Glasgow - City 1973-77

Stockwell St, west side south of the Trongate. Utterly changed now. The little building with the three half-dormers deserved to be better known and to meet a kinder fate, for it was the last survivor, or surviving remnant, of the comfortable town houses erected in the late 17th century by wealthy Glasgow merchants in the Bridgegate, Saltmarket, Trongate and Stockwell. Dated 1678 (say Gomme and Walker) it had the distinction of being the second oldest house in the city, after Provand’s Lordship. It spent most of the 19th century and part of the 20th as the Garrick Temperance Hotel, and as such it earned a small but honourable footnote in history as the meeting place of the Abolitionist party at a time when the abolition of slavery was a contentious issue in the city - much of Glasgow’s wealth was founded on slave labour. Latterly the building was neglected, and its last owner made repeated unsuccessful applications to have it demolished , until one night it conveniently - woops, I mean unfortunately - caught fire and was flattened a few days later. August 1973