Buchanan Galleries
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The Buchanan Galleries is a shopping mall located in the central area of Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland. Construction began in 1996 and the building opened to the public on 31st March 1999. Costing £250 million, it is one of the largest city centre shopping developments in the United Kingdom, boasting an internal retail space of nearly 56,000 sq m.
Located on the junction between the famous Glaswegian shopping streets of Buchanan Street and Sauchiehall Street, this huge mall adjoins onto the side of the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. Before the mall was built, the northern end of Buchanan Street was very run down, and was full of derelict buildings (the site was once the home to the Glasgow branch of the NAAFI), and half abandoned stores. The sheer size of the building posed a number of problems. Firstly, the car park element of the mall had to traverse the railway tracks leading from the adjacent Glasgow Queen Street Station, plus the mall section itself had to be built over Cathedral Street.
The mall houses 80 shops, the largest of which belongs to the John Lewis Partnership, incorporates a 10-storey car park with 2000 spaces, 22 elevators, and 19 escalators. The building has a design life of 100 years.
External links
- Buchanan Galleries official site (http://www.buchanangalleries.co.uk)
- John Lewis Partnership (http://www.john-lewis-partnership.co.uk/)