A famous prisoner, a rag trade market, a hidden alligator: the mysteries of Merchant Square
The cluster of bars and restaurants Kevin Maguire built is touched with joy and woe.
The Italianate façade of the Merchant Square rises proudly from the corner of Candleriggs and Bell Street, a curved row of single-storey units stretching out behind it.
Inside, beneath a curtain of twinkling lights, the building feels curious, touched with joy and woe. Once plagued with closures in the fallout of the pandemic, the cluster of bars and restaurants has welcomed several exciting openings over the past year. And the building itself is home to many mysteries, like the alligator lurking behind one of the pillars, invisible to the untrained eye. His chipped snout sticking up proudly for those inquisitive enough to find him.
Built in the 19th century, the complex of buildings was once home to city hall and a bustling market hub where Glaswegians could buy and sell fruit, cheese, fish and meat. It’s rumoured that the Albion Street flank of the building contained prison cells for the Old Central Police Office. When socialite Madeleine Smith was accused of murdering her French lover in 1857, this is the site where she was allegedly held.
In the 1990s, when the firm Kevin Maguire worked for wanted to buy it, he thought it was a mistake.
“The series of food markets persisted right up until the 1960s when the markets were relocated generally. It was then taken over by a company who stripped it of its listed parts and ran it as a rag trade market.”
Kevin, now in his seventies, became a managing director of Merchant City Property Developers along with four others. Despite his reservations, he was outvoted, and Merchant Square was purchased.
Known as the Candleriggs Market, the centre operated like a small-scale version of The Barras, but Kevin recalls only a fraction of the traders were making rent: “It was never going to work and when I came in there were major legal issues.”
There was a capacity for 160 stalls but only about 40 traders occupied the bazaar, few of which were paying digs. A property surveyor by background, Kevin was not keen on chasing down the rent.
“I’m not going around trying to collect money that’s just not there, so get yourselves up here and do what you like,” he told them. “And they did, and it made no difference.”
The company enlisted an expert from Camden Market in London to come up and try to turn things around. But with the success of The Barras just a few blocks away and Glasgow’s population around 10% of London’s, the firm eventually gave in. They asked Kevin what he was going to do next.
Taking some time to think about his next move, Kevin travelled to Toronto to visit family when the idea came to him. He stumbled upon a remarkable fresh food market complex, the modern equivalent of the Merchant Square’s past. Like Borough Market in London or Markthalle Neun in Berlin, he would return to Glasgow and transform the venue into a modern foodie destination with retail, restaurants and fresh food stalls.
Kevin negotiated funding with the investment company and quickly got to work.
“I got started on the demolition and stripped it back to its bare bones,” he says.
“Part of the square was still owned by Glasgow City Council so we renegotiated the lease with them to include that element and I started to rebuild.”
It was the late 1990s and there was a lot of hope for the redevelopment of the area. Kevin hired an architect who recommended they give it an upmarket finish like Princes Square.
“There already is a Princes Square and we don’t want to compete,” Kevin told him.
The space felt more industrial. Kevin looked into the history of the land and decided to reintroduce all of the streets that would have been at the site when it was just the original building.
“At the time, Buchanan Street was being redone but they were just importing the stones from China. That’s not what I wanted,” he explains.
“So I went ‘round Scotland to the quarries, finding the granite sets and slabs.”
The next step was finding the right team to install the new floor. Kevin smiles. “I needed somebody with expertise in laying these. The guys that were doing Buchanan Street were Glaswegians, so I had a chat with them.” They agreed to come work as subcontractors.
And the mystery of the alligator?
“During the process one of my subcontractors came to me with it. It was just a rubber alligator from one of the toy shops. He asked me what we were going to do with it, so I embedded it into the concrete.
“There was no great thinking behind it other than hey, it’s a talking point. It’s amazing the number of people and children delighted by it.”
The Merchant Square was tenanted up between 1998 and 2000 and was welcomed in the area. Kevin had turned it around as an investment. His bar and restaurant The Metropolitan remains one of the longest-running businesses at the venue. He also owns The Tap Yard, a sports bar that took over the former Steak, Cattle & Roll. But the Square never quite turned out the way Kevin had envisioned.
Now owned by investment firm Ediston on behalf of Strathclyde Pension Fund, Merchant Square feels both dominant and dormant in the area. The large centre of the square, so painstakingly paved and restored, lies empty except for the weekend craft fairs set up in the middle. You could hear a pin drop. For a few years, the survival of the venue felt like it was teetering on a cliff’s edge. The pandemic and the cost crisis forced the closure of nearly half its outlets. It’s hard not to see the potential when traversing the impressive space, so underused in the city. But this year has seen a new hope creep back into the area.
The ribbon was cut on the first phase of the new Candleriggs Square development in the Spring. Several exciting bars and restaurants have opened in units long forgotten. And this weekend, thousands flocked to the Merchant City Festival in what has been a bumper year for the event. And as for Kevin? It’s been a while since he retired but he doesn’t show signs of slowing down.
“I don’t see any benefit in laying in bed,” he says. “If it comes to a time in my life where I can’t get up, well fine, I’ll accept that.
“I’ve got a place in Spain; I’ve got relatives in Canada and Ireland to visit. So, I keep myself active and as long as God allows me to do that, I’ll be sitting here.”
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