The Golden Z: Glasgow’s radical plan to give the high street back to the people

By Daniel Gayne2023-10-06T06:15:00

Source: Shutterstock

This summer, Glasgow City Council quietly backed a vision to double its city centre population and take back the urban realm from retail domination. Daniel Gayne finds out what it all means

“You need to be bolshy and there are pockets of bolshiness in Scotland – we almost had the October Revolution here in 1919,” Alan Anthony tells me with a look of mischief. He is referring to Red Clydeside, a period of political radicalism in Glasgow which saw soldiers deployed to the streets of the city after a crowd of 90,000 raised the red flag in George Square.

The architect, managing director of Threesixty Architecture, is not here to give Building a history lesson, however. Rather, he is trying to illustrate the spirit of rebellion and stridency necessary to achieve the much more modest revolution that has become his chosen cause – the remaking of Britain’s town and city centres.

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