history of sauchiehall street in glasgow

 Sauchiehall Street is a name unique to Glasgow and yet known well beyond the city limits. It’s a long street by Glasgow standards and was renowned for its department stores, hotels, cinemas, restaurants and tearooms as well as art galleries and a range of smaller businesses. Much of the street is situated on a hillside that was probably once moorland, parts of which may have been wooded and others later cultivated. The sauchie haugh or willow meadow from which the street derives its name was probably a low-lying area located near what would later become Charing Cross. The development of Sauchiehall Street was part of the westward growth of the city, spurred by the desire of wealthy merchants to own property on the outskirts. Villas and terraces with distinguished names like Kensington and Windsor Place were constructed during the second decade of the 19th Century and the street became a quiet and narrow suburban thoroughfare known as Saughie-haugh Road. It was widened in 1846 and then in the 1850’s some of the older buildings were replaced with tenements and in the 1870’s with commercial properties. The 1896 Ordnance Survey map of Central Glasgow still shows some villas remaining on the north side of Sauchiehall Street in the section between Thistle Street and Scott Street.

This view, looking East along Sauchiehall Street, was taken from an upper room in the Grand Hotel. On the left are the Charing Cross Mansions, superbly designed by J. J. Burnet for Burnet, Son & Campbell and built in red sandstone in 1889-91. Newton Street opens on the right and William Skinner’s tea rooms are on the ground floor at the corner facing the camera. William Skinner & Son was one of the oldest established tea room enterprises in Glasgow, having been founded in 1835. The business started out further up Sauchiehall Street and in due course established a reputation for teas and luncheon. The premises were furnished in the French style and cultivated an atmosphere of conservative elegance. ( There is some discussion of William Skinner & Son’s enterprise in the comments section. ) On close examination, the Standard tram cars in view are fully enclosed and still have the color-coded upper panels so this view probably dates from the mid to late 1930’s.

This view, looking East along Sauchiehall Street, was taken from an upper room in the Grand Hotel in 2013's.

wokway authentic Chinese-Thai fusion Takeaway located in the Sauchiehall Street of glasgow