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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Libby Brooks Scotland correspondent

‘Left to rot’: Glasgow’s crumbling heritage comes into focus for 850th anniversary

a boarded-up stone Georgian building with doorway in the centre of the photo on the corner of a street; it is covered in graffiti and there is scaffolding on one side. An iron streetlight shows that this is a historic street.
The Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice building at Carlton Place in Glasgow. The city council established a Built Heritage Commission last year to manage and restore vacant and derelict properties. Photograph: Wattie Cheung/The Guardian

“Glasgow city centre seems to be dying,” says Anne Gibb, perched on a stone bollard on Sauchiehall Street, watching the Christmas shoppers hustle by. Ahead of her, the human stream parted around yet another segment of the precinct that had been fenced off as contractors dug up paving.

“At one time you could have spent hours here,” says Gibb, casting a look around to the dark and vacant premises of once-thriving stores such as BHS and Marks & Spencer. “But now half the shops are empty and there’s nothing to replace them.”

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