Glasgow City Centre

Overview

Glasgow's vibrant and bustling city centre lies to the north of the River Clyde. At its geographical heart is George Square, a 19th-century municipal showpiece crowned by the enormous City Chambers.

Glasgow's commercial core spreads west of George Square, and is mostly built on a large grid system of roads lined by grand Victorian office blocks and towering modern skyscrapers. The city centre offers some of the best shopping experiences outside of London, arranged along the interlinked and largely pedestrianised thoroughfares of Argyle Street, Buchanan Street and Sauchiehall Street. Here you'll find vast contemporary malls like the Buchanan Galleries rubbing shoulders with Princes Square, one of the most stylish and imaginative shopping centres in the country, hollowed out of the innards of a 19th-century sandstone building.

After all that retail therapy, you can relax amongst the myriad bars, restaurants and cafes, take in a film or a show, or be uplifted by the cultural offerings at the controversial Gallery of Modern Art, the showpiece Royal Concert Hall, or the Theatre Royal, home to Scottish Opera and showcase for some of the world's greatest touring companies.

And while you're here, be sure to check out The Merchant City, the area to the south and east of George Square. that was once filled with 18th-century warehouses and homes that bustled with cotton, tobacco and sugar traders. In the last two decades, it has been sandblasted and regenerated with expensive designer shops, style bars and bijou cafes that give the area a pervasive air of sophistication and chic.