Shopping in Glasgow

Glasgow is a a great city to live in. It has a range of bars, shops, restaurants and enough sites and sounds to keep most people entertained. It's on the regular tour rotation of a lot of artists and theatre companies and has a reputation for being straight forward and lively. I's generally thought of as Edinburghs younger hipper albeit more mouthy cousin. The city has had some major rejuvenations in the last two decades and is now one of the best hotspots for shopping in the U.K.

The city centre of Glasgow has Buchanan and Sauchiehall street which are full of high street brands and smaller shops. Where the two streets meet sits Buchanan Galleries, the big honcho when it comes to city centre shopping. It has a range of upmarket shops and brand name stores such as H&M, Boots, Next and John Lewis. Historically the St Enoch centre at the other end of Buchanan street has been the most famous shopping centre in Glasgow but that has been overshadowed in the last decade due to a lack of refurbishment. That's all set to change though as the Centre is currently undergoing a major face lift. The surrounding area of Glasgow has also had some major additions in the last few years with the opening up of large new shopping centres Silverburn and Xscape out in the Braehead area.

The one problem this leaves if you are looking for bed stores around Glasgow or hardware stores is that it can often be hard to find what you need without travelling out of the city centre which on busy days like holidays can be a bit of a nightmare.

Glasgow is not all about the cavernous though and there are great areas all over the city that are full of independent shops. The famous byres road has some lanes that break off it that cater for bric a brac, clothing and music shops as well as bars and restaurants. There is one shop in particular called the Glory Hole where you can find all sorts of random things you never knew you wanted to buy.