Castle Street is the road that runs past Glasgow Cathedral and the Royal Infirmary, from the top of the high street to the M8. Here’s a Google Earth view looking north:
Photo 1: The 2026 version begins sedately enough at the Barony Church (bottom left) and Cathedral Square but by the time it has passed the Royal it is no friend to pedestrians.
Here’s approximately the same view in 1952 (Britain from Above website, reference SAW045968):
Photo 2: As you can see, once we get north of the junction with Cathedral Street, the number of surviving buildings can be counted on the fingers of one hand. In this article, I have used photos to work up the west wide of the street from south to north, then back down the east side.
We start at the top of High Street, at the junction with Rottenrow:
Photo 3: In this 1952 view, New Barony Church is on the left, opened 1889 to replace the previous building which was closer to the Cathedral, approximately in the centre of the photo above. Here’s the 1857 map:
There are many things of interest, including the street names – Kirk Street is now the southern part of Castle Street, and Cathedral Street was Mason Street, then Stirling Road further west. You can also see that the block in the 1952 photo above was occupied by Townhead Gas Works, which I believe was the only one in the city at that time. for more information on Barony Church (now Barony Hall there is a very readable Wikipedia article (link)).
Returning to the 1952 view, the next building to the right is the Provand’s Lordship, built in 1471 and one of four Medieval buildings in Glasgow (link). As readers of this website will know, anything before about 1860 does not interest me very much so I prefer this sequence of photos (in approximate date order) for the sense of what it was like to live in this area:
Photo 4: tenements all around, adverts posted on the south side
Photo 5: dated 1904, different adverts, the shops in the foreground are: Sale Room – Confections – Fruit & Vegetable [Market?] – Hair Cutter
Photo 6: a jump to around 1970 (from the J registration on the van), the area seems more affluent, the shops to the right of the Provand’s building seem to be thriving
Photo 7: a lady on her way to the steamie
Photo 8: most of the tenements and shops have gone, replaced by prefab buildings (offices?)
Photo 9: I love this photo for several reasons. One is that we can deduce the year – trolley buses were withdrawn in 1967 and the D reg on the car on the left was in 1966. The main reason is that while it is taken outside Provand’s Lordship, it shows the next site along Castle Street, the rather surprising church tower. My final reason is that the bus is on almost the same spot as the horse and cart in this photo, probably from the 1890s:
Photo 10: looking north on Castle Street to the tower of the Barony Free Church (also the Barony North Church) on the north corner of Cathedral Street. Here it is in 1952:
Photo 11: built in 1886-7, it was demolished in 1972 (link)
Photo 12: probably around 1900
Photo 13: the same view, about 70 years later
Photo 14: presumably from around 1973. Note the church building to the left has been (brutally) chopped off – the remaining building (49 Castle Street) functioned as a café, although it may originally have been part of the church, as the minister’s house.
The next stretch of Castle Street allows me to draw on a series of photos that inspired my interest in Castle Street. I arrived in Glasgow in the late 1980s and the contrast with the living street from 30 years earlier as very striking.
Photo 15: the series were all taken from upper floors of the Royal Infirmary in the late 1950s (although I suspect from the angle of some of the later photos they may also have been taken from the Blind Asylum building). This one is looking south-west to the Barony Free Church on the corner of Cathedral Street, although the photographer was more interested in capturing the old A&E department (the single storey building in the foreground) than the church tower. The junction about halfway down the right-hand side is St James’s Road.
Photo 16: the junction with St James’s Road (and Glebe Street on the right), note the building on the right in the gushet to link to the next photo.
Photo 17: dated 1958, the ground floor view of the gushet building, Glebe Street to the left, shops at 67 to 95 Castle Street to the right
Photo 18: aerial view of numbers 67 to 95 Castle Street, dated 1952
Photo 19: back to the views from the upper floors of the Royal, similar to the above, just a slight turn of the camera to the right
Photo 20: another slight turn to the right
Photo 21: a view north up Castle Street, the junction with Stirling Road at the bottom left. Note the much shorter building in the bottom-left as it features in the next photo.
Photo 22: the camera is back on the ground, looking at the fruiterer’s shop on Castle Street at the junction with Stirling Road. Note Lily’s Flower Shop to the right because it features in the next photo.
Photo 23: the night bus, Lily’s on the left. From the angle I suspect this as taken from the Blind Asylum, north of the older part of the Royal Infirmary.
Photo 24: a Orange Walk, 1958, showing the shops and buildings north of Stirling Road (approximately numbers 97-135 Castle Street)
Now we’re moving further north along the east side.
Photo 25: there’s so much to see in this clip from a 1952 photo from Britain from Above. In the bottom left corner you can see Parson Street, then some single storey shops, followed by the white decorative façade of the Casino Cinema. After that comes the junction with Monkland Street with the bank on the north corner, then the junction with Parliamentary Road. Just visible in the top right is the junction with Kennedy Street. I’ll cover the east side later, but notable features are the canal basin (bottom right) and the junction with Alexandra Parade (bottom left)
Photo 26: looking north from the junction of Parson Street and Alexandra Parade at the traffic all snarled up at the junctions with Monkland Street and Parliamentary Roads.
Photo 27: the Casino Cinema in 1972
Photo 28: numbers 137 to 161 Castle Street, at the end of their lives in the early 1970s
Photo 29: the bank on the corner of Monkland Street, 1932
Photo 30: the bank building in the previous photo is on the far left of this one. The next junction is Parliamentary Road, then Kennedy Street and away in the distance Tennant Street. The block from Monkland Street to Parliamentary Road was numbers 161 to 175 Castle Street. The next block up was numbers 181 to 195.
