Glasgow is a city of stone and soul. Its streets glow blonde in the evening light, its red tenements deepen after the rain, and its great villas stand in leafy permanence. This is not just architecture, but affection carved into the very fabric of the city – a love letter written in sandstone, from the hands of architects like Charles Wilson, Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson, James Sellars and Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and from the countless masons who built homes for ordinary families.
“Sandstone is not just what Glasgow is built from – it is what Glasgow is built on: belonging, identity, and a beauty that endures.”
In the West End, Hyndland and Dowanhill tenements rise with quiet dignity. Their proportions – high ceilings, generous windows, sweeping stairwells – still lend everyday life a sense of ceremony. Around Park Circus, grand townhouses march in elegant rhythm, their classical ornamentation reminding us of the city’s Victorian confidence and ambition.
Across the river, the avenues of Pollokshields are lined with villas – Italianate, Baronial, and Grecian in influence – while in Shawlands, rows of red and blonde tenements tell a different but no less important story: sandstone as the backdrop to working life, where generations of Glaswegians have made their homes.
And as the city prospered, its merchant class looked further outwards, carving suburban ideals into stone in places like Bearsden and Giffnock. There, sprawling villas in leafy avenues spoke of wealth and permanence, extending the city’s architectural grandeur beyond its traditional heart.
Civic life was carved from the same material. The City Chambers, George Square, and the warehouses of the Merchant City all stand as monuments to shared pride, proof that sandstone was not only the fabric of domestic life but the medium of commerce and community too.
And as the city prospered, its merchant class looked further outwards, carving suburban ideals into stone in places like Bearsden and Giffnock. There, sprawling villas in leafy avenues spoke of wealth and permanence, extending the city’s architectural grandeur beyond its traditional heart.
Civic life was carved from the same material. The City Chambers, George Square, and the warehouses of the Merchant City all stand as monuments to shared pride, proof that sandstone was not only the fabric of domestic life but the medium of commerce and community too.
What makes Glasgow unique is not simply the variety of its buildings, but the spirit that binds them. The restraint of Thomson, the exuberance of Sellars, the early modernism of Mackintosh, and the anonymous craft of tenement builders all combine to form a single voice. It is a voice Glaswegians recognise instinctively, one that inspires an ever-burning pride in their city’s architecture.
A Love Letter in Stone
by
Gordon McGuire