{{Short description|Street in Glasgow, Scotland}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}} {{Use British English|date=January 2017}} {{Infobox street | name = Buchanan Street | marker_image = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | alternate_name = | image = BuchananStreetDewarstatue.jpg | image_size = | image_alt = | image_map = | mapframe-zoom = 15 | caption = Buchanan Street at night looking southwards, with the [[Statue of Donald Dewar|Donald Dewar statue]] overlooking. | map_type = | map_size = | map_caption = | map_alt = | other_name = | former_names = | part_of = | namesake = | type = Commercial | owner = | maint = [[Glasgow City Council]] | length = | length_m = | length_ft = | length_km = | length_mi = 0.5 | length_ref = | length_notes = 11.4º from north | width = | area = | addresses = | location = Glasgow | arrondissement = | quarter = | postal_code = G1 | metro_system = [[Glasgow Subway]] | metro = Buchanan Street Station | coordinates = | direction_a = | terminus_a = | direction_b = | terminus_b = | junction = | north = | east = | south = | west = | main_contractor = | cost = | references = | commissioning_date = | construction_start_date = | completion_date = | inauguration_date = <!-- {{Start date|YYYY|MM|DD}} --> | demolition_date = | designer = | known_for = [[Glasgow Royal Concert Hall]], Buchanan Galleries, [[Princes Square]], [[House of Fraser]] and Argyll Arcade. | status = | website = <!-- {{URL|example.com}} --> }}
'''Buchanan Street''' is one of the [[high street|main shopping]] thoroughfares in [[Glasgow]], 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, Glasgow|Argyle Street]], and [[Sauchiehall Street]].
==History== [[File:Wfm buchanan street.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Buchanan Street looking southward towards [[Argyle Street, Glasgow|Argyle Street]] and the [[River Clyde]]. The green glass entrance to [[Buchanan Street subway station]] is visible midway.]] Buchanan Street was first [[Feu (land tenure)|feu]]ed in 1777<ref>{{cite web |title=Buchanan Street from The Gazetteer for Scotland |url=https://www.scottish-places.info/features/featurefirst6407.html |website=www.scottish-places.info |access-date=10 June 2020 |language=en-gb}}</ref> and named after a wealthy [[Tobacco Lords|Tobacco Lord]], [[Plantation complexes in the Southern United States|plantation]] owner and former [[Lord Provost of Glasgow]], [[Andrew Buchanan of Drumpellier|Andrew Buchanan]] of Buchanan, Hastie, & Co.<ref>{{cite web |title='Glasgow should own up to its dark secret' |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-45978790 |website=BBC News |access-date=10 June 2020 |language=en-gb |date=26 October 2018}}</ref> He was proprietor of the ground on which it was formed from Argyle Street up to today's Gordon Street. Andrew had died in 1759 and his tobacco empire was inherited by his son [[James Buchanan of Drumpellier]] (also twice [[Lord Provost of Glasgow]]). The family made huge losses following the [[American Revolution]] of 1776, losing all their plantations in [[Virginia]]. The family members moved into textile manufacturing and industrial expansion. Sale of the land was probably at least in part to offset these initial losses. Palladian villas, similar to those of the 18th century in Argyle Street, Miller Street and Queen Street were erected along with other terraced townhouses from the 1790s onwards,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theglasgowstory.com/image/?inum=TGSE00844&t=2|title=TheGlasgow uni mum|website=www.theglasgowstory.com}}</ref> similar to the new [[George Square]] and new [[Royal Exchange Square]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theglasgowstory.com/image/?inum=TGSA01117&t=2|title=TheGlasgowStory: Royal Bank of Scotland|website=www.theglasgowstory.com}}</ref> Shops, hotels, banks, offices and clubs soon followed including the Western Club<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.westernclub.co.uk/about/history/|title=History – Western Club|website=www.westernclub.co.uk}}</ref> and the Athenaeum,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/Glasgow/AthenaeumGlasgow.htm|title=The Athenaeum, St George's Place (renamed Nelson Mandela Place) off Buchanan Street, Glasgow|website=www.arthurlloyd.co.uk}}</ref> later known as the [[Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama]], linking through from St George's Place. West of Buchanan Street the classical New Town of Blythswood was started around 1800, developed by [[William Harley]] and rising up [[Blythswood Hill]] to [[Blythswood Square]].<ref>''Glasgow'' by Irene Maver, published in 2000</ref><ref>''Glasgow's Blythswood'', by Graeme Smith, 2021.</ref>
The land around the north and northeast of Buchanan Street, heading towards Port Dundas on the canal, became home to [[Buchanan Street railway station]] serving northern Scotland, the first railway terminal in the city-centre. Originally owned by the [[Caledonian Railway]], then the [[London Midland and Scottish Railway]] and finally [[British Railways]], it closed in 1966 and the area now contains [[Glasgow Caledonian University]]. [[Glasgow Queen Street railway station|Glasgow Queen Street station]], serving the east and north of Scotland, and west to Helensburgh, Oban and Fort William, is immediately east of Buchanan Street at the corner of [[George Square]], and the [[Buchanan Street subway station|Buchanan Street station]] on the [[Glasgow Subway]] (which also serves Queen Street Station) is underneath the top half of Buchanan Street. The St. Enoch station of the subway is at the foot of Buchanan Street in [[St Enoch Square]].
