Trongate, north side east of Glassford St. The plain building next to the Royal Bank is worth noting, for it was Spreull’s Land, and had a curious origin. The previous house on the site, which had adjoined the original Hutchesons’ Hospital, belonged to Margaret Spreull, born in 1700, the daughter of John Spreull, a man of affairs better remembered as Bass John from the years he spent imprisoned on the Bass Rock, having backed the Covenanters at Bothwell Bridge. Margaret, a spinster and the last of her line, wishing to perpetuate the family name bequeathed the house to her nephew James Shortridge, with an entail stipulating that if he wished to inherit he must change his name to Spreull. This he did on her death in 1784, and he immediately pulled down the old house and erected the fine building which became known as Spreull’s Land. A letting concern, as James already had a villa at Linthouse, it commanded a good rent and was for half a century one of the smartest addresses in town. October 1973
A cloud of dust is all that’s left of Spreull’s Land. August 1978
North side of the Trongate, opposite the New Wynd. The further, Italianate building survives, but not the nearer tenement of c1800. August 1973
