotting
Two street scenes, a letter written outside a Byres Road shop and a wait outside a Dumbarton Road video shop, both on Partick's own pavements rather than a set.
Trainspotting, 1996
Diane writes a letter to Renton outside number 19 Byres Road, mentioning Sick Boy's proposition and that Spud sends his regards. The scene plays on the pavement, tenement shopfronts on both sides of the street.
Trainspotting, 1996
Tommy and his girlfriend Lizzy wait outside a video rental shop at 329 Dumbarton Road for it to open, believing a personal tape was returned to the wrong customer. The unit sits mid-terrace in a four storey red sandstone block, between Purdon Street and Anderson Street.
What Partick can double for
Charleston in Paisley, Renfrewshire
Charleston's tenement flats on Neilston Road, Stock Street and Espedair Street are three to four storeys with shops on the ground floor, built of the same blond sandstone as Partick's own blocks. The scale and the shopfront arrangement read close to Dumbarton Road's. The tenements here were extensively restored from the 1980s onward, so paintwork and shopfronts read newer and more uniform than Partick's. Partick's mix of red sandstone alongside the blond is missing here too. Try searching blond sandstone tenement shops now.
Leith Walk keeps the same four storey tenement-over-shops form for over a mile, with bay windows and a continuous commercial ground floor much like Dumbarton Road. The scale and the shopfront rhythm are close. Edinburgh's tenements are built from cream Craigleith stone rather than Glasgow's red and blond, which shows in any colour shot. Most have three separate street doors rather than Glasgow's single close entry, visible in a wide view of the doorways. Try searching tenement shops Leith Walk now.
