Shopping
Former Scots shopping hotspot ‘decaying’ as multimillion pound revamp ‘failing’
THE slow-moving revamp of Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street has “not worked the way anyone wanted”, a leading business expert has warned.
A “sense of decay” has settled into the once bustling retail hotspot despite Glasgow City Council embarking on a multimillion revamp of the Sauchiehall Precinct and Cambridge Street last September.
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Once the shopping capital of Scotland, our bleak pictures show how the famous thoroughfare remains an eyesore one year on from the start of £5.6million resurfacing work as part of the Avenues project.
The work intended to rejuvenate the area after a series of serious fires and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on traders, and was set to be completed this summer.
However, the completion of the project was pushed back several times and will now conclude by April 2025, taking in a second Christmas period with the street looking like a building site.
Major retailers such as Marks and Spencer’s, Sports Direct and Holland and Barratt have all left the street since 2022 – with ongoing delays to construction works leaving remaining retailers concerns about footfall and more empty units.
Now Stuart Patrick, the chief executive of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, has said he remains “frustrated” that the works have not changed the “look and feel” of Sauchiehall Street.
Patrick told The Times the redevelopment has only “added to the sense of decay” with “one of the main streets looking like a building site”.
He said: “Sauchiehall Street has not worked the way anyone has wanted.
“Would I go as far as saying Sauchiehall Street has been a disaster?
“I wouldn’t go quite so far.”
City council chief Susan Aitken vowed “the biggest project of its kind in the UK” would create “a more attractive environment for everyone in the city centre”.
The works included road and footway reconstruction and planting new trees, meanwhile boarded up buildings remain covered in graffiti and retail units sit empty.
Patrick said the lengthy delays in the completion of the work on the main pedestrianised street, which has taken over 450 days so far, has caused a football drop of around 20 per cent.
He continued: “You have really got to tackle the empty units, the public transport, and the look and feel.”
According to Patrick, urgent improvements to the public realm also need to be tackled including fixing the “broken pavements” and the “broken street furniture”.
Glasgow Chamber of Commerce also warned that the city is now trailing behind Edinburgh and Manchester, as the city experienced a 2.4 per cent year-to-year decline.
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”.
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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.
Images of the dilapidated street taken several days before Christmas showed the street in all its sorrow.
THE AVENUES PROJECT
THE renovations works on Sauchiehall Street is being funded by the UK and Scottish Government.
The aim of the project is to transform city centre streets to create attractive and people-focused high-quality places.
It is also set to form part of a network of pedestrian and cycle priority routes that will feature trees and rain gardens, enhanced lighting whilst bringing improved connectivity.
Workers have already dug up a section of the street, fenced it up and removed dozens of trees in the area.
The project will also connect to Rose Street and stretch to West Nile Street as well as connect Cambridge Street Avenue and stretch to Cowcaddens Road.
Rain gardens, 40 street trees, and new kerbing and lighting and road, are set to the installed as part of the project.
Pavement and footway reconstruction is also expected to be included in the development.
Sauchiehall Avenue, between Charing Cross and Rose Street, was the pilot project for the programme and was completed in 2019.
The streets were lined by closed-down and boarded-up shops lathered in graffiti.
And we told how shoppers and traders were left infuriated amid claims 15 workers on the project were axed before the festive season.
Insiders revealed the lay-offs have left just a handful of labourers working on grim-looking, fenced-off sections.
A Glasgow City Council spokesperson said. “Work on this project is progressing well.
Read more on the Scottish Sun
“While there has undoubtedly been disruption and the work was delayed due to the discovery of uncharted utility works on Sauchiehall Street, the finished works will be worth it as they will bring a significantly improved environment that is easier to get around – making it more attractive for everyone who lives, works or shops there.
“Current investment in a few sites on this stretch of Sauchiehall Street – including the former Marks & Spencer store – means that further regeneration will soon be seen on this key city centre street.”
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