St. Enoch Square is a public square in Glasgow, Scotland, situated south of the junction of Buchanan Street and Argyle Street, two of the city's busiest shopping streets. [1]
St. Enoch Square is a public square in Glasgow, Scotland, situated south of the junction of Buchanan Street and Argyle Street, two of the city's busiest shopping streets. [1]
The square sits on land that once was the western part of Glasgow Green, alongside the river Clyde, and reportedly had a chapel and burial site of St Thenew (St Enoch) mother of St Kentigern. The site changed hands to the Luke family of goldsmiths, managers of the soaperie in Candleriggs and owners of the glass-works next to the Clyde, who in turn sold it to the Merchants House of Glasgow, [2] and from there to Glasgow City Council who laid the foundation stone of St Enoch Church in 1780. [3] [4] It is one of six squares in the city centre. [5] [ circular reference ]
The square, always of a quiet and retiring nature then, was joined by grand Regency style buildings between around 1780-1820, the focal point south of the centre being St Enoch's Church, originally designed by James Jaffray [6] in 1780. The church was later substituted for another, this time designed by David Hamilton [7] in 1827. [8] The centre was planted with grass and shrubbery with an iron railing round it, and grazed with sheep. The grass plot remained till about 1860, when it was removed to make way for the farmers, who in that year, were prohibited from meeting in Stockwell Street on the Wednesday market-days. [9] With increasing traffic and a congregation now living further away the church was demolished in 1926, in order to allow space for a bus terminus and car parking. [10]
In the 1860s many streets, of houses, shops, warehouses, restaurants, hotels and inns, and theatres including the Theatre Royal in Dunlop Street, [11] and David Brown`s Royal Music Hall, [12] on the east side were demolished to make way for the railway lines of the Glasgow & South Western Railway Company crossing the Clyde. One of the major buildings on the square, which had to move, was the Faculty and Surgeons Hall of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow which moved to new premises 242 St Vincent Street on Blythswood Hill where the College remains today. St. Enoch Station opened in 1876, with its St. Enoch Hotel opening in 1879. The hotel was then the largest hotel in Glasgow, with over 200 bedrooms. The station and hotel were both one of the first buildings to be lit by electricity in the city. The hotel eventually closed in 1974, and was used as a car park until work began on the indoor St. Enoch Centre in 1985, designed by Arup Associates and built by Sir Robert McAlpine & Sons. A £150 million refurbishment programme began in 2005. This work concluded in May 2010. [13] Along with this work, St Enoch Square received an upgrade, transforming the area into a plaza like environment, housing large screens for broadcasting, and generally creating a more pleasant urban area for pedestrians. [14]
Refurbishment of the St Enoch Underground, created in 1896, began in 2014, and was completed in 2015, in an attempt to create a more modern and efficient environment. The £5.3 million contract involved replacing the entrances to the subway with new entrance canopies made of glass and steel, replacement of the floor, wall and ceiling materials, and general upgrading of facilities and equipment. [15] [16]
Located adjacent to the square is the St Enoch Centre, on the site of the former station and hotel, the largest glass-covered enclosed commercial area in Europe. The current east row, containing the St Enoch Centre buildings, retains a lot of the same architecture as they originally did, barring the storefronts of the many shops along the street level.
The original two-storey Subway ticket office building, designed by James Miller in 1896 for the Glasgow Subway, uses Flemish Renaissance architecture. The masonry is polished ashlar, most distinguished by the use of it in the 4 turrets that are corbelled out at each corner of the building. The original building is now a coffee shop. [17]
The IET Glasgow: Teacher building, used for meetings and offices, but originally the headquarters of whisky distillers William Teacher & Son Ltd designed in 1875 by James Boucher, [18] is on the west side of the square. To the south and into Clyde Street is the A-listed Custom House of Glasgow designed in 1840 by John Taylor [19] at the Broomielaw to collect dues and monitor imports from the expanding shipping traffic. It sits atop the town`s early glass-works.
Hosted every year between November and December, the Glasgow Christmas Market takes place in St Enoch Square. The event offers continental beers along with mulled wine that are readily served at Continental Bars that will be present during the time. [20]
Glasgow is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 635,640. The city was made a county of itself in 1893, prior to which it had been in the historic county of Lanarkshire. The city now forms the Glasgow City Council area, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and is governed by Glasgow City Council. It is situated on the River Clyde in the country's West Central Lowlands.
