I walked by this building daily for several years. It was in use then. Recently, I’ve been walking that old route that takes me through Elmbank Street and even on a bright day, it’s chilling to see it like this. This building is another stunning piece of architecture designed by 19th-century architect Charles Wilson. I’ve written a little about him before, in that he also designed (among many other landmarks around Glasgow) the entrance to Glasgow’s Southern Necropolis, which formed the stage for my urban horror short, City of the Dead.
This building was originally the home of a private school, Glasgow Academy, from 1846. When The Academy moved to the west of the city, it then housed The High School (the oldest school in Glasgow, established in 1460) until 1976. It has since been used as council offices and by the police and is now empty. The most recent proposal I read was that it’s under bid to undergo a 20 million pound transformation into a hotel and wedding venue. Hopefully, this old piece of history will get its new lease of life in the city. It’s sad to see it looking so abandoned amidst the changing dynamics as modern steel beams and glass-faced builds tower around her.
Did you know I grew up in the place that inspired the primary settings for the book Asylum Daughter?
The building I lived in no longer stands. Like much of Easterhouse, it has been flattened. Unlike other parts of the suburb, nothing has been built on that site. The land remains derelict, forgotten. Woodland sprawls behind where blocks of flats once stood. Bishop Loch stretches out within the woodland, then a little behind the loch stands the blackened sandstone twin towers of the old, foreboding, gothic administration building of Gartloch Asylum.
Bishop’s Loch, with the towers of Gartloch’s administration building.Bishop’s Loch, with the towers of Gartloch’s administration building on the left.
Since its establishment between the 1950s and 1960s, the suburb of Easterhouse is, unfortunately, more known now for drugs, gangs and poverty. Still, the area is historically significant to Glasgow (and Monklands), though being on the outskirts, it may seem unlikely. Bishop Loch (Bishop’s Loch of Bishoploch) was home to Iron Age communities. During medieval times, it was part of a vast estate owned by the Bishops of Glasgow. Check out the historic environment record of the site here.
Gartloch Asylum (inspired the fictional Lochwood Asylum in Asylum Daughter) was located by Bishop Loch, between Gartcosh Village and Easterhouse. Glasgow Council acquired Gartloch estate in 1889 to build the hospital. Receiving its first patients in 1896, after that, a tuberculosis sanitarium, and nurses’ home were built on the estate. The hospital supported the war efforts during WWII and then became part of the National Health Service when it was established in 1948. The hospital declined from the 1980s and closed in 1996, one year before her centennial. In her almost 100 years as a functioning asylum, Gartloch has stories to tell. Just before the closure, the hospital was used as the fictional setting of St Jude’s Hospital in the Scottish drama. ‘Takin’ Over the Asylum’ (staring one of my favourite doctors as a patient!). Explore the historic environment record for the hospital here.
In the present day, the estate is known as Gartloch Village. Several buildings were converted into homes and apartments, with new housing built around the site. The grade A listed Administration building still stands looking over the village, though derelict, it continues to deteriorate year-on-year.
Until the development of Gartloch village (and for some, even now), the spot was favoured by urban explorers and those who love the thrill of the mysterious and abandoned with the enticing ‘do not enter’ signs.
If you fancy exploring how I used this estate as my setting, pick up a copy of my psychological horror, Asylum Daughter, and let me know what you think! Bishop Loch also inspired the stage for two of the stories featured in A Life of Suicides.
Thank you to everyone who has supported my work this year.
And especially to those who have never read me before and taken a bite of my brand of macabre, magic and mayhem. I hope you enjoyed what you’ve tasted.
With much more on the dark horizon, I am offering Clan Witch ebooks for just £1 each.
If you fancy getting your e-readers (or reading apps) stuffed by me, just PayPal £1 (per book) to natashasinclairauthor@gmail.com , along with your chosen title(s) and email address, and I will deliver.
These are the markets where you can find me loitering behind a table this month. If you fancied picking up a wee book or two direct from me, you know where to find me. I’ll have some framed art prints and a few original framed OOAK pieces as well. As always, I carry limited hardcovers to events, so if you want any of those, you are welcome to order in advance to avoid disappointment. Just drop me a direct message / email.
Titles that I’ll have on hand:
#BeBrazen Autumn Equinox Edition
#BeBrazen Summer Solstice Edition
Delevan House
Clan Witch: Found Shadows
Incesticide: Collected Horror
Murmur: Collected Horror
Asylum Daughter
A Life of Suicides
Concoction V1
Concoction V2
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: A story of love & survival through NICU
I don’t carry any threads except for those who have pre-ordered to collect, so if you fancy a cool Tee or hoodie, visit my Etsy.
