A Street Under Argyle Street

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Re: A Street Under Argyle Street

Postby Oldandbold » Sun Apr 25, 2010 4:16 pm

Hi,all. just found this interesting forum and particularly the lost street part. In 1962 I was an apprentice plumber. I recall going to a job in the centre of Glasgow to premisis which may be of interest. I remember this place exactly as you will see further down. We walked down Jamacia St from Argyll St, turned into Midland St, then a few yards along turned again into a long railway arch. This cobbled 'pen' ran quite a distance and at the top right ,a door led down stairs into a large basement. Why this is still vivid in my memory is that this place was used as a Jazz club, 'The Cave ',when we entered a man was playing a saxophone in the empty space. This man was John Dankworth. Thus my vivid recall. We set about some plumbing work ,searching around for drains we found two doors ,one led to a small store but the other led to a long cobbled area, full of odds & ends and what appeared to be doors and old shop fronts. I think these were just stacked up along the walls. This did not attract the slightest comment or attention from either of us. Just another old dunny down a back street, in a city full of such corners. We found the drains in this 'street'. When we finally emerged,JD had been joined by his wife Cleo Lane, preparing for their performance later.They gave us both an autographed photo. Just another day in good old Glesga. Could this perhaps be the source of the hidden street story.
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Re: A Street Under Argyle Street

Postby malcysmith » Wed Aug 04, 2010 9:54 pm

Folks,

Not sure whether this will be any help or not.

I touched on this subject with my boss today who was helpful enough to start discussing various tunnels and hidden parts of Glasgow. He is into scottish railways and the like and knew of the various tunnels beneath Glasgow which are talked about so often on this forum. I then brought up the suggestion of a street under Argyle Street. He is a building surveyor and as a new start completed a job on union street. he informed me that you went down approx two levels beneath Union street to get to these shops stores. One of the establishments he mentioned was the pub which used to be called the 39 steps. I cant picture it purely due to my age! What was interesting was that he said the fire exits for these shops all were at this level and led to corridors to the central side of the property but still underground. He wasnt sure however how far these tunnels travelled.

He discussed the ideas of Grahamston and eventually said he did not believe that something could have existed purely due to the nature of construction of Central Station itself. He did start discussing the arches being used as mail stores in the early days and there being a serious of corridors beneath what is now the arches theatre / club.

Maybe of some use.

Malcolm
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Re: A Street Under Argyle Street

Postby stealthbanana » Sat Aug 07, 2010 10:58 am

I used to know a bloke who was a BR manager based at central from the late 50's. He mentioned that there was a street of shops below. If I remember correctly it was to do with work / expansions of the lower level of the station.
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Re: A Street Under Argyle Street

Postby Fossil » Sun Aug 08, 2010 6:56 pm

mrbongo wrote:As a Fossil once said - we're looking in the wrong street(s).


Thanks Mrbongo
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Re: A Street Under Argyle Street

Postby Special K » Sat Aug 21, 2010 10:01 am

Hi all,
Another new start to your forum.Read all 14 pages and it seems clear that a large petition of interested parties allied to tv or newspaper interest might sway Network Rail to allow further investigation.My own interest in this lies in fact that my oldest ancestor William Scott ,at moment, born c1727 lived in Grahamston from 1750 to 1770+ and in last few days have visited Mitchell library,Duncans Hotel, Grant Arms, noted variations in street layouts around central station and concluded yesterday with a pint in Grahamston Bar in Waterloo st surrounded by, albeit slightly later, pictures of Grahamston early to mid 19th C!
Please keep me informed ,anyone, on further research/discoveries as will I to this forum.
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Re: A Street Under Argyle Street

Postby EastEnd Guy » Tue Aug 31, 2010 2:22 am

there is or was tunnels that ran from the argyle street line train tunnels at trongate up and under what use to be goldbergs and went to the old sherrif court , there is an entrance at shipka pass head along towards argyle street station and a tunnel juts off from it , stores used rooms under street level as store rooms , there was even doors in to the store rooms from the tunnel
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Re: A Street Under Argyle Street

Postby WeeGee » Thu Oct 14, 2010 3:33 pm

Hello!
Was having a wee chat with my Dad this afternoon and I was telling him all about HG and some of the topics covered and we ended up talking about the hidden street!!
Anyway he said when he worked in a butchers back in the 60's he remembers delivering meat to central hotel and going underground where there were lots of rooms with chefs, etc all working away to cater for the hotel above... I dunno just thought I would mention it as it seems to have come up a few times. He said it defintley wasn't a street just rooms below ground......the plot thickens :) ::): I would love to believe there is a street down there but sadly I don't think it's true :(

PS sorry it's off topic but my dad asked if anyone knows where we could get a hold of a photo of DALLAS's shop that used to be in cowcaddens as he used to work there??
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Re: A Street Under Argyle Street

Postby purplepantman » Thu Oct 14, 2010 5:40 pm

WeeGee wrote:PS sorry it's off topic but my dad asked if anyone knows where we could get a hold of a photo of DALLAS's shop that used to be in cowcaddens as he used to work there??


