George Square
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.
Named after King George III and initially laid out in 1781 but not developed for another twenty years, George Square is surrounded by architecturally important buildings including on the east side the palatial Municipal Chambers, also known as the City Chambers, whose foundation stone was laid in 1883, and on the west side by the. Built by Glasgow Corporation, the Chambers are the continuing headquarters of Glasgow City Council. Joseph Swan's panoramic engraving of 1829 shows the early development of the square and its surrounding buildings.
The square boasts an important collection of statues and monuments, including those dedicated to Robert Burns, James Watt, Sir Robert Peel and Sir Walter Scott.
Historical development
Medieval Glasgow had a large area of common pasture to the west and north of the city. Every day, the town herd took the cattle of the burghers along an unpaved road called Cow Lone which led from the Trongate's West Port to pasture on the common, then on to Cowcaddens where the cattle were milked in the evening before returning. Long narrow back gardens or riggs ran north from Trongate properties, forming the Langcroft area, and along its northern boundary Back Cow Lone provided an alternative route west from the High Street. Cow Lone ran north between the Meadowflat lands and the Ramshorn croft, which was bounded to the north by Rottenrow lane, and on the east by Deanside Brae, down via Greyfriar's Wynd to Candleriggs. These lands became George Hutcheson's property in 1609. Hutcheson's Hospital tried to lease areas to small crofts or gardeners but the ground was poor. In 1772 the city magistrates bought the lands of Ramshorn and Meadowflats.From 1750 wealth from tobacco, sugar and cotton brought rapid expansion westwards, with new streets laid out along the riggs, including, starting at Argyle Street, Virginia Street in 1753 and Miller Street in 1762. Cow Lone, impassible in wet weather, was renamed Queen street after Queen Charlotte in 1766, and paved as far as the junction with Back Cow Lone, which in 1772 was straightened and renamed Ingram Street. In that year the town's surveyor, James Barrie, produced a grid plan for the Ramshorn lands, similar to planned development in London and Craig's 1766 gridded plan for Edinburgh's New Town. Barrie produced another plan in 1781, and in 1782 Glasgow's council adopted a grid incorporating a large square. This provided "a regular plan to the line of the streets in which every purchaser was bound to keep", later extended over Meadowflats. In 1782 a house for two families was built in George Square, then there was a four-year pause before rapid growth began. Directly in line with the projected extension of Queen Street, a large mansion was built around 1783 in grounds just south of Rottenrow lane as Bailie George Crawford's Lodging, later known as Glasgow House.
George's square, as it was known initially, was named after King George III. New streets named after royalty included Hanover street and Frederick street. Around 1790 the developments north of Trongate became known as Glasgow's New Town.
Between 1787 and the 1820s Georgian terraces were built around the perimeter of George's square. The west side was a three-storey high block of six tenements, which had three entrances with passageways to turnpike stairs at the back for the upper flats. These "plain dwellings" were "the residences of many most respectable families", but were criticised as looking like soldier's barracks or a cotton mill. The east side was a two-storey high terrace of "comfortable dwelling-houses with a double flight of steps to the second storey". By 1807 a hotel occupied the south end of this terrace, it later became the George Hotel.
On the south and north sides, terraces of large townhouses had three storeys above a basement lit by a sunken area fenced off from the pavement. As Glasgow historian James Denholm wrote of "George's square" in 1804, "The buildings here are very elegant, particularly those upon the north; which, from the beauty of the design, and taste displayed in the execution, surpass by far any other either in this city or in Scotland."
The north side was completed 1807–1818 with three imposing townhouses built between Queen Street and Hanover Street.
James Ewing of Strathleven bought Glasgow House in 1815, its grounds became known as the "Queen Street Park". Crows nested in tall trees around his mansion, and he was nicknamed "Craw Ewing". The centre of George Square had been used as a tip for surplus soil and debris around a stagnant pool, it was enclosed with a paling fence and used for grazing sheep. The first statue, erected in 1819 on the south of the square facing Miller Street, commemorated Sir John Moore of Corunna.
