In modern terms, Douglas Place is the short stretch of road from Roman Road by Bulbir’s (the Post Office) to New Kirk Road by Vanity Fair, including the entrance to the car park.
When built, it referred to the buildings on New Kirk Road from Wells jewellers, Number 40, The Bookmonger, and Vanity Fair, then round the corner (modern Douglas Place) but then round the corner again onto Roman Road from Bulbir’s (the Post Office), Wilkies, 3MCand the old Bank of Scotland.
In my post covering the timeline of the building of Bearsden Cross (link), I suggested Douglas Place was built in three phases: the ones on New Kirk Road are the oldest, then the Roman Road most recently housing the Bank of Scotland, then the rest of the Roman Road frontage.
Incredibly, we only have one good black and white photo of the Roman Road frontage:
This probably looks familiar but unfamiliar as well? The camera is on the pavement at Roman Road looking towards the cross. On the right is the turning into the modern Douglas Place and on the left side is Thorn Road; the school is out of shot to the left. The tree is part of Meldrum’s premises and together with the washing occupies the area where you would see Grace and Favour, the former Scallop’s Tale, Barber at the Cross, KP Fishmongers. (For more on the tree and buildings just visible to the right of it, see my previous post, click link.) Beyond that and across Drymen Road you can see the North Church.
Meldrum’s Tree and Stables were demolished in 1905-6 so the photo probably dates from around 1900. On this basis, I have tried (clumsily) to mark the shops in the row and denote their owner at that time:
Who were these shopkeepers? I will start nearest to the camera.
Number 19: bicycles, barbers and Post Office
We know William R. Garside was in Douglas Place from the 1905 Valuation Roll where he describes his trade as ‘cycle agent’. From the sign on the Douglas Place side, he sold bicycles and they are also visible in the window; however, the other writing on the windows is harder to read. We have some advertisements, the first dates from 26th September 1902:
This shows the business was more than just bicycles – other goods were stocked and it was a repair business. Nevertheless, bicycles were still the main business he advertised, as this example from six months later shows:
In retrospect, William might have backed the wrong horse. With the invention of the ‘safety bicycle’ in the early 1890s (we would call it a conventional two wheeled bike) demand soared in the following years as people found they could suddenly travel further and faster than before but by the early 1900s cheaper suppliers and imports caused difficult times for suppliers and retailers (link).
William was born in Cheadle, an affluent town in Cheshire. He moved to Coatbridge with his family in the 1890s, presumably for his father’s work, and found work as a bicycle mechanic. In 1901 he took over the cycle shop in Coatbridge and ran it with his two younger brothers. Around 1902 they opened the branch in Bearsden, but it may have only lasted a few years. William got married, started a family of his owner and took a job working as a chauffeur at a stately home in Kincardineshire called Benholm, then at Bretherton Castle, Fife. He died in Dundee in 1951.
After William Garside, the shop became a barber’s, initially run by James Wood (1915 and 1920 Valuation Rolls), then by William Thomson (1925 Valuation Roll). I do not have an advert for James Wood at Douglas Place, but on 24th August 1917 the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald carried the following:
I was sceptical but the Incorporated Guild of Wigmakers and Perfumiers was a real organisation from 1900 to 2023! The scarcity of labour referred to was, of course, as a result of men being called up during the First World War – Wood also opened in Milngavie, which was without a barber at all at this point. That he was in demand was good news for Wood, because 26th January 1917 the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald had reported:
I believe Main Street in Maryhill at this time would have been in the area around Kelvin Dock.
There is an advertisement for William Thomson, which ran in the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald throughout 1926:
By the 1930 Valuation Roll, numbers 17 and 19 Douglas Place had been knocked together to create the Post Office, presumably on the same footprint as today.
Numbers 15 to 17: grocers and plumbers
In the photo at the start of this post, numbers 15 and 17 are combined as the premises of James Lindsay and Co, grocers. This business started at Melville Place, probably in 1882 and certainly by 1885; the modern location is the left-hand (northern) side of the Clyde Property office on Drymen Road by the station. James Lindsay was the postmaster, probably the first one in Bearsden in modern times, and ran a grocer’s shop as well. When he died suddenly in 1895, aged 62, the business which bore his name continued, probably run by James Aitchison who was (with reasonable certainty) either the shop manager or senior assistant. James, aged 34, was from Lochgilphead (where he had been born in the Poor House, his father having died); he was bought up initially by an aunt (a housekeeper), then by his mother (a nurse) and had lived in Bearsden for at least four years.
Retaining the James Lindsay and Co name, James Aitchison then ran the business for over thirty years, moving to Douglas Place between 1895 and 1905, probably in the first half of this range since in the 1901 Census James Aitchison had moved to an address on Roman Road. The first advert I can find at Douglas Place is from 1903:
James Lindsay and Co moved in December 1908, and we will meet them again in a future post on the New Kirk Buildings.
