Three streets that have become emblematic of Glasgow also came to define a multitude of city childhoods. A walk along these streets was once called “up Sauchie, doon Buckie and alang Argyle”. The phrase describes a stroll that links Glasgow’s three main shopping streets in an almost perfect Z-shape: Sauchiehall Street, Buchanan Street and Argyle Street.
If you were being chivvied into town – usually to accompany your mum and your gran – from the north side of the city, you would alight at Buchanan Street and make your way along Sauchiehall Street towards Glasgow’s western approaches.
After an hour or so of being cajoled in and out of shops and dragged away from window displays, you would double back and barrel down Buchanan Street, hoping that a tea and cakes emporium might persuade the two significant women in your life to rest up before going for the big push on Argyle Street, where the shops seemed more affordable. Buchanan Street was always for show but the dough was usually spent on its slightly more raggedy sister stretching eastwards towards Glasgow Cross.
Buchanan Street still thrives and is one of the UK’s busiest shopping areas outside London. Argyle Street, despite the removal of gorgeous St Enoch station, also remains vibrant. Of these three famous thoroughfares, Sauchiehall Street retains our affection most. Its name alone sounds exotic and it’s probably the one with which most Glaswegians first became familiar. There was always something a little anarchic and heady about Sauchiehall Street. In its 1930s heyday it was home to theatres and taverns sitting among the retail emporiums, and has retained that bohemian character, with nightclubs, entertainment venues and those big theme pubs that do TV screens and lager promotions.
However, in the last year or so, Sauchiehall Street has been dealt three huge blows. If it is not to become a ghost street that is only good for nostalgic documentaries and shunned by its own citizens, Glasgow city council and Scotland’s myriad economic development agencies must show some boldness and ingenuity. An alarming number of empty spaces had already begun to appear, making Sauchiehall Street look like the retail equivalent of a pensioner’s grin. This was before a BHS, one of its jewels, disappeared last year. This was followed by the fire that engulfed a nightclub complex and many retail outlets at its eastern end. The fire last month at Glasgow School of Art’s Mackintosh building, perched on a hill behind Sauchiehall Street, has turned almost the entire length of Scotland’s most recognisable road into a breaker’s yard.
To understand how crucial this street is to the culture and economy of Scotland’s biggest and most important city, you need only look at the network of streets running off this artery. These are all nourished and replenished by its footfall. A combination of local authority myopia and changing shopping habits had reduced this over the past decade or so, but a regeneration of sorts was underway on its western approach. This involved widening the pavements to encourage the evolution of a cafe society. Yet this, although welcomed by most retailers, was undermined by an almost complete absence of any communication, or willingness to take their concerns on board. Visitors were greeted by demolition and building work in full view, when something as simple as painted screens could have been erected to hide it. No matter now; the Mackintosh fire has changed everything.
One prominent business owner on this stretch said that dozens of retailers were facing ruin in the aftermath of the fires. An absence of communication or strategic leadership is evident. People are being actively discouraged from going anywhere near Sauchiehall Street by police cordons and demolition work at two of its busiest junctures. “People here need to know that there is an action plan in place and it would help if they could be given an indication of when they can resume business so that they can make financial arrangements with their banks and reassure their staff,” I was told.
A petition has already been organised to have the Mackintosh building rebuilt, brick by brick, regardless of cost. There is a strong case for this, although it should only happen if it comes under public ownership and is administered by a consortium of our main heritage agencies. But there is a much more compelling case for saving Sauchiehall Street, which has existed in something like its present form for almost a century more than the Mackintosh. Arguably, it plays a much more important and authentic role in the lives of Glaswegians than the Mackintosh will ever do. There is no reason, though, why both cannot be rebuilt.
I support the rebuilding from scratch of the Mackintosh, but as the centrepiece of an artistic, cultural and economic redevelopment of the big street that sits behind it. I’d also encourage the Scottish government, Glasgow city council and Scottish Enterprise to grant mini-enterprise zone status to Sauchiehall Street, with significant terms of rate relief for existing and new businesses for up to five years.
Last week, the Sunday Mail revealed how Scottish Enterprise had given dozens of multimillion-pound handouts to some of the richest individuals and companies on the planet, including more than half a million to an unnamed beneficiary for reasons of “business confidentiality”. Somehow, a case can always be made for rich people to receive eyewatering amounts of public cash in speculative ventures. For smaller businesses providing the lifeblood of a city, it just got tougher.
• Kevin McKenna is an Observer columnist