Photo 31: the east side from Monkland Street back to Cathedral Street. I’m aware this photo has a logo on it – if anyone can tell me how to properly accredit it, I would be delighted to do so.
Photo 32: 1966, photo credit to Glasgow Motorway Archive. The view is south to the Martyrs Church on Monkland Street. I believe the original caption said this was 18 months after demolition started for the route of the motorway
Photo 33: credit to Scottish Roads Archive – the building has begun, very close match to the view in the previous photo
Photo 34: I wanted to show what was at the north end of the east side, and have kept the Casino Cinema at the bottom of the photo as a reference point. The Monkland Canal cuts through the photo from the bottom-right to the centre of the left side, including a bridge carrying Castle Street across. The industrial site on the far side of the canal is the St Rollox Chemical Works.
Photo 35: credit HES (Aerofilms Collection). This photo is almost the reverse view of the last one, taken looking south-east from a point several hundred yards to the west of Castle Street, looking back. The Monklands Canal cuts through the photo with the St Rollox sawmill (timber clearly visible) on the right-hand bank. On the left side of the canal is the huge St Rollox Chemical Works. The bridge over the canal circled in red is Castle Street and you can just about follow its line away to the right – the orange circle marks the Casino Cinema and also includes the Martyrs Church on Monkland Street seen in the photos of motorway construction. The yellow circle is the Necropolis and the green circle shows what I think is the Wills’ Cigarette Factory under construction on Alexandra Parade. The canal bridge in the near-ground carries Glebe Street across the canal.
Photo 36: dated 1907, the north end of Castle Street, dipping under the railway line (note the ‘level crossing’ gate at the top of the slope on the left). Beyond this on the right was the huge railway engine works at St Rollox, part of which now houses Tesco and Costco. For years this bridge carried an advert for Red Hackle – originally a red feather worn on the caps of Black Watch soldiers, I believe this was advertising a brand of whisky. In more recent times this bridge carried an advert for Carlsberg lager. You can see the sign on the right for the junction with Charles Street.
We’re now turning to come back down the west side of Castle Street.
Photo 37: I have not been able to find any street-level photos of the buildings between Charles Street and Royston Road. The best I can do is this 1952 image from the edge of an aerial photo showing 236 to 318 Castle Street. The previous photo as from the top of this one looking north. The bridge in the bottom right hand corner links to the next photo.
Photo 38: the bridge carrying Castle Street over the Monklands Canal. Thanks to David McCluskey for his help with understanding that Baird Street was extended from its original end at Glebe Street to the junction with Castle Street when the chemical works were cleared. You’ll notice the state of the canal, also the sign on the right advertising the doctor’s surgery at 230 Castle Street; in 1940 the doctor was Francis Hayes.
Photo 39: the building on the right in Photo38 now being demolished
Photo 40: busy times on the bridge, the doctor’s surgery visible on the left. The junction with Royston Road is behind the tram.
Photo 41: looking south from the canal bridge with the corner of a car turning into Royston Road on the left. There seems to be quite a slope in the last few yards approaching the bridge.
Photo 42: south of the canal bridge (which is in the top left corner) down to Roystonhill, numbers 160 to 218 Castle Street in 1952. The building circled in red is Townhead Library at number 188.
Photo 43: credit to Glasgow Motorway Archive, dated November 1966. Turn right into Parliamentary Road for the city centre or straight on and down the High Street for everywhere else.
Photo 44: tram heading south on Castle Street, turning into Parliamentary Road, the Library visible behind the second tram
Photo 45: number dated 1880, this shows 184 Castle Street. John Rae advertises wines and spirits, with luncheon available upstairs.
Photo 46: number 164 Castle Street, opposite Monkland Street, in 1939. Agnes sold fruit as well, judging from the right-hand window but I suspect her passion was flowers.
Photo 47: everything south of the Library in photos 44, 45 and 46 went under the flyover.
Photo 48: it’s difficult to find a good photo of the Carlton Cinema. It stood between Roystonhill and Alexandra Parade, seen here in the top left of the snip from a 1952 aerial photo. Further along Castle Street to the right, you can see the junction with Alexandra Parade, then the row of buildings by the Blind Asylum (the clock tower in the bottom right corner).
Photo 49: the least-bad photo of the Carlton I could find – but essentially it is the backdrop for the tram!
Photo 50: handily placed for both cinemas, RS McColl (“Make this Your Chocolate Shop”) was between the Carlton and Alexandra Parade, dated 1939.
Photo 51: dated 1962, the original caption says this is the view from Monkland Street, but I suspect it is from Parson Street. The junction with Alexandra Parade is just out of shot to the left and we are looking at numbers 88 to 130 Castle Street. The shop fronts seem to dwarf the people window-shopping!
Photo 52: this is not an exact match to the previous photo but near enough, some time in the 1980s at a guess.
Photo 53: from July 1973, another one with a logo – if anyone knows how to properly attribute this, please let me know. The buildings on the right originally housed St Mungo’s College of Medicine, a medical school founded by the Royal Infirmary when the University of Glasgow moved to Gilmorehill and its medical school started teaching activities at the Western Infirmary. The Blind Asylum was (re)built from 1878 to 1881.
Photo 54: the Royal Infirmary – or at least its Casualty Department one day in 1910. I have not attempted to cover this building in detail as a lot of information is already available online (see e.g. link).
Photo 55: from right to left – the Royal, the gushet building at Glebe Street, the Barony Free Church, Provands Lordship and Barony New Church.
The tour has returned to the starting point. All change!