F.W. Holroyd

F.W. Holroyd, 9-11 George Street, Merchant City, Glasgow G1, 2012 • Dilapidated art gallery round the corner from yesterday’s demolished block. This was still there in 2017 and even tattier.

Loudon Upholstery

Loudon Upholstery, Circa 15 George Street, Merchant City, Glasgow G1, 2012 • Colourful dereliction in the city centre, in a row that was demolished circa 2014. There was a ghost […]

Woolworths & Pizza Hut (Glasgow)

Woolworths, Pizza Hut (Glasgow), 199-201 Argyle Street, Glasgow, Scotland, 2008 • Jaunty red modernist corner abutting one of the last 200 Woolworths stores to close down. The fatal day was 6 Jan 2009; […]

Jacobean Corsetry

Jacobean Corsetry, 53 Virginia Street, Merchant City, Glasgow G1, Scotland, 2010 • Giant golden ghost sign from a corsetry firm founded in 1946, whose wares have featured in Jack Vettriano paintings. Sales […]

Rainbow, Kababish

Rainbow, Kababish, 1161, 1163 Govan Road, Govan, Glasgow G51, Scotland, 2010 • Colourful and quirky frontages punctuating Govan’s endless grubby redstone, part of a Creative Shop Fronts Project by local improvement […]

Cumbernauld Shopping Centre

Cumbernauld Shopping Centre, 10 Ettrick Walk, Cumbernauld, Scotland, 2012 • Famous 1960s brutalist edifice not improved by later additions, and now called the Antonine Centre. The only original part still […]

A.P. Welsh

A.P. Welsh, 71-73 Robertson Street, Glasgow, Scotland, 2008 • Not Wales, but Scotland: old shipping office housing a wide variety of businesses, with great signage.

Virgo Clothing Big’n’Pretty

Virgo Clothing Big’n’Pretty, 156 Trongate, Glasgow, Scotland, 2008 • Signs in the window warn big’n’pretty browsers to bring “No food or drink inside”. Curiously, big seems to be defined as “16 inches […]

Weisfelds (Goldbergs)

Weisfelds (Goldbergs), Trongate, Glasgow, Scotland, 2008 • A portion of the once-beloved department store Goldbergs, which closed in 1991 and re-opened as cheapo clothes outlet Weisfelds in 1994. The Weisfelds […]

Pound Gate

Pound Gate, 146-152 Trongate, Glasgow, Scotland, 2008 • Not a reference to Watergate, but to the road, Trongate. Later got subsumed by “Scotland’s Biggest Leather Store”, aka its upstairs neighbour Leather Max. […]

Pound Planet

Pound Planet, 19-21 Argyle Street, Glasgow, Scotland, 2008 • Ambitious name meets Scottish flags and unflattering rendition of the Queen. It later became Home Land. Devolution subtext ahoy.

Samiez Leathers

Samiez Leathers, 140 Trongate, Townhead, Glasgow G1, 2008 • I just like this because it’s colourful, 1970s-looking, and in a decaying old building. Under new management, says a note in […]

Thistle Do Nicely

Thistle Do Nicely, 97 High Street, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2012 • Closing down sale for the punningest souvenir emporium on the tourist-clogged rat-run of tuneless bagpipes and tartan tat that is Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. […]

W. Bishop

W. Bishop, 12 Merkland Street, Partick, Glasgow G11, Scotland, 2010 • What a great old butcher’s sign. Even the letters look like they’re made of sausages!

Legs ‘n’ Co

Legs ‘n’ Co, 86 Maxwell Street, Glasgow G1, Scotland, 2012 • Defunct lap dancing joint named after dodgy 1970s Top of the Pops dance troupe, with suitably retro sign.

J. Wilson & Co.

J. Wilson & Co, 96 David Street, Bridgeton, Glasgow G40, Scotland, 2012 • Dinky yellow works brightening up a Scottish industrial estate, in the same row as yesterday’s unit.     […]

Charles A

Charles A, David Street, Bridgeton, Glasgow G40, Scotland, 2012 • Superannuated sawtooth-roofed works unit with sawn-off name, now part of a tool hire establishment.