This is where you can find me in Glasgow between July and December for signed books, art prints, proverb pins and a wee blether. Come chat me up!
Special market-only prices for these 2023 dates are listed here. ⬇️
If you are attending any of the dates and fancy a shirt or hoodie as shown in my Etsy store, order in advance, and I’ll have your goodies ready to collect on the day! The quality is excellent and all garments are vegan and made in the U.K..
Market Price List 2023
The last date to secure clothing orders being picked up on the 22nd or 23rd of July @ Merchant City Craft & Design Fair, Glasgow, the 3rd of July.
If visiting me at The Gothic Market, Trades Hall, Glasgow on the 6th of August, the cut-off date for these orders is the 17th of July.
Hardcovers are heavy! I’ll have limited stock of these at my tables, but if you are coming to one or two of those, you can order in advance for collection.
As a child, I used to beg my parents not to drive by it. “Please, can we take another road to get there?” I’d plead.
I’d have a visceral reaction on approaching this place. My insides would fill up with a sickening feeling like the air was choked with poison. My skin would prickle. Terror. Revulsion. Anger. Pain. Screaming. I could feel them scream. And how no one cared to stop it. What a world we live in. We turn so many blind eyes; it’s a wonder we see anything at all.
I hated being anywhere near this part of town because of the abattoir. On the edge of the east of Glasgow city centre — less than a mile away. It even had its own cattle ramp for the animals arriving by train at night.
The abattoir and meat market was in operation from 1911 to 2001. I can’t go through this area without thinking of the slaughter.
Since its closure, part of the site was used as a city car auctioneer, but that has long since moved too. Some of the facades remain intact and front a modern apartment development, which was part of the area’s regeneration. Behind those, overgrowth tries to reclaim the bones of remaining structures. New developers will move in soon.
It may look a certain way on the surface… I can still hear them.
Music is a massive part of my life, inspiring me when I work. It helps me find grounding when the the Earth has fallen from my feet, and I can’t find anything else to tether onto. Art is a wonderful way of distracting us from pain or helping us face and conquer the demons taking up space. The title was chosen in homage to Nirvana — I am a huge grunge fan, and it is one of my comfort-food genres, so it felt natural to fall into that.
The artwork followed the title. What’s more grunge, punk and indie than doing it all myself? I love to paint too. I guess the creative streak is profoundly ingrained in my wheelhouse, even when I suppressed those urges in years gone by. I took this idea and continued my homage to the title. I didn’t overthink it and just went with the flow, inspired by and creating my spin on Kurt Cobain’s cover art for Nirvana’s Incesticide.
Dandelions (dandelion wishes) are my favourite flower. The invasive weed wields healing properties. Her seed is carried in the sweep of a breeze, and she’ll resist suppression, taking deep root wherever seeds land. She’ll bloom through cracks in the concrete — nature dominating and cleaning the disaster of man. I replaced Kurt’s poppies with dandelion seed heads. Though this element is scarcely visible on the Incesticide: Collected Horror book cover, as the figures took central focus on the wraps.
Those two forms: I switched the small figure to the opposite arm and painted them with only a loose nod to Cobain’s originals. I fleshed out my forms but maintained a skeletal accent to the larger figure. For the small child figure, I wanted to recreate that mannequin/doll base but with a dance that quietly echoed the larger one. I think they quickly transformed into ‘mother’ and ‘child’ when painting them, more so when I stepped back and saw a ghost of my daughter’s face in that child form. My ‘koala baby’. With that, it made sense that’s where my paintbrush went. That revelation then paints more sense onto the wide-eyed, dishevelled ‘mother’. The art for Incesticide became personal. Perhaps a bit of a mirror to PND. A little horror of life that has nothing to do with the collection’s contents.
As well as the Ts and Hoodies on my Etsy, prints of the Incesticide artwork are available if you find me skulking in the shadows with my books and other entwined wares at some cool events this year.
Have you visited TBM Horror lately? Well, it’s a phenomenal platform created and hosted by a dynamic and passionate creative force, lover of all things horror 💀 and metal 🤘, owner of Disturbing Drawings (you MUST check out her artwork), Mar Garcia!
Mar kindly had me over in her space for a blether, shared on TBM’s YouTube channel.
Scoot over to TBM Horror to check out great (regularly updated) content on Horror in creative industries, from articles, books, movies, bands, video games and art!
If you fancy checking out my natter with Mar, the YouTube links are here:
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