“SIRENS”, CRANHILL
The water tower at Cranhill, situated at
an elevated site at the junction of Stepps Road and Bellrock Street.
It is one of several in the area and can be seen from a great distance
across the city by day, and now also by night since being illuminated. It is still in still in active use, providing a pressurised
supply to the local community. The
theme of water was taken by sculptor Andy Scott for his commission of 2001 from
the Cranhill Water Tower Lighting Committee to provide a work for the enclosure
surrounding the tower.
The commission resulted in the creation of six sculptures distributed around three sides of the structure. The figures can easily be viewed through a high, decorative and protective fence, also by the sculptor. The entry to the enclosure is guarded by an open armed figure of Poseidon, the Greek God of the Sea. To his left, affixed to one of the tower’s pillars, is a salmon taken as an element from the city’s Coat of Arms. Standing in a row to the west are three Sirens, and to the south the crowned figure of a mermaid looks out across the city spreading out in the Clyde valley.
The Sirens were Greek mythological characters with the head of a woman and the body of a bird. Their song enchanted sailors and lured their vessels to destruction on the rocks of the Siren’s island home. In the legend of Odysseus, the hero had himself tied to the mast of his ship as it passed the Sirens so that he could listen to their song while his crew blocked their ears with wax and sailed safely on.
Eerily enough, on a grey day when the wind is blowing, as it often does in the hills of this part of the city, there is a whistling and wailing sound as it passes through the pillars of the tower which could easily be attributed to the Sirens!
The theme of water and the sea is
continued in the Cranhill Sensory Garden more recently developed to the south of
the tower’s enclosure. A number
of streets in this district of the city have been named for British lighthouses,
and the tower now being illuminated is also considered to be a beacon.
Hence it seems to be appropriate that there be a large map of the UK with
significant lighthouses indicated on it by model lighthouses, with 5 standing
stones with information plaques
fixed to them, each listing a lighthouse of significance to the district –
Skerryvore, Longstone, Langness, Start Point and Bell Rock.
© 2005 Gordon Adams