In 1825 the Corporation instructed Stewart Murray, the curator and landscape architect of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sandyford, to improve the square. He landscaped it with winding walks, trees and shrubs, fenced around with an iron railing. Flower shows were organised, held in tents. The centre spot was used to commemorate Sir Walter Scott with the first ever monument dedicated to him. The 80 foot fluted Doric column of Giffnock "liver rock" sandstone was designed by the competition winning architect David Rhind, who appointed John Greenshields to design the statue above, which was executed by John Ritchie. The monument was completed by 1837, some years before Scott was commemorated in Edinburgh.
From March to July 1834 the Steam Carriage Company of Scotland ran an hourly service to Paisley from its terminus at the northeast corner of the square.
In 1838 James Ewing sold Glasgow House to the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, who demolished it and built their terminus in its grounds, with station buildings in Dundas Street. It opened in 1842, and was later named the Queen Street Station, with its main entrance a direct continuation of Queen Street. Several nearby houses were soon converted into accommodation for travellers. The Glasgow and Edinburgh Chop House and Commercial Lodgings, on the west side of the square, was taken over by George Cranston shortly before his daughter Kate Cranston was born in 1849. It was renamed the Edinburgh and Glasgow Hotel, and subsequently known as Cranston's Hotel. Around 1855 town houses on the north side of the square to were converted into The Royal, The Crown and The Queen's Hotel. The Cranstons, seeking to enlarge their premises, moved about 1860 into the Crow Hotel, third from the south end. Around 1866, after the two tenements at the south end were demolished, the Cranstons moved to the Crown Hotel on the north side of the square.
Along the south side, terraces came into new uses or new buildings erected, including business use, manufacturing and tenements. Around 1863 Henry Monteith & Co. had Italian Renaissance-style offices built, probably designed by John Burnet.
In 1865 the two southern tenements on the west side were demolished, and the Bank of Scotland's Italianate building designed by John Thomas Rochead was built in their place 1867–1870, followed in 1874–1876 by a matching extension taking up the central third of the block. The bank's elevation was reflected in the , but symmetry was unbalanced by its corner tower, and the later addition of two more storeys.
Glasgow Corporation took over the management of George Square in 1862. When the Post Office foundation stone was laid by the Prince of Wales in 1878 the square's iron railings were removed, transverse walks formed, and flower beds introduced.
The terrace of houses along the east side of the square was demolished in 1883 as the site for the Glasgow City Chambers, designed by the architect William Young. Its foundation stone was laid on 6 October 1883, and the building was completed in 1889.
The terrace built 1807–1818 between Queen Street and Hanover Street on the north side of the square became known as the Queen's Hotel. In 1905 it became the North British Railway company's North British Station Hotel, and the attic was converted into a fourth storey, under a mansard roof giving further accommodation. Since 1878 Kate Cranston had made a great success of her Tea Rooms. Following the death of her husband in 1917 she sold several of her assets, including the Willow Tearooms, and at the age of 68 settled herself in the North British which was now the last hotel in the square, looking over the sites of the hotels where she had been born and grew up. In 1933 she moved to a house where she was looked after by a lady companion, and she died on 18 April 1934. Following nationalisation, the hotel came under British Transport Hotels. The gable of Queen Street Station's curved glass roof remained visible above its main entrance until 1969 when a new building was constructed supported by columns over the entrance way: this subsequently became an extension to the hotel. In 1984 British Rail sold the hotel, which was now called the Copthorne Hotel, and in 1986 a ground floor conservatory was built along its frontage, extending out to the pavement of the square. It was subsequently renamed the Millennium Hotel, and is now a listed building, the only survivor of the original terraces around George Square.
Major reconstruction of Queen Street Station has seen demolition of its buildings along George Square and round the corner to Dundas Street, construction of the new glazed entrance from George Square began in December 2018. The Millennium Hotel has put forward proposals for major works including new rooms to replace those which were above the station entrance.