woodie20 wrote:
Particulary interested in what happened to the original shops, and whether people feel the square has lost its identity since the opening of 'upmarket' shops?
Woodie, I can't help you with the 'upmarket' shops, but I can help you a bit with an old shop that was part of the square for countless years. I'm talking about a bookshop called I think, "William Porteous", which stood at the corner of the square where it opened out to go to Buchannan St.
This shop always had a great selection of history books, especially ones dealing with military and naval history. It was also a great source of information relating to Clyde pleasure steamers. As well as books, they had, an enormous selection of picture post cards of ocean liners, Royal Navy ships and Clyde steamers. It was for example, one of the few shops in Glasgow which I knew of which sold "Janes fighting Ships".
Their selection of books dealing with old Glasgow, railways, charts and maps, was very good. They also sold books dealing with the sport of sailing, and the better class magazines. It was also a great source for works by Scottish authors.
The last time I was in the shop, probably about 16 years ago, I bought an instrument for measuring map distances; they were also selling tourist Scottish souvenirs. I could be wrong, but I got the impression their collection of all the previously mentioned material wasn't just as exciting as it once was... but maybe it was just that I didn't find it just as exciting as I once did.
The first time I visited this shop was probably in the very early forties. The last time I visited the location of the shop, about ten years ago, but again just a guess, I stood at the place where it once was, and a passer-by told me the shop had closed; I was very disapppointed. My wife and I then went into the square and sat outside a little tearoom in the sun (first time I'd ever sat outside a tearoom in Glasgow!)...the end of one era, the beginning of another, eh?
Good luck with your project Woodie! Cheers, Dugald.