Latest news with #AllanRichardson
BBC News
21 hours ago
- General
- BBC News
The artist who swept Glasgow's streets for 30 years
When Allan Richardson was 17 he wanted to go to art school, but one day he returned home from school to find his dad had secured him an interview for a job with the council."All I wanted to do was my art," said Allan. "But my dad said to me, 'you can do your art but you have to have something to keep you'."Allan went to the interview and the following Monday he started work as a "litter boy", going round the streets and emptying the took a back seat over the next decade as he worked in various council jobs before settling on sweeping the streets of Glasgow's west end. For 30 years, until his recent retirement, Allan kept the city's Byres Road and its surrounding streets clean but he also made sure he had his paint palette and sketchbook in his pocket. Drawing and painting almost every day during his lunch break, and often with his handmade sketchbook balanced on the bar of his cart, Allan quickly became accustomed to searching for the west end's hidden gems."People walk by going to work or university, or they're on a phone and they're just walking ahead thinking about where they need to be, but there is so much all around them."That was the good thing about my job, I would see all of that and think 'that's an interesting feature on that building, I might come back and draw that'." Allan, who is now 60, said the area had changed a lot over the three decades he cleaned and painted said Byres Road has always been a centre for students, but the butchers and jewellery stores of the past have now been swapped for chain takeaways and coffee a plan in his head as he swept the streets, Allan has painted hundreds of buildings in the west end from the cobbled backstreets and popular student hangouts to the Kibble Palace in the Botanic Gardens and the iconic tower of Glasgow University's Gilbert Scott Building."There's a lot of good architecture in the west end and there's a lot of history, which I really like," he said. Part of Glasgow west end's story Allan said one of the reasons he stayed in his job so long was the people he met and spoke to each day."For some of the older people in the area, chatting to me would make their day as they maybe wouldn't speak to anyone for a couple of days," he of the people Allan spoke to and became a close friend of was renowned Scottish writer and artist Alasdair Gray."I used to sweep his street," said said he had no idea who Gray was but the paintbrushes in his window had caught his attention as he passed by, so the next time Allan saw him, he asked if he was an artist."He invited me in to have a look around at his work but he never introduced himself," Allan said."It wasn't until later I discovered who he was, and I would chat to him like with any of the other locals."One day Gray asked Allan if he could draw him."I went to his flat and he sketched me," he said."A few years later, I discovered I was going to be on the new mural at Hillhead subway station after its refurbishment, which was fantastic."I can now go to the underground and see myself standing there with my brush as part of the story of the west end." Gray, who is best-known for his first novel Lanark, died in 2019. His Hillhead subway mural shows a panoramic and detailed sweep of the west end, from Byres Road looking east towards the centre of shows many of the streets Allan swept and drew for 30 years. Now retired, Allan said it's time to move on and learn something new as he hopes to do more art classes and explore new places in the city with his Glasgow Urban Sketchers group.
Glasgow Times
22-06-2025
- General
- Glasgow Times
'Local legend' Glasgow road sweeper retires after 43 years
Allan Richardson, 60, started working for Glasgow City Council in 1982 and has retired after 43 years of service. For the past 30 years, Allan, who lives in Kelvinhall, has kept Byres Road and its surrounding areas clean as a road sweeper, but saw his job as much more than that. A well-loved member of the community, he also spent his lunch breaks sketching the area and has delved deeper into the hobby since retiring. But his love for art started in school before he began his council career. 'Local legend' West End road sweeper retires after 43 years (Image: Supplied) READ MORE: Mural painted in memory of tragic ex-football starlet 'murdered' in Glasgow home Allan explained: " I started in 1982, and I was doing a higher art at the time, my dad worked in the cleansing department, he had a word with someone and told me, 'You've got an interview for Friday.' "He said, 'Well, you know you can always do the art later on'. "You know, it was the 80s, and during that time, there weren't many jobs and everything was really uncertain." Allan, originally from Drumchapel, started on Monday after a straightforward interview, during which he agreed that he didn't mind it being a 'messy' job. He spent two days as a binman but said, "That wasn't for me. I wasn't built for that. It was all the bigger-built guys who did the bins back then." Allan is a talented artist draws and paints the streets he used to clean (Image: Newsquest/Colin Mearns) READ MORE: 'Superb' new mural of Still Game star appears on busy city centre street Allan moved into sweeping and around from depot to depot, settling with his patch being Byres Road, where he kept the streets spick and span for over 30 years. He saw a lot of change in the area in that time, and generations of families grew up. He said, "A lot of the residents, you would see them going to school with their kids, and then all of a sudden, you'd see them going to secondary and then into university. "And they come back and they go, oh, you're still here - you're still pushing that cart." He worked through decades of events in the area, remaining a stalwart through the Covid lockdowns and enjoying events like the UCI Cycling World Championships. We asked Allan what his highlight of his decades in the job was, to which he replied, "the people." He explained: "Somebody would come up to me in the morning and say and have a chat, and it'd make my day just to have a five-minute chat and ask what you're doing. "And they would be happy about it as well, you feel as if you're included, you feel as if you've got a presence." His presence was definitely felt by the community, who organised a party for his retirement, and one even wrote a poem about him. A poem written for Allan by Marie Birchard for his retirement party (Image: Supplied) READ MORE: 'I'll crawl across the line if I have to': Dad to run 95 miles in memory of son Resident Carol Martin shared her admiration for Allan, she said: "Rain, hail or shine, he was there. He inspired people, uplifted their spirits, and it was so nice to always see him and know he was there. "He's such a good soul, he gave people 'street therapy' with his chats." The landscape of Byres Road has also changed, and Allan enjoyed spending his lunch breaks sketching the area. He said: "At school, I wasn't any good because I didn't know that until later on when I found out that I was dyslexic. "I can't construct a letter; you know, things that I find quite difficult, but if you say, 'Go and sketch something,' I'll sketch it. "I enjoy my sketching, and I just think it's a release. When I'm sketching, I'm kind of carried away." Some of Allan's artwork (Image: Newsquest/Colin Mearns) READ MORE: 8 of the best decorated cabs at Glasgow Taxi Outing Fund day out to Troon When hearing Allan's story, you can't help but think of the Deacon Blue hit Dignity - he's a worker for the council, has been 43 years. And his art is like his ship, his Dignity, letting him retire into the thing he loves. Allan revealed his favourite street on his patch too, he said: "I like Athole Gardens, I like the buildings and the church, Kelvinside Hillhead Parish Church. I think that's quite a nice area there." You can see some of Allan's artwork on his social media here.
