Major update on Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street – and it’s good news for shoppers

GLASGOW’S grim-looking Sauchiehall Street is set to be ready in time for Christmas as the multi-million-pound makeover resumes.

The £5.7million refresh for one of Scotland’s most iconic shopping streets was halted for two weeks during the Glasgow Fair holiday.

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Work on the project began in September last year as part of Glasgow City Council‘s wider regeneration plans.

Over 30 trees were removed from one of the city’s main shopping thoroughfares before it was fenced off with a section dug up the middle.

The project, known as the Sauchiehall Precinct and Cambridge Street Avenue, was due to be completed by this summer.

But it was hit with a number of delays after issues with “underground utilities”, design changes, and a two-week break for contractors from July 11 to July 28, causing building works to be pushed back several months.

A new end date was then issued for the end of the year, but council chiefs have now revealed that works should be completed in time for Christmas.

Speaking to STV News, Ruairi Kelly, the council’s Convener for Neighbourhood Services and Assets, said they are hopeful people will be able to to enjoy the city during the festivities “as they should”.

Sauchiehall Street is one of the most famous streets in the world and it’s a disaster

Alex Muir63-year-old firefighter from Maryhill

He said: “Now that the contractors are all back from the Glasgow Fair, we’re getting straight back into work.

“We’re still on target to be having the vast majority of construction work done by the end of the year. We’ll still have tree planting do after that, but that’s seasonal dependent.

“The upheaval has been an unfortunate aspect of doing renovation work in the area.

“We want to do that as soon as we can to get people back into the area for the Christmas period.

“Ensuring that there’s not upheaval and disruption and that we can welcome people back into the city centre and they can enjoy it as they should.”

Locals have blasted the state of Sauchiehall Street in recent months, claiming the street that was once Glasgow’s “iconic jewel” has now become a lost “ghost town”.

The iconic thoroughfare once welcomed shoppers from across the country for a day of retail, entertainment, food and drink.

But snaps of the once-bustling retail centre of the city showed its streets destroyed and its boarded-up shops graffitied.

According to reports from 2022, over 35 per cent of the 1.5-mile-long street’s shops, offices and domestic properties lay vacant.

The place has deteriorated significantly over the years, I’ve worked in town all my days… The place is horrible

John McCall58-year-old from Glasgow

Images of the dilapidated street shared on social media showed the street in all its sorrow.

At the start of the year, the street was lined by closed-down and boarded-up shops lathered in graffiti.

And locals previously told The Scottish Sun that they felt like the city was in such a mess that it looked like “it had been bombed”.

Fireman Alex Muir, from Maryhill, said: “Sauchiehall Street looks like it’s been bombed.

“We’ve got iconic buildings lying empty that no one is going to rent as they’re too expensive”.

The 63-year-old added: “Sauchiehall Street is one of the most famous streets in the world and it’s a disaster.”

While Lina Wilson, 56, from Glasgow, said: “Glasgow is an absolute mess, it’s the same everywhere you go in the city centre.

“It’s not very inviting for people coming into the city. It’s quite scary, it’s intimidating… I wouldn’t be in the town if I didn’t work here.”

And John McCall from Glasgow, now Lanarkshire, has always worked in the city centre and told how he’s noticed a change.

The 58-year-old said: “The place has deteriorated significantly over the years, I’ve worked in town all my days.

“Most of the shops are short-term lets, the streets are in an absolute state with litter and chewing gum. The place is horrible.

“The litter bins are covered in stickers and graffiti, I don’t think they’re doing enough to keep it clean.”

Scottish Retail Consortium’s deputy head Ewan MacDonald Russell told STV News that the city has seen a dramatic slump in footfall in recent years.

He explained that a number of store closures, the rise of online shopping and the after-effects of the coronavirus pandemic have caused the city to “underperform quite significantly”.

He said: “Since the pandemic, we know that towns and city centres across Scotland have fallen by about 10 per cent.

It would be great to see Sauchiehall Street back to what it was, to see Glasgow as a big shopping destination which it had been

Ewan MacDonald RussellScottish Retail Consortium’s deputy head

“Glasgow has fared a bit better than the country as a whole, but it is actually underperforming quite significantly.”

Russell added: “Sadly in Glasgow, there is less opportunity for retailers. Lots of retail businesses have pulled their store estates back.

“Sauchiehall Street has been the casualty of a lot of those decisions.”

But he hopes that the new works in Sauchiehall Street will give the city a much-needed boost.

Russell said: “It would be great to see Sauchiehall Street back to what it was, to see Glasgow as a big shopping destination which it had been.

“As the economy rebalances in future years, hopefully we’ll see a bit of that.”

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