If you want me, I’ll be in Magpie’s Nest, and if you ask nicely I’ll take you across the road to the Pearce Institute for a plate of chips as big as ships before we take a wander along to the new bridge. Look at that view across to the museum; you’ve got to love it. And you’ve got to admit: there’s a bit of a transformative feeling going on in Govan right now that could be good for all of us.

Quick catch-up if you’re not local. Magpie’s Nest is the best vintage shop in Glasgow (don’t argue); you always find something good on the bookshelves and you’ll probably end up going home with some of their cups and plates and other bits and pieces too. The Pearce Institute (as in William Pearce the shipbuilder) is the community building that does big lunches and mugs of tea. And the bridge you know about: it’s the new footbridge connecting Govan and Partick that’s helped to change the look and buzz and feel of this part of the city. I want to talk about it, and some of the other things going on, because they are signs of hope; they are ideas we can use.

There are still issues of course. I was in Elder Park the other day looking at Fairfield farm, or what’s left of it. It’s the oldest building in Govan, 18th century and a dairy farm until the ‘20s, but it’s in some state. As far as I could see – and I couldn’t get close because of the security fencing – the roof is not long for this world and the grounds are in a terrible way: rubble, litter, the ubiquitous shopping trolleys, and bits of luminous graffiti: Rangers, Ogre, BRS Crew, G51 Rule It.

But Elder Park is, in other ways, one of the signs of hope. The library on the edge of the park has just reopened after a fine restoration (I’m writing this at an old desk that once sat in the........

© Herald Scotland