 ,Sauchiehall Street looking eastwards from carpark location | |
| Former name(s) | Sauchie-haugh Road[1] Sandyford Street (western section, until 1900s) |
|---|---|
| Type | Commercial/Transport |
| Maintained by | Glasgow City Council Transport Scotland |
| Length | 2.5 km (1.6 mi) 11.7º from east-west |
| Location | Glasgow |
| Postal code | G2 3 / G3 7 |
| NearestGlasgow Subway station | Buchanan Street subway station |
| Other | |
| Known for | Buchanan Galleries,Cameron Memorial Fountain,Glasgow Royal Concert Hall,St Andrew House, Glasgow,Cineworld, Glasgow,Willow Tearooms,Glasgow Film Theatre,Glasgow School of Art,Glasgow Dental Hospital and School,Beresford Hotel,King's Theatre, Glasgow,The Garage, Glasgow |
Sauchiehall Street (/ˌsɔːkɪˈhɔːl,ˌsɒkɪ-,ˈsɔːkɪhɔːl,ˈsɒkɪ-/)[2] is one of the main shopping streets in thecity centre ofGlasgow,Scotland, along withBuchanan Street andArgyle Street.
Although commonly associated with the city centre, Sauchiehall Street is over 1.5 miles (2.4 km) in length. At its central west end isCharing Cross, followed by theCategory-A listed crescents and terraces which lead up toPark Circus, finally meeting Argyle Street in theWest End in front ofKelvingrove Park and theKelvingrove Museum, where they merge to form Dumbarton Road, continuing throughPartick.
Sauchiehall is a corruption of theScotssauchie hauch;sauchie "abounding inwillows" andhauch "river-meadow; level ground beside a river".[3][4]Hauch can be mistaken for the Scotshaw, pronounced the same, meaninghall.[3]
At its height, from 1880 to the 1970s, Sauchiehall Street was one of the most famous streets inGlasgow, and known internationally, due to its panoply of entertainment venues, galleries and high quality stores.[citation needed]The desire of wealthy merchants from 1800 onwards to own property on the outskirts of the city meant thatBlythswood Hill andGarnethill started to be developed as part of the 'New Town of Blythswood'. Its first major developer wasWilliam Harley[5][6] of Bath Street fame, who also planned and developedBlythswood Square[7] in the 1810s onwards. As a consequence, the meandering country road from the cathedral to Partick through the willows, and between these hills, acquired the name of the Saughie-haugh road. The first terraces of townhouses were built in the 1810s by William Harley.[6] After it was widened in the 1840s it was named Sauchiehall Street and attracted more villas, tenement housing from 1860s, shops and eventually offices. A few of the original villas remained as of 1896, and lastly the 1960s, according to theOrdnance Survey map of Central Glasgow.[1][6]
Over time, the street became home to a number of notable buildings. This included theGlasgow Empire Theatre which was opened in 1897 at 31–35 Sauchiehall Street. The theatre played host to big names such as Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Dorothy Lamour, Jack Benny and Danny Kaye before it closed on 31 March 1963. TheRoyalty Theatre was also situated on Sauchiehall Street, opening in 1879 and showing operas, comedies and plays up until its lease ran out in 1913. Afterwards, during theFirst World War, it was purchased by theYMCA to become a hostel for soldiers and sailors. The building lived out the rest of its days after the war as the Lyric Theatre, before it was demolished in the late 1950s.[8]
By the early 1900s the street contained theatres, picture houses, ballrooms, clubs, hotels, restaurants, art galleries and departmental stores such as Pettigrew & Stephens, Copland & Lye, Trerons, with theatres in adjacent streets, including the Kings Theatre in Bath Street, Theatre Royal in Hope Street and the Pavilion Theatre, in Renfield Street, and Glasgow Art School in Renfew Street.[9][10]
Glasgow's first "skyscraper", theArt Deco styleBeresford Hotel, was built further along Sauchiehall Street in 1938 for theEmpire Exhibition, Scotland 1938. It later became offices for ICI and then a hall of residence forStrathclyde University before being converted into private apartments. Its "moderne" architecture was novel when it was built and the original mustard-coloured stonework with red fins was rather unkindly described as"custard and rhubarb architecture".[11]
In 2014 Sauchiehall Street was the subject of the documentary TV seriesThe Street.[12]
In September 2019, a £7.2 million investment by Glasgow City Council as Sauchiehall Street Avenue was completed to help regenerate part of central Sauchiehall Street creating a multifunctional service verge, two-way cycle lane, two lane carriageway along with plantation of trees, shrubs and free wireless internet through the street.
At the eastern end of Sauchiehall Street is theGlasgow Royal Concert Hall and Buchanan Galleries, one of the largest city centre redevelopments in theUK.[13] Sauchiehall Street formerly linked directly toParliamentary Road at its eastern end, which continued throughTownhead to theGlasgow Royal Infirmary.
The section from West Nile Street to Rose Street waspedestrianised in 1972, with the easternmost part, linking toBuchanan Street, pedestrianised in 1978. The central part of the street consists of remaining retailers, theMcLellan Galleries and theWillow Tearooms, designed in 1903 byCharles Rennie Mackintosh, which has been restored to its original artistic designs and is open to the public as a tea room, restaurant and Mackintosh venue centre.[14] Nearby in Renfrew Street is theRoyal Conservatoire of Scotland.
At the western end of the city centre section of the street, towardsCharing Cross, there are restaurants, bars and student-oriented clubs. Landmarks in this area of the street, or near to it, include the formerBeresford Hotel,Glasgow School of Art in Renfrew Street, theGlasgow Film Theatre in Rose Street,CCA Glasgow, the formerMcLellan Galleries, theRoyal Highland Fusiliers Museum and theGlasgow Dental Hospital and School.[15]
Media related toSauchiehall Street, Glasgow at Wikimedia Commons
55°51′56″N4°15′51″W / 55.86557°N 4.26409°W /55.86557; -4.26409
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