Partick, Glasgow

What’s it like? The bit of the salubrious West End that still feels properly Glaswegian: cool café bars, delis and boutiques sitting tooth by rough-shaven jowl with classic boozers, betting shops, greasy spoons and pound stores.

Where’s it, like? For the purposes of this column, it’s anything off the stretch of Dumbarton Road between the bottom of Byres Road and the Clydeside slipway. Yes, that includes you, Thornwood. It’s actually one of the best-served areas of the city, transport-wise: Partick Station is one of Glasgow’s major hubs, with access to the Subway, various bus routes and trains. There’s even a direct train to Edinburgh.

Who’s from there? Only the most famous Glaswegian ever. Billy Connolly spent his childhood weekends reading and dreaming in Partick Library, and depending on your source grew up on either White Street or Stewartville Street.

Why would I go there? For the banter or the food, probably. For every late night kebab shop, there’s an equally great restaurant serving inexpensive, excellent cooking, like Ichiban, Roastit Bubbly Jock’s, Bibi’s Cantina, and the vibrant trio of Criterion, Pintxo and the splendidly rock’n’roll Velvet Elvis. If you want to do more than just eat and drink, The Rio Café on Mansfield Park, with its revolving rota of live music, cabaret nights and DJ sets from Glasgow’s indie aristocracy is a good bet.

What about shopping? You mentioned boutiques … Yeees, and there are many in Mansfield Park, but the real joy of shopping in Partick comes from the charity shops, which get progressively more, ah, eclectic the further up Dumbarton Road you go. Partick’s shopkeepers are in an unofficial competition for Worst Pun on a Shopfront: our current favourites are Quali-Tea (they sell tea), Partick-u-lar Dry Cleaning (they sell cleaning) and Glamorous Geggies (they sell false teeth. Obviously).