When raising a dram to bring in the bells at Hogmanay this year, spare a thought for the wonderful 1898 James Chalmers designed building at 64 Waterloo Street. The Ghost Sign found here for the Distillers Company Plc. leaves the trace of Wright & Greig Ltd. who were one of biggest whisky traders at the end of the 19th century.

The company started life as a small trader in Buchanan Street in 1868, before moving to West Campbell Street in 1876. The business grew rapidly in the license trade and before long they had to expand to bigger premises, moving once again to 8 Cadogan Street in 1888. Although their Cadogan Street premises, Cadogan Buildings, which sat on the corner of Wellington Street, was a large building with the company occuping 12,700 square feet and the rest of the building let as offices, Wright & Greig were keen to have their own purpose built premises to house their own cellars, blending and sample rooms, and their own offices.

By 1897, the company’s blended whisky, Roderick Dhu, and Shaugrun Irish Whiskey were both a big success, particularly Roderick Dhu, Old Highland Whisky, which garnered the higher profit of the two, due to it being exported globally. Therefore work began on the Waterloo Street premises on which we find the Ghost Sign for the Distillery Building.

The now B-listed Waterloo Street building is adorned with a statue of Rhoderick Dhu over the door, a historical character lionised in Walter Scott’s famous poem ‘The Lady of the Lake’ published in 1810. Set in the Trossachs, the poem depicts the 16th century character Rhoderick Dhu of Clan Alpine, who led the rebellion of the Highland Clans in an uprising against King James. While over the oriel on the right corner of the building is a statue of a Highland Lass with her malting shovel. There are turret balconies with barley-sugar-columns, all sprouting miniature cannon, originally intended to be occupied by figures of the seasons. The building was designed and built to accommodate large cellars, blending and sample rooms, and offices. The building works cost £11,500 and was a great advertisement for their trade and most profitable product, Roderick Dhu whisky.

Wright & Greig later went on to acquire Dallasmore Distillery in Moray in 1899 which they renamed Dallas Dhu (the Distillery is now a museum under the stewardship of Historic Scotland). Unfortunately Wright & Greig’s booming trade didn’t last long. The company finally went into voluntary liquidation in 1919. However, bottles of Wright & Greig’s Special Blended Scotch Whisky, as well as Roderick Dhu, still continue to be produced and exported by Glen Ila Blending Company, and there is also a pub just across the road from the old Distillery Company building named after Rhoderick Dhu!

When I signed up to volunteer for the Ghost Signs of Glasgow project, as a Scottish History graduate, my first research assignment was to help research signs in the south side of Glasgow to go on the Ghost Signs of Glasgow Southside map. As I was isolating during the pandemic, the majority of my research began online (no leafing through old papers like Gandalf learning the history of the One Ring for me). Fortunately, as a starting point the team sent me photographs of the signs for the map and a list of helpful websites with online records.

Many of the Ghost Signs of Glasgow social media posts explore the history of the business owner or company whose name is clearly visible on the sign, but the Southside signs I was tasked with were what the team like to call “mystery signs”, these are partial signs with only a few letters uncovered which are barely legible. Later in the pandemic an entire word became visible on one of the signs, unfortunately that word was “GLASGOW” which didn’t help to narrow the search much! 

So, my assignment was to tackle the challenging “mystery signs” with no name visible to search for. My research then had to start – and maybe even end – with the addresses, and the buildings themselves. The National Library of Scotland website contains searchable digitised copies of Post Office directories from 1773 to 1912, so this was a good place to start with only an address to work with. A look on the “street view” feature of Google Maps is also a useful tool for examining the signs in context and how they looked even a few years before. When scrutinizing Google Maps closely I discovered a sign on the adjoining building to the one I was researching reading: “Speirs Place”. According to the Historic Environment Scotland website this adjoining building was Category “B” listed while the end building was merely Category “C”. This made me ponder whether the adjoining building was a later addition, and whether there was a piece of local history to explain why the street name was changed to “Queen Mary Avenue”.

A trawl through several old maps on various websites provided no evidence that the street was elongated or renamed, while the Post Office directories indicated that “Speirs Place” was only ever a name for a building on Queen Mary Avenue. It seems that giving tenement buildings their own names used to be a common practice, but that this practice was later discontinued, understandably, because it was confusing for post office staff. Therefore, I’d found another ghost sign in the process of researching the mystery ghost sign on the building adjacent!

I had a bit more good luck when researching another ghost sign, on the corner of Allison Street and Garturk Street. Again, this was one of the challenging “mystery signs”. The few legible letters read “ROC”, suggesting the word “GROCER”. According to records it suggests this was the sign for Margaret King’s grocery, listed in the Post Office directories at that address from 1892-1910. As there are a number of grocers listed at this location it seems this shop has always been a grocery store since the building itself was constructed.