Lindsay’s had occupied numbers 15 to 17 and when they left separate shops were reinstated. Number 17 was let to a plumber, Daniel Borland (1915 Valuation Roll) the n another plumber, Alexander Reid (1920 Roll). In 1930 this shop was combined with number 19 to form the Post Office.
Number 15 was taken over by The Milngavie Co-operative Society who continued the grocery business – here is an advert from 1923:
In this example from 10th August 1940 (just as the Battle of Britain was heating up), Douglas Place is not mentioned but there is a Bearsden phone number (from the days of local telephone exchanges):
The Co-op remained here until at least 1949.
Numbers 11 to 13: fish and stationery
In the Valuation Rolls for 1895, 1905 and 1915, number 13 was occupied by William Reid, fishmonger, with William Hood taking over the same business sometime between 1915 and the 1925 Roll when William Hood was the new tenant. This was probably nearer 1915 as, when Mr Hood died in 1956, his obituary in the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald referred to his having run the shop for forty years.
I can find no further information about William Reid, and only one advert for William Hood:
As stated, William Hood ran the shop until 1955 and died in 1956; the name continued and was bought by the Neilson family in 1968.
Next door, Number 11 was occupied by Alexander Reid, painter in the 1895 Valuation Roll and by Jean Gillies, stationer, in 1905. After this, the fishmonger’s shop next door at 13 was combined with number 11 into one bigger shop.
I cannot find any additional information on Mr Reid. Any mentions of Mrs Gilles are only in the context of an announcement of an event, such as a concert with tickets available from her shop.
Numbers 5 to 7: medicines and a bank
When the branch on Roman Road shut in July 2023, it was the end of at least 128 years of the Bank of Scotland occupation. I cannot be certain but it was very probably the first occupant of 7 Douglas Place when it was newly built.
The Bank took over number 5 in the late 1920s but before that ownership changed every five years.
In the 1895 Valuation Roll, the chemist’s shop at number 5 was run by William Law, but I cannot find any more information about him. By 1905, the shop had been taken over by a name you may still recognise today, Suttie’s chemist shop. The owner was Joseph Henry Cole Suttie, born in Broughty Ferry in 1873 the 6th of 8 children. His father was a master joiner and in 1881 he was sufficiently wealthy to afford two servants to live with the family. Joseph served his apprenticeship in Monifieth.
He only ran one advert during his time at Douglas Place, in 1905 with this example from the 14th April issue of the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald:
It’s an interesting insight to out-of-hours emergencies that he included his home address!
After Joseph Suttie departed, the Valuations Rolls for 1915, 1920 and 1925 record the occupant of the shop as Alan Gibson, David Christie and James Aitkenhead respectively, There is no record of these men living in the area in 1911 or 1921 Census and the Valuation Roll does not record their business.
Numbers 1 and 3: fruit, flowers and dairy
Number 3 was a dairy shop in 1895, run by John Thomson. He was 32 at the time, son of a local veterinary surgeon and had recently been living at Canniesburn – very probably at the cottages by the Toll House because his mother was a dairy-keeper living in another cottage. Other Thomsons were dairymaids working for her and the blacksmith (I have not yet untangled their family tree!) The milk supplied from John’s shop probably came from cows grazing at Canniesburn, Garscube or Killermont.
The diary continued in John’s name or that of his wife Margaret to 1925 at which stage they seem to have retired. John died at number 9 Roman Road in 1939.
From 1887, Number 1 was run by Andrew Wilson, who described himself as a fruiterer in the Valuation Roll, but if we look at some of his adverts, the emphasis is at least as much on flowers or garden plants:
The example above is from the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald of 3rd October 1902, but the next one from 1926 is an even better example (M&BH 9th April edition):
When the Thomsons retired next door in the late 1920s, Andrew Wilson took over their premises to make one bigger shop; in 1940, the Valuation Roll says the tenancy was with “Andrew and Mary Wilson”. Here is an example of an advert from the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald of 13th October 1933:
Andrew was born in Elderslie around 1850 and was married to Janet Brown; their children were Mary and Andrew.
In the 1901 Census Andrew and Janet lived with their son plus a boarder, Christina Campbell, who worked in the fruit shop (the last entry on the page):
When Janet died, Andrew junior and Christina stayed on. In 1911 thye lived at Kilmardinny Cottage and in the 1921 Census they lived at 4 Chartwell Terrace:
Chartwell Terrace is the row of houses on Drymen Road starting on the north corner of Kirk Road (opposite M&S, First Vets is number 1).
Andrew senior died in 1924, and the shop was run by his children after this date:
In this photo from 1927, the sign on the side of the Wilson’s shop is clearly visible:
It reads, “A. WILSON / FRUITERER / AND / FLORIST”. Here’s the same wall today:
The right hand edge of the original lettering survives to the right of the drainpipe:
