Although commonly associated with the city centre, Sauchiehall Street is over 1.5 miles (2.4 km) in length. At its central west end is Charing Cross, followed by the Category-A listed crescents and terraces which lead up to Park Circus, finally meeting Argyle Street in the West End in front of Kelvingrove Park and the Kelvingrove Museum, where they merge to form Dumbarton Road, continuing through Partick.
Name
Sauchiehall is a corruption of the Scotssauchie hauch, sauchie; abounding in willows and hauch; a low-lying meadow by the side of a river (compare Sausalito, California). Hauch is pronounced 'haw' in Scots and can be mistaken for the Scots haw, pronounced the same, meaning hall.[3]
History
Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow at the McLellan Galleries about 1920Sauchiehall Street, c. 1910
At its height, from 1880 to the 1970s, Sauchiehall Street was one of the most famous streets in Glasgow, 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 that Blythswood Hill and Garnethill started to be developed as part of the 'New Town of Blythswood'. Its first major developer was William Harley[4][5] of Bath Street fame, who also planned and developed Blythswood Square[6] 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.[5] 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 the Ordnance Survey map of Central Glasgow.[1][5]
Over time, the street became home to a number of notable buildings. This included the Glasgow 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. The Royalty 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 the First World War, it was purchased by the YMCA 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.[7]
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.[8][9]
Glasgow's first "skyscraper", the Art Deco style Beresford Hotel, was built further along Sauchiehall Street in 1938 for the Empire Exhibition, Scotland 1938. It later became offices for ICI and then a hall of residence for Strathclyde 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".[10]
In 2014 Sauchiehall Street was the subject of the documentary TV series The Street.[11]
Regeneration
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.
The section from West Nile Street to Rose Street was pedestrianised in 1972, with the easternmost part, linking to Buchanan Street, pedestrianised in 1978.
The central part of the street consists of remaining retailers, the McLellan Galleries and the Willow Tearooms, designed in 1903 by Charles 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.[13] Nearby in Renfrew Street is the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
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