Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 3

GLASGOW
letters and packets that passed through it was 22,834,
and the money orders granted numbered 1469, of the
value of over £1922, while the number of letters, news-
papers, post cards, and book packets that pass through
it now average about a million and a half every week,
while the number of money orders averages now about
80,000, of the value of nearly £180,000 per annum.
The number of telegraph messages that pass through
average about two and a half mOlions per annum.
Revenue Offices. — The Inland Revenue Office is near
the S end of Queen Street, on the W side. It is a plain
but rather handsome building, erected by the Clydes-
dale Bank in 1854, and sold to Government in 1858.
It has since become insufficient for the amount of busi-
ness done, especially with regard to the collection of
taxes, and will shortly be replaced by new buildings,
on a site purchased in 1881 at the corner of George
Street and Hanover Street, the plans of which have just
(1882) been prepared, and which is expected to be ready
for occupation in 1884. The new buildings are to be
Italian in style, and will form a handsome addition to
the district in which they are to be erected. They will
have a frontage of 90 feet to each street. The height
wiU be 60 feet, and at the corner is a tower terminating
in a Mansard roof. The telling-room, to be used for
the collection of taxes and excise duties, will be 86 feet
long, 40 feet wide, and 22 feet 6 inches high. There is
also a large room for the sale of stamps, and rooms for
the collector, surveyors of taxes, supervisors, and other
officers of the excise branch. They are to cost about
£20,000.
The Custom House. — The first custom house was
erected about the beginning of the 17th century, for in
1601 the council 'ordainit ane lytill custome hous to be
biggit upoun the Brigend. ' The present building is in
Great Clyde Street, on the terrace between Glasgow
Bridge and the Suspension Bridge. It dates from 1840,
but has neither the size nor the appearance worthy of
the importance of Glasgow and of the large revenue
here collected.
Market Places. — The flesh and fish markets, which
dated from the middle of the 18th century, were in
King Street, and were long regarded as both spacious and
handsome, but they were gradually forsaken, for as the
wealthier classes moved westward the butchers and fish-
mongers followed them and occupied ordinary shops, and,
the old markets being deserted, were used for different
purposes, and were not replaced by other buildings de-
stined for the same purposes. The wholesale fishmarket,
originated in connection with clearances made by the
City Improvement Trust, and, occupying the space be-
tween Guildry Court off Bridgegate and the property
known as Park Place, at the corner formed by Bridge-
gate, Stockwell Street, and East Clyde Street, is most
conveniently situated with reference to the river traffic
and to the line of the Union railway. It was con-
structed between 1872 and 1875, and covers an area of
about 160 by 90 feet. The walls, rising to a height of
two stories, are surmounted by an iron roof, which at
the ridge rises to a height of 90 feet. There are good
frontages containing shops both to the N and to the
S. In the interior are thirty stalls on the ground
floor, and there is a gallery all round for the storage of
boxes. The City Bazaar adjoins the S side of the City
Hall, and has entrances from Candleriggs, Canon Street,
and Stirling Square. It occupies the site of the old
Glasgow Bowling Green, and covers an area of 2377
square yards. The buildings are low, and are partly
open to the sky. All through the week, but more par-
ticularly on Saturday evenings, it is the scene of a very
great amount of traffic, for it serves for the sale of
butcher meat, poultry, ham, butter, eggs, vegetables,
fruit, flowers, shoes, second-hand books, toys, and almost
all ordinary commodities. The old clothes market occu-
pies a space shaped like the letter L, between Greendyke
Street and Lanark Street, near the W end of the Green.
The principal front is that to Greendyke Street, which
is plain Italian in style. One limb of the L is 78 feet
long and 70 wide, while the other is 172 feet long by
GLASGOW
63J wide. The building is divided into stalls and fitted
mth galleries, is lighted mainly i'rom the roof, and has
ample lavatory and other conveniences promotive of the
greatest possible cleanliness. It was erected in 1875,
and superseded an unsightly structure at the foot of the
Saltmarket. The dog and bird market is at the N" side
of the South Prison. It contains accommodation for
dealers in dogs, fancy birds, poultry, pigeons, rabbits,
etc.
The Cattle Market. — In 1740 the cattle market was
outside the West Port, a little to the westward of the
Trongate end of Stockwell Street, and at that time beef
was 2d. a pound ; but in 1818 it was transferred to the
ground, nearly f mile E of the Cross, intended for
the formation of Graham's Square off the Gallowgate,
where at that time 9281 square yards were enclosed by
a stone wall, and cattle sheds, sheep pens, and other
conveniences provided. It now occupies an area of
over 36,000 square yards, has excellent arrangements
of stalls and other appliances, and serves for the sale
of about 500,000 head of live stock in the year. Great
alteration took place between 1878 and 1882, when the
dead meat market, the horse bazaar, bank premises,
and the new gateway were all completed at a cost of
£44,000. In addition to the area mentioned above, the
dead meat market covers 3689 square yards. The total
home carcases exposed in it yearly for sale number about
90,000, besides about 27,000 American. The principal
abattoir is in Moore Street at the W side, which imme-
diately adjoins railway communication. Under the
authority of an act obtained in 1865, it was greatly
enlarged and improved in 1868-70, and is now one of the
most extensive and efficient abattoirs in Great Britain,
and there are others at Milton Street and Victoria Street
on the S side. The first covers a space of 12,482 square
yards, exclusive of the adjoining house property also be-
longing to the Markets' Trust ; the second, a space of
2968 square yards ; and the third, a space of 4260
square yards, exclusive of adjoining house property.
The Milton Street and Victoria Street establishments
were opened in 1868, and have since been added to.
The total number of animals slaughtered at Moore Street
is about 190,000 per annum, at Milton Street about
55,000, and at Victoria Street about 42,000. The
market places and abattoirs are managed by the town
council in the capacity of market commissioners, under
consolidated powers granted by the ' Glasgow Markets
and Slaughter-houses Acts, 1865, 1871, and 1877.' For
the year ending 31 May 1882 the ordinary revenue
was £19,366, 15s. 8d., the ordinary expenditure £12, 887,
12s. lOd., the extraordinary revenue £543, 16s. 6d.,
the extraordinary expenditure £5034, 7s. 8d., the
assets £226,350, 3s. lid., and the debts £159,177,
Os. 3d. The borrowing powers of the Commissioners
are £180,000, of which £20,822, 19s. 9d. remain stm
imexhausted. By the Act of Parliament 16s. 6d. per
cent, has to be set aside every year as a sinking fund
for the extinction of the whole debt in fifty years, but
the surpluses already applied to this purpose since 1878
amount to £29,976, Os. 3d., or at the rate of £3| per
cent, per annum.
Public Halls. — The Old Assembly Rooms were on the
N side of Ingram Street, between Hanover Street and
Frederick Street. They have now been long diverted
from their original purpose, and give accommodation to
a public library and newsi'oom called the Athensum.
The building was founded in 1796, and cost £4800, the
cost being defi'ayed by £20 shares on the Tontine
principle. It was probably considered a very handsome
tjuUding at the time, but nowadays looks poor and
dingy. There is a heavy Ionic centre, with lighter
wings. The City Hall stands on the E side of Candle-
riggs, close to the Bazaar. It is externally of a poor
and mean description, showing little but a large door
and a very homely, not to say unsightly, porch over
the pavement. The large hall, which is used for great
public meetings of almost every description and for
Saturday evening concerts for the working-classes, rests
on a series of massive stone pillars and strong arches on
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