The Fabric of a City

How one textile travelled thousands of miles without leaving Glasgow

The iconic fabric: 'zingy orange jostling against deep red and cool grey'

If you had taken a ride on the Glasgow Subway before 2024, you would have been well-acquainted with the bright, patterned moquette fabric that covered the seats. Zingy orange jostling against deep red and cool grey, the colour palette nodded to the system's emblematic orange branding. It was a constant companion to the millions of Glaswegians who travelled on SPT's circular route over the years. 

The material that was used on the Subway's 90s-era trains is one of many examples of public transport moquettes: hardwearing carpet-like fabric used in metros, buses, and trams all over the world. Due to its presence in high traffic public spaces, the fabric on the Glasgow subway has become heavily associated with the city it represents and a part of the lives and memories of Glaswegians.

Commuters on the Glasgow Subway trains might be able to vividly recall its tactile nature - the feel of the rough fuzzy texture under their fingers, bringing up the sense that it has absorbed decades of the city's comings and goings.

Before the fittings of the carriages were revamped in the 90s, commuters would have sat on seats covered in leather or even ones made of varnished wooden slats. Many had been in use since 1896, when the Glasgow Subway was opened to the public. It was the third oldest subway system in the world. But the new seat moquette, which was just as up to date as the fabrics used on the London Underground, brought it decidedly into the modern age. 

Original wooden Glasgow Subway carriages with leather covered seats, 1977. Credit: Gordon Haws on Flickr

The eye-popping seats of the early 90s were produced in part by interior designer Anna Campbell-Jones, then working as a junior designer on the interior refit of the Metro-Cammell rollling stock for London-based design consultancy Tilney Lumsden Shane. 

Textile designer Pat Lumsden was commissioned to take on the pattern, while UK textile manufactuer John Holdsworth and Co., now called Camira, produced the fabric itself, made of a blend of 85% wool and 15% nylon. The intricate, playful moquette was designed to disguise the wear and tear that would surely be inflicted on it, and like many other elements of the interior fittings, such as the rubber floors, the fabric was composed of mostly natural materials. Speaking about the moquette, Anna Campbell-Jones points out that this was for a reason:

"Synthetic materials can be highly volatile in enclosed spaces. So that was an intentional choice we made."

When the original Metro-Cammell rolling stock took its last journey around the tracks in 2024, this moquette was retired from public use along with the trains that had served the public for almost 50 years. Having travelled over thousands of miles on the Subway's circular tracks, its final journey was from the depot to us at Whistledown Scotland.

With our team, one of those train cars found a second life. We're producers of bold and outstanding audio for clients like the BBC, Audible, and Spotify, and we decided that the car would be the perfect location for our podcast venture: Subway Studios. Nestled in a corner of Finnieston, we've converted Car 105 into a podcast studio suited for all your audio needs. It's also bookable for photo shoots, events, and DJ sets. 

When we saw the fabulous original moquette-covered seats, we knew that they had to stay - after we'd given them a good clean. Get in touch if you'd like to record a podcast, plan a photoshoot, or just get up close with the fabric of Glasgow's history.