There are a few on Virtual Mitchell....

http://www.mitchelllibrary.org/virtualm ... llas&Go=Go
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Re: A Street Under Argyle Street

Postby WeeGee » Thu Oct 14, 2010 8:19 pm

purplepantman wrote:
WeeGee wrote:PS sorry it's off topic but my dad asked if anyone knows where we could get a hold of a photo of DALLAS's shop that used to be in cowcaddens as he used to work there??


There are a few on Virtual Mitchell....

http://www.mitchelllibrary.org/virtualm ... llas&Go=Go

fabulous! thanks so much for the link!! :D
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Re: A Street Under Argyle Street

Postby malcysmith » Tue Nov 16, 2010 10:56 pm

Not sure if this will be of any use to anyone or not. I have a contact in the newly refurbished Central Hotel who is the facilities manager. She is quite happy to take me on a tour of the hotel whenever I want. Might be an excuse to explore the basement area?
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Re: A Street Under Argyle Street

Postby Josef » Tue Nov 16, 2010 11:42 pm

malcysmith wrote:Not sure if this will be of any use to anyone or not. I have a contact in the newly refurbished Central Hotel who is the facilities manager. She is quite happy to take me on a tour of the hotel whenever I want. Might be an excuse to explore the basement area?


Oh, I think we'll be quite happy to take you up on that, Malcy. Feel free to post a date/time, or PM me or one of the other Mods.
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Re: A Street Under Argyle Street

Postby Bridie » Wed Nov 17, 2010 7:01 am

WeeGee wrote:PS sorry it's off topic but my dad asked if anyone knows where we could get a hold of a photo of DALLAS's shop that used to be in cowcaddens as he used to work there??

Hello WeeGee :D

That was my Gran's favourite shop I remember long slatted wooden floors old display counters and really friendly bubbly sales staff (remember them?) :wink:
What was the full slogan on the windows - "The House That....?
I get confused with the old Cowcaddens area
Whats on the Dallas's site now? - if motorway - which bit?
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Re: A Street Under Argyle Street

Postby rollandpie » Tue Nov 23, 2010 2:00 am

A couple of mates of mine used to work in Stationary Box (now Partners) on Union Street, the basement of which had an entrance to a tunnel which according to one of them 'looked like an underground street" with structures resembling shop fronts. For whatever reason the entrance to the tunnel became obstructed over the years by a mountain of black bags full of unsold stock etc. that was as high as the entrance and apparently pretty deep into the tunnel itself. I was allowed down to have a look but it was completely inaccessible and would have taken a good couple of skips at least to clear. I've no idea what direction the tunnel was running in relation to Argyle St but if it was parallel then perhaps there is another tunnel on the other side nearer Argyle street acting as another entrance to the shop-like structures. Reading this thread reminded me of this and figured it might have been of interest to users.
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Re: A Street Under Argyle Street

Postby oddjobby » Wed Nov 24, 2010 3:40 am

I used to work a shop in Central Station and also heard all of the rumours about the hidden street underneath it. Whether there is or not, I'm unsure as I never went down (the station Manager was really really anal about Health and Safety and I wasn't on good terms with him anyway). It's a pitty now though, I wish I'd made the effort to find someone who knew where it was at the time! Rumours always start somewhere so there must be some kind of truth in it.

I also used to run a shop in the St Enoch Centre. I've never heard of the street rumour for underneath Argyle Street. What I do know is that the basement to the St Enoch Centre runs for miles as the delivery lorries actually go semi-underground to unload. I used to get lost hunting for the deliveries. Someone posted pictures earlier in the thread saying they were under Debenhams, it's actually all the one basement for the shops and centre, as I remember the sound of the water pump very clearly. If you were down there too long your ears would be ringing for an hour afterwards!
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Re: A Street Under Argyle Street

Postby RDR » Wed Nov 24, 2010 7:08 pm

oddjobby wrote:I used to work a shop in Central Station and also heard all of the rumours about the hidden street underneath it. Whether there is or not, I'm unsure as I never went down (the station Manager was really really anal about Health and Safety and I wasn't on good terms with him anyway). It's a pitty now though, I wish I'd made the effort to find someone who knew where it was at the time! Rumours always start somewhere so there must be some kind of truth in it.

I also used to run a shop in the St Enoch Centre. I've never heard of the street rumour for underneath Argyle Street. What I do know is that the basement to the St Enoch Centre runs for miles as the delivery lorries actually go semi-underground to unload. I used to get lost hunting for the deliveries. Someone posted pictures earlier in the thread saying they were under Debenhams, it's actually all the one basement for the shops and centre, as I remember the sound of the water pump very clearly. If you were down there too long your ears would be ringing for an hour afterwards!


Is the basement under the St Enoch's centre n ot part of the original undercroft of the St Enoch's station which would explain why it is so big?
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