Glasgow Chamber of Commerce’s Stuart Patrick said works on the pedestrianised part of Sauchiehall Street have already taken more than 450 days (Image: staff) At the same time as the £115m Sauchiehall Street cosmetics have been proceeding, access to the city centre from the north and west has been severely restricted by ongoing repairs to the Kingston Bridge foundations and an elaborate lattice of cycle lanes. A two-way cycle lane runs directly outside the row of shops that houses his supermarket. A trench running the entire length of the street has been added, which we both think might become an elongated flower-bed. Right now though, it’s become a repository for discarded takeaway detritus.
“In the time it’s taken to build this cycle lane outside my shop,” he says, “in China they’d have already built two train stations and an airport.”
A couple of hundred yards further along Cambridge Street it turns into a demolition yard. It’s been like this for as long as anyone around here can remember. “I’ve been here 37 years and this is the worst it’s ever been. We’ve all been told it’ll be nice when it’s finished but you begin to ask yourself if all the disruption and whatever it costs will be worth it.”
He points to what had once been a flower shop next door. It was forced to close last year. “Those poor owners had been operating successfully on the south side for more than 20 years before they moved here ten years ago. The disruption around here and the length of time it’s taking didn’t help them.
“Once, customers in these shops could park outside. But this cycle lane has stopped all that. In fact, some of the cyclists still use the pavements, but when you point to the cycle lane they should be using you just get abuse from them.”
In the 30 minutes I’ve been on this street not one cyclist has used their shiny new green highway.
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And yet, Cambridge Street is thrumming with industry and vigour. An East Asian micro-economy has emerged here in spite of the challenges caused by Glasgow City Council’s scotched earth policy on re-design. The names on the shops bear testimony to an unfailing optimism and ingenuity underpinned by sheer hard graft. They all deserve to be named. On this three-block stretch you’ll find Asia Salon, Yo Hot Pot, The Philippine store, The Curry Cottage, Boba Bakes and the Hong Kong Club, Mr Lim’s Oriental comestibles emporium, Hua Yi Tang traditional Chinese Medicine and the Seoul Korean Barbecue.
A council poster tells us that the work being done on these streets will see the introduction of a “high-quality public realm that will one of the key shopping destinations in the city centre is welcoming for visitors and highlights our aspirations for a vibrant, sustainable city”.
But at what cost? And how many of the shops already here will have survived the drastically reduced footfall caused by the over-extended time this project is taking? In an interview in The Herald last week, Glasgow Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive, Stuart Patrick pointed out that the major public realm works on the pedestrianised part of Sauchiehall Street had already taken more than 450 days.
He said: “Sauchiehall Street’s footfall dropped by 20%: affected by that work,” and added that Sauchiehall Street “has not worked the way anyone has wanted” and that the whole process had “added to the sense of decay”.
Up on Wellington Street on the other side of the precinct, John Quigley, one of the city’s best-known restaurateurs added his own frustrations. The owner of Red Onion restaurant, like Mr Lim, said he’d never seen the place look so wretched.
John Quigley has been operating restaurants in this neighbourhood for more than 30 years (Image: staff) “I’ve been operating restaurants in this neighbourhood for more than 30 years,” he said. “As far as I can see, they’ve just replaced the bricks on the pedestrianised part of Sauchiehall Street. Just after Covid there was a wee guy who took over the police box and put out chairs and was serving nice coffees and falafels underneath the trees with the lights. It was a great idea. But they took it off him. They could easily have accommodated him.”
He’s appalled at how much damage has been done to the retail trade around Sauchiehall Street.
“At this end it looks like a condemned street. I thought they might have approached a few of us who operate restaurants to maybe provide some pop-up, open-air outlets on this stretch.
“Meanwhile, the prohibitive parking charges makes it seem as though they are hell-bent on killing the city centre. By lifting the parking charges at the weekend would provide a major boost to the businesses around here. Who wants to spend 20 quid or so on a few hours’ parking when they come in to the city centre? I shudder to think of how much money they’ve spent on this.
“We have 50 American customers in here every night of the week from March to October. They’ve become the core of our business. But you couldn’t confidently tell them to take a walk down Sauchiehall Street. You’d be ashamed. You might once have pointed them in the direction of the Art School because that’s our Sistine chapel, but let’s not even go there. And then look at that massive crater where the ABC used to be. It’s wrecked the entire end of that street too.”
Mr Quigley though, said that the city’s Chinese and other east Asian communities could save Sauchiehall Street. “The Chinese community have built a micro-economy here in the same way that the Asian and eastern European communities have revived Govanhill and Queen’s Park.
Sauchiehall Street in 1970 (Image: staff) “The Asian and Chinese student communities are keeping the lights on in Sauchiehall Street. There’s a mixed grain superstore that’s always going like a fair and there will be a lot more of that. They’re arriving here in droves and spending money. The Tesco at that end of the street is full of Chinese kids. It’s great to see.”
At the other end of Glasgow’s most famous street, the equally renowned Savoy Centre has borne the brunt of the economic hits caused by the lengthy makeover. Down here they could rename this old boulevard ‘Businessasusual Street’. This legend is plastered all over the metal fences that now separate the shop fronts from their old customers.
Not that there are many businesses left here. M&S remains a graffiti-covered shell and weeds are already beginning to appear in the upper reaches of the former Dunne’s department store just up the street.
The Savoy Centre is the stalwart shopping emporium which meets all your retail and food needs with minimum fuss and financial outlay. These little units with their newly-painted store signs represent optimism and an eagerness to overcome the concrete chaos on their doorsteps.
Shona Marshall, who owns 5th Blocker Skates, outlines the problems they have faced: “The problem is right out there in front of us. We’ve always relied on the passengers coming off the buses on Renfield Street behind us.
“But one of our staff who uses the buses says that people are now actively avoiding Sauchiehall Street because of all the disruption and the time it’s taking.
Work is continuing on Cambridge Street in Glasgow city centre (Image: Gordon Terris) “Also, people are still very nervous after Covid about being hemmed in by the construction work which has left a very narrow corridor of space at either side. It’s been going on for far too long. I had a look back at my figures and we’re down by 30% on the previous year. That’s a serious challenge for a business like this.”
On one of the tall metal fences that surrounds the bomb site at the top of Cambridge Street another fraying poster proclaims the virtues of what this place should already be looking like. These council banners are now assuming the aspect of old Soviet health and productivity posters.
This one tells you that The Avenues programme will “dramatically change Glasgow city centre for the better” and then this: “CONSTRUCTION COMPLETE SUMMER 2024”.
That’s another train station in China, by Mr Lim’s reckoning.