Glasgow Shopping is Streets Ahead

It’s official. Confirming the long-held view of natives and visitors alike, Glasgow’s Buchanan Street has been named by the Academy of Urbanism as the finest shopping street in Britain.

 

Key criteria for the “Great Street” accolade, awarded to this famous Glasgow throroughfare on 9th November, included local character, distinctiveness, user-friendliness, and commercial success. Buchanan Street scored highly on each of these headings.

 

This gracious thoroughfare is anchored at its southern tip by House of Fraser’s ravishing Scottish flagship, celebrated as much for its spectacularly galleried interior as for it’s dizzying array of luxury brands. On the opposite side stands Princes Square, an elegant 19th century enclave restored and imaginatively reinvented as an acclaimed speciality shopping mall with a wealth of restaurants, cafes, and bars.

 

At the northern end of this famous street, the massive Buchanan Galleries complex (home to scores of leading high street retailers including John Lewis, Next, H&M and Mango) adds a compelling exclamation mark to Glasgow’s half-mile of retail nirvana.

 

Shopping is only part of the appeal. For Buchanan Street is lined with some of the city’s most eye-catching architectural gems. From the extravagantly detailed former stock exchange building (now housing Urban Outfitters), to the bronze-clad essay in mid-twentieth century modernism by acclaimed architects Gillespie Kidd & Coia (now an apposite home for high fashion brand, All Saints) . . .  from the quixotic Dutch gabled art nouveau treasure (originally built as a tearoom for Kate Cranston, Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s most indulgent client), to the splendid Italianate palazzo recently reconfigured as a retail flagship for IT uber-brand, Apple . . . Buchanan Street’s buildings are every bit as arresting as its window displays.

 

One of the first major UK shopping boulevards to be pedestrianised, Buchanan Street has been further enhanced in recent years by the installation of distinctively designed lighting, paving, planting, signage, and street furniture. During summer months, open-air cafes make an atmospheric appearance in the southern section, while the upper  half of the street is dominated all year round by the gleaming glass entranceway to Glasgow’s much-loved underground rail service.

 

Retail space on Buchanan Street is now in such demand that a recent study by property consultants Cushman Wakefield Healey & Baker identified rental values as the seventh highest in the world.

 

Long regarded as the UK’s leading shopping destination outside London, Glasgow boasts an astonishingly comprehensive retail offer, with a presence from every major British retail brand plus significant numbers of niche names and independents. www.seeglasgow.com/shopping provides an invaluable guide to city’s extraordinary variety of shops and stores, together with up-to-the-minute information on special facilities and events.

 

Although Glaswegians are famed the world over for their love of shopping, they are not alone; research has identified that 58% of all tourists cite shopping as their principle activity during their time in Glasgow, while 28% confess shopping is the main reason for a return visit.
 
Ends                                                                                                                                                  November 2007

 

Further information from:

Nancy McLardie, Head of PR
Glasgow City Marketing Bureau
Tel: 0141 566 0830
Email: nancy.mclardie@seeglasgow.com