Greenbank House

[anteros_lmc]

Today we went for a wee trip to Greenbank House, a Georgian house and gardens on the south side of Glasgow owned by the National Trust for Scotland. The house and gardens were built in 1763 by Glasgow tobacco baron Robert Allason. Allason started life as a baker but made his fortune trading tobacco and slaves between Calabar, the Caribbean, Virginia and the UK. Like many, Allason lost a fortune during the American Wars of Independance and was forced to declare himself bankrupt and sell his new country house at Greenbank.

ETA I've just come across this interesting, and very honest, article Uncovering Mearns History - Greenbank, about how the Allason's connection to the slave trade was rediscovered.

Only two rooms of the house have been restored and are open to the public as the rest are used as NTS offices. The window above the front door belongs to the most gorgeous little sun room on a half landing on the way up to the first floor. I so want a room like that! The gardens were a bit in-betweeny when we visited today, as the spring flowers had passed and the summer flowers weren't quite in bloom. It's a lovely spot though, definitely worth a few return visits.



Greenbank House

	Look who we met there!
"Foam" by Barles D'Orville Pilkington Jackston. Originally exhibited at the 1938 Empire Exhibition in Glasgow.	Greenbank House doorbell.

Comments

[esmerelda-t.livejournal.com]

Allason started life as a baker but made his fortune trading tobacco and slaves between Calabar, the Caribbean, Virginia and the UK.

Cake and bread :D. Slave Trade :( Lovely Gardens though.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Yes. Mr Allason should have stuck to the bakery trade. There's an interesting, and very honest, article here about how the family's links to the slave trade were uncovered. I suspect there were few, if any, Scottish merchants of that period whose hands were clean :/

[esmerelda-t.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, Glasgow's entire wealth was built on tobacco, and where there was tobacco there was slaves. I went to a really interesting talk on the whole subject a few years ago about how Glasgow was both built on the slave trade, yet one of the most pro abolutionist cities in Britian,

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Glasgow's entire wealth was built on tobacco, and where there was tobacco there was slaves.
Yes indeed. And that should neither be denied nor forgotten.

went to a really interesting talk on the whole subject a few years ago about how Glasgow was both built on the slave trade, yet one of the most pro abolutionist cities in Britain,
I remember you telling me about that talk. I'd have been really interested to hear it. Can you remember who it was by?

[esmerelda-t.livejournal.com]

I think his name was Alan? I seem to recall he was a retired prof but history was perhaps not his academic field? It really was a great talk and he was a great speaker, he'd lived in the deep south in the 1960's and had been involved in the civil rights movement, which he was very modest about it. He seemed to me to be the rarest of people, the sort that did the right thing for no other reason that it was the right thing to do.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

People like that are truly an inspiration.

I had a quick google to see if I could find his name. Too many possible references to search through just now, but I came across this interesting pdf on Scotland and the Slave Trade, published to commemorate the abolition in 2007.

[esmerelda-t.livejournal.com]

That looks really interesting, I shall have a read of that during the week I think.

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

And few USA merchants, North or South.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

So much wealth built on so much human misery :/

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Yes the topiary and the textures were lovely! They had a fabulous collection of hostas and a whole garden full of grasses.

I confess I wasn't sure if they had misspelled your namesake or if you had adapted it for a username :} It was a lovely specimen though. Prodigiously prickly!

[amaraal.livejournal.com]

Beautiful garden! I saved the iris to my hard drive :)

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

It was a very pretty iris indeed. Almost as pretty as my very beautiful white tiger which daughter is coveting madly! :)

[katriona-s.livejournal.com]

Ah, beautiful house and nice garden! It must be a pleasant outing there.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

It was a lovely outing! The gardens are really not far from where we live but we had never been there before. I would like to go back in mid summer or early spring when more of the flowers are in bloom.