A Glasgow branch of the [[NAAFI]] was constructed at the intersection of Sauchiehall Street in 1953, but was not a financial success and closed just seven years later – the building becoming a casino for the Stakis organization which it remained until the 1980s. [[Buchanan Bus Station]] was opened nearby the top of the street in 1977, at the same time as the street itself was pedestrianised between Bath Street and Argyle Street. The northern section of the street underwent significant regeneration in the late 1980s when the demolition of the former NAAFI building at the intersection took place in 1988 to allow for the construction of the [[Glasgow Royal Concert Hall]], opening in 1990, and the adjoining Buchanan Galleries shopping mall, which began construction in 1995 and opened in 1999. Both these new buildings spelled the final end for [[Parliamentary Road]] – the main easterly thoroughfare into neighbouring [[Townhead]]. Also in 1999, the entire street was repaved with high quality granite stonework and 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]].<ref>Academy of Urbanism Awards 2008 {{cite web|url=http://www.academyofurbanism.org.uk/awards.htm |title=The Academy of Urbanism : Awards |access-date=2008-01-19 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080119212642/http://www.academyofurbanism.org.uk/awards.htm |archive-date=2008-01-19 }}</ref> The area between Argyle Street and St. Vincent Street is particularly popular with [[busker]]s.
In May 2002, then-Prime Minister [[Tony Blair]] [[Statue of Donald Dewar|unveiled a statue]] of the late-[[First Minister of Scotland]] [[Donald Dewar]] at the northern end of the street, the only statue in the street. On the west side across from Buchanan Galleries a further major development of shops and housing opened in 2013 stretching through to West Nile Street at Bath Street.
==Location== [[File:147 Buchanan Street, Western Club, Glasgow.jpg|thumb|The original Western Club building in Buchanan Street, Glasgow]] At the start of the street where it meets Argyle Street and [[St Enoch Square]] the historic [[Argyll Arcade]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://argyll-arcade.com/|title=Argyll Arcade – Glasgow's Jewellery Quarter}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theglasgowstory.com/image/?inum=TGSA00648&t=2|title=TheGlasgowStory: Argyll Arcade|website=www.theglasgowstory.com}}</ref> which opened in 1827 with sixty-three shops and is now the oldest Victorian shopping centre in Britain, and its near neighbour award-winning [[Princes Square]] indoor mall face across to the stores which make up the iconic [[House of Fraser]]<ref>''A Legend of Retailing – House of Fraser'' by Michael Moss & Alison Turton, published in 1990</ref> – which started in Glasgow and also owned Harrods of London. Buchanan Street is now entirely [[Pedestrian zone|pedestrianised]], but the streets that cross it (St. Vincent Street, George Street and Bath Street) are not.
In the middle, [[Royal Exchange Square]] opens out through to Queen Street. Buchanan Street is met by Nelson Mandela Place, which was renamed by the Labour city council from St George's Place, the address of the South African Consulate, as a protest to the African National Congress (ANC) activist Nelson Mandela being a political prisoner of the South African apartheid government at the time.<ref name="The G;asgow Story">{{cite web|url=http://www.theglasgowstory.com/image.php?inum=TGSA05067|title=Mitchell Library, Glasgow Collection, Bulletin Photographs|publisher=Glasgow City Council}}</ref> On his release, Glasgow was the first city in the United Kingdom to honour him with the Freedom of the City, October 1993.
Buchanan Street is joined here by [[St George's-Tron Church, Glasgow|St George's-Tron Church]] and the [[Glasgow Stock Exchange]] building, and [[Royal Exchange Square]], which now houses the [[Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow|Gallery of Modern Art]].
At its north end, meeting Sauchiehall Street, are the Buchanan Galleries and the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, which includes the home of the [[Royal Scottish National Orchestra]].
[[File:Buchanan street.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Buchanan Street at night, looking southwards at St. Vincent Street.]]
[[File:Wfm buchanan galleries outside.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Buchanan Galleries, located at the north end of Buchanan Street.]]
[[File:BuchananStreetBuildings.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Buchanan Street is renowned for [[Victorian architecture]].]]
==Retail== Buchanan Street is renowned for its variety in high street shopping, including flagship stores, with rents on the street being as much as {{convert|250|£/sqft|£/m2|abbr=off}}, making it the sixth most expensive street in the United Kingdom for retail rent, only surpassed by five streets in London.<ref>{{cite web |title=Glasgow among highest shop rents |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-14740542#:~:text=A%20Glasgow%20street%20has%20been,levels%20of%20five%20London%20Streets. |website=BBC News |access-date=10 June 2020 |date=1 September 2011}}</ref> Buchanan Street is also the second busiest shopping thoroughfare, second only to [[Oxford Street]] in London. Glasgow has been recognised for being the second best shopping destination in the United Kingdom, after London, since 2008.{{Citation needed|date=January 2023}}
In 2022, plans were announced to demolish the Buchanan Galleries shopping centre (built in 1999) and create new streets and a mixed use development comprising residential, retail and business properties; however, these plans had been revised by 2024.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://news.stv.tv/west-central/buchanan-galleries-development-scaled-down-after-demolition-plans-scrapped| title = Buchanan Galleries development 'scaled-down' after demolition plans scrapped |website= STV News |date = 21 November 2024| access-date = 19 May 2025}} </ref>
==Culture== {{see also|Culture in Glasgow}}
*[[Glasgow Royal Concert Hall]] *[[Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow|Gallery of Modern Art]] (GoMA) in Royal Exchange Square *[[The Lighthouse (Glasgow)|The Lighthouse]] Centre for Architecture, Design and the City, is located off Buchanan Street, on Mitchell Lane.
==References== {{reflist|2}}
{{Glasgow}} {{Transport in Glasgow}} {{coord|55|51|38.46|N|4|15|14.8|W|source:nowiki_region:GB|display=title}}
==External links== *{{commonscat-inline}}
[[Category:Streets in Glasgow]] [[Category:Shopping streets in Scotland]] [[Category:Tourist attractions in Glasgow]] [[Category:Busking venues]] [[Category:Pedestrian streets in the United Kingdom]] [[Category:History of Glasgow]]