First, I need to work out how to get in, past the fences and the walls and the barbed wire – am I breaking some kind of rule? There are the usual signs of urban ruin: fly-tipped rubbish, a shopping trolley, upside down, wheels in the air, and some graffiti left by the Union Bears that someone has plastered with ‘Simply the Best’ Celtic stickers. This is not the bonniest part of the city by any means. But up ahead is hope.

The hope, small but growing, is provided by the great empty sheds that cover a barren bit of land about the size of a couple of football pitches (Celtic or Rangers). There are still signs of the site’s previous life in bits of mysterious but once-useful industrial machinery. There’s also a sign – “Glasgow Car Market” – that tells you what this place was more recently, but it’s been empty and abandoned now since the 1990s. The buddleia love it, the urban sparrows love it, but no one else seems to.

Except that the plans for its regeneration and rebirth have taken another step forward this week with a big dollop of cash – £4.4million – from the City Deal, which is funded by both the UK and Scottish governments. It’s the arrangement that built the Govan/Partick bridge and the aim’s the same: to build infrastructure and transport networks, fund key regeneration projects, and encourage private investment, the theory being that strong communities are more than houses – they are the links between the houses and the places people go to be together. The £4.4m means this latest project in the East End of Glasgow really is going to happen.

The East End is a perfect choice as well, because a lot of the regeneration (some will call it gentrification) is under way already. I don’t........

© Herald Scotland