Hielanman's Umbrella - what's next for Glasgow's Victorian sanctuary

Its story is one of longing and endurance. This is where thousands of displaced and scattered Highlanders gathered each Saturday in the Victorian era to maintain kinship and solicit snatched items of news from their hills and glens. Later still, it became a gathering point for jobless workers hoping to be picked out for a shift in the city’s construction yards. In recent years it’s become the nightly destination for homeless people seeking soup, bread and warmth.

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Glasgow Central Station has always represented the city with a measure of style and cinematic pzazz. The famous wooden ticket office and the Grand Central hotel are made for desolate, unrequited romances.

John Logie Baird sent the world’s first, long-distance television pictures from this hotel in 1927. And, half a century or so later, just over there beside the ticket windows a street musician by the name of Neil Young sat one time, playing his guitar and swaddled by a poncho and pulled down hat on his way to a concert at the old Apollo.

Yet, on the underpass below there’s little to make any of the 38 million people who pass through the station each year to break their onward journeys. In 1998 the station’s magnificent Venetian style windows that look west over the Hielanman’s Umbrella were re-fitted and the ‘Central Station’ lettering was rendered in new, gold lettering. The 20 or so shops and retail outlets lining its sides were given a dark, green livery in an attempt to make them look sleek and moody. 

Highlanders gathered each Saturday in the Victorian era to maintain kinship and solicit snatched items of news. Photo Gordon Terris. (Image: Newsquest)

With the help of the Arches nightclub, favoured destination of a discerning demi-monde, it worked for a while and there were design awards. But the Arches is gone now and so has the short-lived optimism and elegance that attempted to settle here.

Now, another attempt is underway to apply some love and tenderness to this mini-thoroughfare. Following a design contest, Glasgow City Council awarded a local architect’s firm called Dress for the Weather a £50k contract to spruce up the old railway bridge and by shedding some light upon it. In the new argot of civic redevelopment there will be ‘a re-think’ and probably soon ‘a re-imagining’.

They will embark on a suite of concepts that include ‘design-inclusive’ and ‘impactful intervention’. There will be ‘strong cultural references’. The winning team’s proposal is called ‘adhair eadar’ (the air between) and was inspired by the ‘metereological intensities’ of the Hielanman’s Umbrella which doubtless engrossed those ancient clansfolk in their 19th century musings.

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These ‘design intensities’ are a sprawling and gregarious collection: “cooling, warming, dampening, drying, sheltering, exposing, scenting, darkening, lightening, storing, releasing, dissipating and venting”. Not to mention those “other climatic aspects to stir the imagination: memories, impressions, associations and new opportunities”. Good luck delivering all of that for £50k.

I’m sure, had anyone told them of all the scenting and dissipating soon coming their way, the men and women who run the shops on the Hielanman’s Umbrella would have been thrilled. Until yesterday though, no one had yet thought to break the news to them or to ask them for their own suggestions. That happy task was thus left to me and, on behalf of the city, I duly did.

Linda, manager at the splendid King of Bling emporium, says Hielanman's Umbrella could be brighter and more colourful. Photo Gordon Terris. (Image: Newsquest)

Linda, manageress at the splendid King of Bling emporium, was – how can I put this politely - nonplussed at the impending prospect of ‘dampening, drying, sheltering, exposing, scenting and darkening’ about to brighten up her life. “First I’ve heard of it,” she said yesterday. “The place could certainly do with something, but maybe before they re-imagine and re-think anything they could carry out a few fundamentals first.

“It’s like living in a dungeon down here; it’s very dark and there’s very little that’s appealing. This should be a place people might want to stroll through and have a pleasant experience. It could certainly do with a lot more colour and light. At the moment, nothing stand out. Everything is the same colour, so for starters, I’d aim to make all of the shops different colours. And what’s worse is that there’s only one bin here and that’s why there’s so much rubbish, especially from the food outlets on either side.”

Sources at the City Council said only that the process was “at a very early stage”. The winning architects mentioned a list of ‘stakeholders’ whom they intended to approach. Yet, so far, only they and assorted civic grandees have spoken about the plans. The people with ‘lived experience’ of the Hielanman’s Umbrella: those who work here each day, have yet to hear from them.

No-one was expressing any negativity about the proposals. By degrees, everyone seemed pleasantly surprised, if only slightly put out that they hadn’t yet been consulted. Becky at Sunset Beach tanning salon liked working here, but also felt that this part of Argyle Street could do with a bit more light. Deniss [correct] at Ebiguity Electronic Cigarettes didn’t know about the plans either. “I like it here,” he said. “But it could certainly do with a bit of attention.”

When the architects get round to speaking to ‘the stakeholders’ I’d advise them to make a bee-line for Linda. “I’d be installing some seating and not those wooden efforts outside some places around here I’ve seen.

“They should be wrought-iron and decorative and there could be an archway at the eastern end to commemorate the Highlanders who once came here and maybe even the lost district of Grahamston which was levelled to make way for the station. This is actually one of the most historic parts of the city centre.”

Linda knows the score about what’s needed in the Hielanman’s Umbrella.