Additional information
Terrain
- City pavements
Landscape
- City streets
Dog friendliness
- Not a great walk for dogs
Parking
- Buchanan Galleries (There is parking at Queen Street Station but not much)
Toilets en route
- Queen Street Station
About the walk
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Glasgow was a growing and prosperous city as the profits from tobacco, sugar and textiles built some of the finest buildings in the land. By the time of the two Great Exhibitions of 1888 and 1901, Glasgow was recognised as the second city of the Empire. The Gallery... of Modern Art, with the pediment now imaginatively decorated with primary coloured mosaic, was, in 1778, the residence of William Cunninghame, a tobacco lord, and later became the Royal Exchange. On Ingram Street is the imposing façade of the Corinthian, formerly the Union Bank. In Virginia Street are many of the buildings of the tobacco and sugar merchants of Georgian Glasgow. At No 51 is Virginia Court, where the tobacco merchants were based from 1817. It later became the home of Jacobean Corsetry, whose sign can still be seen on the wall. Nos 32-35 were the former Tobacco Exchange and then the Sugar Exchange, now converted into shops and apartments. The white square building with the spire at the junction of Hutcheson Street and Ingram Street is Hutcheson’s Hall. It was a hospital built in 1805 with the legacy of George and Thomas Hutcheson. It is now in the care of National Trust. The Hutchesons left the money to build a hospital for the elderly and a school for poor orphans. The school, Hutcheson’s Grammar, also still exists, although it is now a fee-paying private school. Also on Ingram Street is the Ramshorn Church, now used as a theatre by Strathclyde University. It was St David’s Parish Church, but was known as the Ramshorn because of the legend that St Mungo turned a stolen ram’s head into stone on this spot. Medieval Glasgow Moving back in time, the High Street was the ancient centre of Glasgow and around the Cathedral Gardens are some of the city’s oldest buildings. Provand’s Lordship is the oldest house in Glasgow, built around 1471 for the priest in charge of the St Nicholas Hospital. It later became the house of the Canon of Barlanark, rector of the Lordship of Provan. The house has had many uses but somehow survived the centuries to become a museum. Opposite Provand’s Lordship is the medieval Glasgow Cathedral, on the site of previous places of worship, dating back to the founding of Glasgow, when St Mungo first established his cell beside the Molendinar Burn in the 6th century. It is a fine example of medieval architecture, and the only mainland cathedral to have escaped the ravages of the Reformation. Deep within the building, which is more ornate than its stark exterior would suggest, is the tomb of St Mungo, surrounded by four columns supporting fan vaulting.
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