The directories also provided some intriguing clues, for those interested in following a family’s history: after 1910, the shop and the home address belonged to John King, though the shop is still listed as Mrs King’s – therefore this suggests that her son inherited the family business. Other clues suggest that Mrs King used to live above the shop at 21 Garturk Street, and also inherited another shop elsewhere on Allison Street from a husband named Edward before moving to the shop below her flat. There are a number of other grocers named King listed as operating in the same area over the years- could these have been relatives? Although these rabbit-holes take us further away from the sign in question, I found it interesting to speculate about this family’s story, and how they would have been familiar faces within the community.

Helping to research the mystery ghost signs for the Ghost Signs of Glasgow Southside Map was a challenging journey in more ways than one, but mapping the stories of the lives of the people who once lived and worked around this part of Glasgow was a delight, and hopefully provides an insightful look into the past for those that choose to use the maps for their own self-guided adventure!

You can now download and print the Ghost Signs of Glasgow Southside Walking Map here

In 1979 a warehouse tenant at 9 Bath Street in Glasgow’s city centre ceased trading and their small company sign that had adjourned the sandstone side wall since 1947 was painted over. As late as 1998 (picture below) paint still covered the sign, though the Scottish weather had eventually started to peel away the paint and uncover the original sign. Had it not, we may never have known about J Davidson & Co, auctioneers and appraisers who started life back in 1846.

In 1846 John Davidson opened a new business as an Auctioneer and appraiser at 62 Argyle Street. He was from a family of coffee and spice merchants and lived at 123 (Walmer Place) Hospital Street in the Gorbals. Trade must have been good as the following year the Auctioneer moved further along the Street to Turners Court at 87 Argyle Street, where they stayed until June 1858. 

This section of Argyle Street, from the Trongate and along Queen Street, had quite a number of auctioneers and appraisers at that time. Argyle Street itself was lined by “courts” on both side of the street, Turners Court was one of eight of these. The area was described by Andrew Aird in his book, ‘Glimpses of old Glasgow’: “At 87 Argyle Street was Turners Court, street-like in its buildings and industries of various descriptions with dwelling houses of a superior class.”

An advert for J. Davidson & Co. found in the 1856/57 Post Office Directory, shown below, allows an insight into the company and the work they undertook.

On Saturday 12^th June 1858 adverts in the local press advised of the company moving to 42 Argyle Street opposite the famous “Bucks Head” Hotel. The advertisement below is from the Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Advertiser.

They stayed here until 1877, and due to the many changes taking place in Argyle Street with older buildings being replaced, and the train line expansion from the St Enoch train station they moved across the road to number 43 and then to number 22 in 1884 where they stayed until 1929. It was during this time at 22 Argyle Street they became more prominent within the city, taking an additional showroom at 13 Queen Street, as evidenced in an advertisement from the Fife Free Press & Kirkcaldy Guardian from Saturday April 3^rd 1909.

A mark of the respectability J. Davidson & Co Autioneers had garnered by this time is that the Scottish branch of the British Red Cross Society chose J. Davidson & Co to host their fundraising “Free Gift” sale, on Thursday 28^th June 1917.

The sale of items donated from generous Glaswegians raised over £246, which is the equivalent of almost £18, 200 in today’s money. One notable donation to the auction is item 96 – 12 pairs of ladies Glace Persian 1 bar Slippers from Messrs. Bayne and Duckett, the longstanding boot and shoe retailer.

By 1929 J. Davidson & Co moved once again, this time to 182 Trongate, and then in 1947 to 9 Bath Street which is where we find our Ghost Sign, on the side of Albert Chambers. This free renaissance commercial building with shops on the ground floor was designed by Bruce and Hay and built in 1901. The warehouse space at the back of the building was still classed as Bath Street, not an alley or lane and not an extension of East Bath Lane, located opposite. The elevation plan of the side of the building shows the chamber’s grandeur, with a sliding gated entrance to the warehouse courtyard, and a door to its side for the office entrance at 9 Bath Street for J Davidson & Co. where we find the small Ghost Sign which advises customers on Bath Street that J Davidson & Co were located “first right”.

 The below picture “Then and Now” picture of the street shows the entrance door “first right” with the wooden sign above the door reading ‘J Davidson & Co, Auctioneers’

A photograph from 1969 shows the access to the auctioneer’s warehouse, the courtyard still has the wonderful ceramic brick atrium, and the flashings from the glass roof that once covered the courtyard are still visible. However the buildings on the left and rear were demolished for the “improvements” to the area associated with the Buchanan Gallery build. 

J. Davidson & Co Auctioneers remained in the warehouse at 9 Bath Street until it stopped trading in 1989. Having operated in Glasgow for over 130 years it was then quickly forgotten, until time and weather revealed the old ghost sign once again! The warehouse now forms part of the crazy golf outlet “Jungle Rumble Adventure Golf” with several of the golf holes in the very site where the J. Davidson & Co. office and warehouses were. 

Images Credits

Newspaper clippings, post office directory, Building Plan courtesy of The Mitchell Library Archives.

Black and white photographs Historic Environment Scotland (Canmore)

Colour pictures by the author