City of Glasgow

Trongate

Photographs of the Trongate

in the city centre of Glasgow

Trongate Steeple at Glasgow Cross

Trongate is one of the oldest streets

in the city of Glasgow.

Located in the area of the Merchant City,

known as "Old Glasgow",

it is on the main route into the city centre

from the East End.

Trongate begins at Glasgow Cross,

the original centre of medieval Glasgow,

marked by the Tolbooth clock tower.

Map of Glasgow

Trongate in Glasgow

Heading to the west it becomes Argyle Street,

the most southerly stretch

of Glasgow's "Golden Z" shopping area.

( Buchanan Street and Sauchiehall Street

form the other two arms of the Z )

Glasgow Cross Station

Wikipedia - Glasgow Cross railway station

Glasgow Old Railway Stations

Glasgow Cross Station

Wikipedia - Glasgow Cross railway station

Glasgow Old Railway Stations

Building in Trongate in Glasgow

Tolbooth Steeple at Glasgow Cross

The Clock Tower was part

of the original City Chambers

( destroyed by fire in 1926 )

Tolbooth Steeple

at Glasgow Cross

Old Tolbooth Steeple

at Glasgow Cross

Trongate in 1826

Old Glasgow - Trongate

Trongate in 1930

Merchant Square

in Glasgow

Building in Trongate

in Glasgow

Britannia Music Hall

113-117 Trongate

One of the oldest remaining music halls in Britain.

Built in 1857/58

Wikipedia - Britannia Music Hall

City Halls

in the Merchant City area

of Glasgow

Art Deco building

in the Merchant City area

of Glasgow

St Andrew's-by-the-Green

The Whistlin' Kirk

built 1750-1752

the oldest surviving Episcopal Church in Scotland.
It was also the first church in Glasgow
to install an organ for public worship,
resulting in the nickname, "Whistlin' Kirk"
or the "Kist o' Whistles”.

In Turnbull Street near Glasgow Green

The Glasgow Story - St-Andrews-by-the-green

St Andrew's-by-the-Green c1820

The Glasgow Story - St-Andrews-by-the-green

GLASGOW'S LEGACY OF A TRANSATLANTIC TRADE

Glasgow merchants said little about the morality of the slave trade that swelled their coffers’.

Dissent against a petition to abolish the slave trade was lead by the Reverend Lapslie of Campsie, an enemy of the “black-nebs”, as the friends of political reform were nicknamed.
It was argued that it was wrong for the Kirk to step outside the ecclesiastical sphere and become involved in “political” matters.
However, the petition sparked a lengthy debate in the Glasgow Courier, between Senex and A Friend to Mankind, with both using scripture to support their arguments.
Thirty years later, with the movement for the emancipation of slaves gathering pace, William Smeal, a Gallowgate tea merchant, founded the Glasgow Anti-Slavery Society,
which became one of the most active in Britain.
The Smeal Collection in the Mitchell Library holds several visual representations of slavery - one a depiction of a black slave on a plantation
with the inscription: “Am I not a man and a brother?”
Smeal’s own radicalism is reﬂected in the fact his daughter, Jane Smeal, was involved in setting up a Glasgow Ladies’ Emancipation Society in the 1830s.
Whether ethical capitalism is feasible or not is contested to this day.
In the 19th century, the phrase would have provoked more extreme opinions. It’s certainly clear that during the American Civil War, three decades on, Clyde
steamers were smuggling goods through the blockades of the south - and making rather a lot of money along the way. The heritage of the
Confederate ﬂag and the Ku Klux Klan is, of course, another ﬁeld of historical debate many Scots would prefer to stay clear of.
The development of the modern nation state and the interactions of commerce, science and morality with social change proved equally
problematic in the 20th century and seem as conspicuous as ever in the early 21st. How will Glasgow, no longer an imperial city, respond to the pressing moral questions of today’s modernity‘?

Glasgow Statues with links to slave trade

Campaign to abolish the slave trade

PLACES IN GLASGOW ASSOCIATED WITH THE SLAVE TRADE:

Glassford Street

John Glassford, one of the foremost tobacco lords, purchased Shawfield Mansion, off Argyle Street, in 1760.
Glassford Street was laid out on the site of the house and garden.
The Trades Hall was built on the west side of this street in the 1790s.

Buchanan Street

By 1730, Andrew Buchanan was the most successful tobacco importer in Glasgow.
He was one of six merchants who founded the Ship Bank, the city's first bank, and had other business interests in Glasgow.

Ingram Street

Archibald Ingram started out in Glasgow as a street vendor then married an armourer's daughter, Janet Simpson, and became a Glasgow burgess through her right.
When she died in 1742 he married Rebecca Glassford, sister of John.

Dunlop Street

Colin Dunlop of Carmyle was another of Glasgow's "Virginia Dons" and another founding partner of the Ship Bank.
His town residence, although much changed is now the oldest surviving building on Argyle Street.

Gallery of Modern Art

The building which now houses the Gallery of Modern Art was originally the splendid townhouse, built in 1778, of William Cunninghame, another tobacco baron.