Princes Square, Glasgow

 

Prince's Square, instantly recognisable to most Glaswegians, but what was there before the shops and dining we know today?  Well, there's a website for Princes Square, which tells us it was first built in 1841 and it was named in honour of the future Edward VII (who succeeded Queen Victoria).  And then it opened in its current form in 1988, 147 years of history with, er, nothing. 

The Virtual Mitchell has nothing listed under Princes Square in its street search, but a search of Buchanan Street identifies this photo:

Kodak camera shop occupies number 46, and number 48 is an entrance to Princes Square, with gates ("Private Cars Only")!  On the first floor, seemingly entered through the door numbered 44, is "Wolfson and Shenkin, Wholesale Importers and Shippers of Oriental Carpets and Rugs, To The Trade Only"  The final window clarifies "Persian, Turkey, Chinese and Indian Carpets & Rugs" for those in any doubt.

On the sign above the gateway, just above the 'P' and 'r' of "Princes" a sign that is side-on to us is visible but cannot be read.  

Also from the Virtual Mitchell we have another view:

This photo is dated 1963.  It has some features in common with the previous one - for example the shoes visible in a window at the far left of the photo above are now revealed to be part of the display of Saxone's.  However, the sign that was side-on now appears to be three separate signs, plus the sign for Prince's Square appears much smarter

We now learn that The Power Petroleum Company and TS Cuthbert, Jeweller, are based in Princes Square as they have an arrow pointing through the arch; the RAF sign is less determinate.

But what is through the arch?  We have to switch to the excellent Canmore website, which provides this view from Buchanan Street:

The cars suggest the 1970s to me.  Salisbury's has replaced Kodak.  The sign for Prince's square survives from the second Mitchell photo above, as does TS Cuthbert's.

And at last we have the view from inside Prince's Square:

The gateway in the previous photos is visible to the right.  It's rather shocking to see cars parked in the space and this weird, sticky-out building seemingly dominating more than half the square.

Next we need the wonderful National Library for Scotland mapping website.  This allows you to stick a pin in a modern map and see the historical maps also showing the same spot.  We can now see Prince's Square in 1860:

We can compare it to the 1967 map:

and see almost nothing had changed in that time.

I cannot resist also showing the beautifully hand-drawn map by Charles Goad's for fire insurance, dated 1924:

For comparison, here are a few modern views to compare to the Virtual Mitchell photos:

Google Street View will not allow an exact comparison with the second photo from the Mitchell, but here is an approximation:

Of the businesses we encountered earlier, TS Cuthbert the jeweller survived until 1984 - I cannot improve on this post so have reproduced it to give the author full credit:

The Power Petroleum Company started as the Medway Oil & Storage Company ("The Great Explosion" by Brian Dillon), probably in the 1920s.  It seems to have been a petrol and oil trading company and eventually became part of British Petroleum (BP).

Wolfson and Shenkin barely register anything on a Google Search, apart from some notes on the background of the Shenkins.

I am amazed there is no online resource covering Glasgow's business of the last 150 years.