George Square is the principal civic square in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is one of six squares in the city centre, the others being Cathedral Square, St Andrew's Square, St Enoch Square, Royal Exchange Square, and Blythswood Square on Blythswood Hill.
Helensburgh is an affluent coastal town on the north side of the Firth of Clyde in Scotland, situated at the mouth of the Gareloch. Historically in Dunbartonshire, it became part of Argyll and Bute following local government reorganisation in 1996.
The St. Enoch Centre is a shopping mall located in the city centre of Glasgow, Scotland. The centre is located adjacent to St Enoch Square. The Architects were the GMW Architects. The construction, undertaken by Sir Robert McAlpine, began in 1986, and the building was opened to the public on 25 May 1989. It was officially opened by the then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, in February of the following year.
Buchanan Street is one of the main shopping thoroughfares in Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland. It forms the central stretch of Glasgow's famous shopping district with a generally more upmarket range of shops than the neighbouring streets: Argyle Street, and Sauchiehall Street.
St Enoch station was a mainline railway station in the city of Glasgow, Scotland between 1876 and 1966. The hotel was the first building in Glasgow to be fitted out with electric lighting. The station was demolished in 1977.
The Kelvin Hall, located on Argyle Street in Glasgow, Scotland, is one of the largest exhibition centres in Britain and now a mixed-use arts and sports venue that opened as an exhibition venue in 1927. It has also been used as a concert hall, home to the Kelvin Hall International Sports Arena to 2014, and from 1988 to 2010, Glasgow's Museum of Transport. As part of the economic redevelopment of Greater Glasgow promoted by the Scottish Development Agency and local authorities to enhance the city's tourist infrastructure and to attract further national and international conferences, the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre was designed as the Hall's successor for exhibitions and entertainments, built and opened on the nearby Queen's Dock in 1985 with an exhibition area equal in size to the Kelvin Hall but with the benefit of extensive car parks and land for other complementary buildings. The Hall is protected as a category B listed building, and is served by city bus services and by Kelvinhall subway station.
Blythswood Hill, crowned by the elegance of Blythswood Square, is the wealthiest part of central Glasgow, Scotland. It extends from the west edge of Buchanan Street to Gordon Street and Bothwell Street, Charing Cross, Sauchiehall Street and Garnethill. Developed as the city's wealthiest and healthiest residential area from 1800 onwards, its Georgian and Victorian architecture continues as a Conservation Area of international note. It started as the "Magnificent New Town of Blythswood" becoming an integral part of the city-centre's business and social life.
The City of Glasgow Union Railway - City Union Line, also known as the Tron Line, was a railway company founded in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1864 to build a line connecting the railway systems north and south of the River Clyde, and to build a central passenger terminus and a general goods depot for the city. The through line, running from south-west to north-east across the city, opened in 1870–1, and the passenger terminal was St Enoch railway station, opened in 1876. The railway bridge across the Clyde was the first in the city.
St Enoch subway station is a station on the Glasgow Subway in Scotland. It is located north of the River Clyde in Glasgow city centre. Although it does not have direct interchange with the main line railway, it is located approximately halfway between Glasgow Central railway station and Argyle Street railway station, within a few minutes' walk to both. The subway station is accessible via St Enoch Square.
Bridge Street railway station, now disused, was the original Glasgow terminus of the Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway; jointly owned by the Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock Railway (GP&G), which later merged with the Caledonian Railway, and the Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr Railway (GPK&A), which became part of the Glasgow & South Western Railway.
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James Miller (1860–1947) was a Scottish architect, recognised for his commercial architecture in Glasgow and for his Scottish railway stations. Notable among these are the American-influenced Union Bank building at 110–20 St Vincent Street; his 1901–1905 extensions to Glasgow Central railway station; and Wemyss Bay railway station on the Firth of Clyde. His lengthy career resulted in a wide range of building types, and, with the assistance of skilled draughtsmen such as Richard M Gunn, he adapted his designs to changing tastes and new architectural materials and technologies.
Glasgow Cross is at the hub of the ancient royal burgh and now city of Glasgow, Scotland, close to its first crossing over the River Clyde. As a major junction in the city centre, its five streets run: north up the High Street to Glasgow Cathedral, Cathedral Square and the Royal Infirmary; east along Gallowgate and London Road, close to St Andrew's Square; south on the Saltmarket to Glasgow Green and the Justiciary Buildings; and west along Trongate continuing as Argyle Street towards St Enoch Square and Buchanan Street.
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