Sauchiehall Street

Sauchiehall Street

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] became one of the main shopping streets in the city centre of Glasgow, Scotland, along with Buchanan Street and Argyle 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 is

.

Name

Sauchiehall is a corruption of the Scots sauchie 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

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

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 "

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.

City centre section

At the eastern end of Sauchiehall Street is the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and Buchanan Galleries, one of the largest city centre redevelopments in the UK.^[12] Sauchiehall Street formerly linked directly to Parliamentary Road at its eastern end, which continued through Townhead to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary.

The section from West Nile Street to Rose Street was

, 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.

Clubs and museums

At the western end of the city centre section of the street, towards

References

Media related to Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow at Wikimedia Commons

55°51′56″N 4°15′51″W / 55.86557°N 4.26409°W / 55.86557; -4.26409