This photo is of Glasgow Road in 1965. Courtesy of the late Neil Gordon, it shows Gilmour’s Building on the north side of Glasgow Road at its junction with Forrest Street. The building was officially called Gilmours Place.

It was a 2–storey tenement on Glasgow Road and I think it dates from at least 1879. Situated on the north side of Glasgow Road between Forrest Street and a small track leading to Craighead (Bairds Rows), it extended east from Forrest Street junction towards the taller and adjacent Grant’s Building. The small track between the two buildings was a lane leading to the miner’s cottages of Bairds Rows.

Gilmours Building was directly across the road from the Burleigh Church and the entrance to Herberston Street. Gilmour’s Building included Gilmour’s Grocery, Gilmour’s Clothes, Black’s Bakery, Angie’s Ice Cream Parlour (The Victoria Café), a small Grocery and Richardson’s Butchers on the most western side.

In the early 20^th Century, Gilmour, who owned the building, had a drapers shop and a grocer’s shop to the east of the tenement. In 1910, the subpost office was located in this building, although by 1936, it had moved further west, but nearby to Grants Building.

Gilmours Building was demolished in 1979 before the neighbouring tenements to the west towards Clark Street, and also before the taller Grants building to its immediate east.

Victoria Café was a café situated on Glasgow Road in the mid 2^nd and 3^rd quarter of the 20^th Century at Gilmours Building. The shop was popular and well known by its white frontage and is fondly remembered by many people.

The untold story of Gilmours Building and its owners can be exclusively found on Blantyre Project, previously researched.