Buchanan Galleries
 The Buchanan Galleries facade on Buchanan Street | |
| Location | Glasgow, Scotland |
|---|---|
| Opening date | 1999 |
| Owner | (Land Securities & Henderson Global Investors) |
| No. of stores and services | 80 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 4 |
| Total retail floor area | 56,000 m² (603,000 sq ft) |
| Parking | 2,000 spaces |
| Public transit access |
Buchanan Street subway station Glasgow Queen Street railway station |
| Website | http://www.buchanangalleries.co.uk/ |
Buchanan Galleries is a shopping centre located in the central area of Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland. Construction began in 1996 and the building opened to the public on 31 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 m² (603,000 sq ft). The building adjoins onto the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, and could be classified as the first urban megastructure to be built in Glasgow city centre since the infamous Anderston Centre of the early 1970s.
The complex's anchor tenant is John Lewis which occupies all of the northern side of the complex, including part of the car park area which it uses as a customer collections point.
The Galleries is located on the junction between the famous Glaswegian shopping streets of Buchanan Street and Sauchiehall Street, a previously run down area full of derelict buildings (the site was once the home to the Glasgow branch of the NAAFI), and half-abandoned stores. Construction of the building posed a number of problems due to its size: firstly, the car park element of the centre had to traverse the railway tracks leading from the adjacent Glasgow Queen Street station, and the mall section itself had to be built over Cathedral Street.
The mall houses eighty shops, and incorporates a ten-storey car park with two thousand spaces, twenty-two elevators, and nineteen escalators. The building has a design life of one hundred years.
Plans
The joint owners (Land Securities and Henderson Global Investors) plan to double the centre in size, by demolishing the current car park and building on that site. A replacement car park will be put in place on top of the Buchanan bus station which will itself be redeveloped. An outline planning application was submitted in April 2007 to Glasgow City Council and construction could begin as early as 2008.[1]
A revised planning application for a proposed £380m extension to Buchanan Galleries was submitted for owners Land Securities and Henderson Global Investors in January 2013. "Buchanan Galleries Glasgow" Under the new scheme, which ties in with Network Rail's plans to redevelop and expand Queen Street railway station, the revised plans now propose:
- A new multi-storey car park will be built on the site of the existing open air car park at Queen Street station. Network Rail plans to exploit the airspace rights over the eastern end of the Queen Street site to expand the retail area of the station concourse, which will join directly with the Buchanan Galleries.
- The existing car park then be demolished, allowing an extension to the mall to be built as far as North Hanover Street. This will also involve the demolition of the access building to a subterranean elevator shaft which services the British Telecom telecommunication tunnels underneath Bath Street.
- Marks and Spencer are slated to be the anchor tenant of the new extension, early artist renderings show an M&S store on the corner of North Hanover Street and Cathedral Street. In addition, the existing John Lewis store will be expanded to include a foodhall, operated by its sister chain Waitrose.
Opening Times
Buchanan Galleries opens Monday to Saturday 10am to 7pm (opens until 8pm on Thursdays). On Sundays and Bank Holidays, the centre operates shorter hours of opening, 10am to 6pm.
Buchanan Galleries Fire
On Friday 5 February 2010 at around 1pm, two cars were caught ablaze on the fifth level and the car park immediately shut. Fortunately, nobody was hurt from the incident, and having a fire at the car park, there was no need for evacuation at the shopping centre.
On Friday 23 August 2013 at 10:40am, the fire broke out in cavity wall and hundreds of shoppers and staff were evacuated. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service identified the fire within the structure, and required the demolition of internal walls to access the cavities and extinguish the fire. The Glasgow City Council building control officers were called in and inspected the building later that evening. Buchanan Galleries was handed back and re-opened as usual the following day. The closure due to the fire had cost traders hundreds of thousands of pounds. There are no injuries from the incident. [2]
References
- ↑ "Public consultation for Buchanan Galleries expansion plans". Retrieved 2008-03-24.
- ↑ "BBC NEWS: Fire scare closes Buchanan Galleries shopping centre". BBC News. 23 August 2013. Retrieved 2013-08-23.