Buchanan Street

Buchanan Street is one of the main shopping thoroughfares in Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland. It forms the central stretch of Glasgow's famous shopping district with a generally more upmarket range of shops than the neighbouring streets: Argyle Street, and Sauchiehall Street.

Buchanan Street was first feued in 1777 and was named after a wealthy Tobacco Lord, Andrew Buchanan of Buchanan, Hastie, & Co. He was proprietor of the ground on which it was formed from Argyle Street as far north as Gordon Street.

The land around the north and northeast of Buchanan Street was formerly home to Buchanan Street railway station. Originally owned by the Caledonian Railway, then the London Midland and Scottish Railway and finally British Railways, Buchanan Street station was closed in 1966. It was not rated highly either for location, architecture or convenience. Glasgow Queen Street station is immediately to the East of Buchanan Street, and the Buchanan Street station on the Glasgow Subway (which also serves Queen Street Station) is underneath the North end of Buchanan Street. The St. Enoch station of the subway is at the South end of Buchanan Street.

Buchanan bus station was opened at the Northern end in 1978, at the same time as the street itself was pedestrianised between Bath Street and Argyle Street. The most Northern reaches of the street were badly dilapidated following the closure of the Glasgow NAAFI and the railway station, but this was addressed in the 1990s by the construction of the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in 1990, and the adjoining Buchanan Galleries shopping mall in 1998. In 1999, the entire street was repaved with high quality granite stonework and striking blue neon lighting. The combination of impressive Victorian architecture and modern urban design won Buchanan Street the Academy of Urbanism 'Great Street Award' 2008, beating both O'Connell Street in Dublin and Regent Street/Portland Place, London. The area between Argyle Street and St. Vincent Street is particularly popular with buskers.

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