Glasgow was once the ‘second city of the Empire’, producing ships, locomotives, cars and heavy engineering for the world. It was also a religious centre, with one of Scotland’s earliest churches; a centre for the Virginia tobacco trade; a home of designers and architects, inventors and entrepreneurs, artists and industrialists. It is that variety of talent, and the melting pot of immigrants and other Scots sucked into the city at its peak, that saw the phenomenal growth in wealth and culture which has left the city with a legacy of fine Victorian architecture, and it is its post-war decline that has seen a legacy of remote council estates. Glasgow has risen again, and is today a successful post-industrial city, thanks in no small part to the hugely influential ‘Glasgow’s Miles Better’ campaign of the 1980s. Since then, it has demonstrated an ability to look at the past and preserve the best of the old, while producing some of the most startling modern architecture outside of London.

Well-known Glasgow author and historian Michael Meighan takes the reader on a fascinating A–Z tour of the city’s history, exploring its lesser-known nooks and crannies, and along the way relating many a tale of the most interesting people and places. Fully illustrated with photographs from the past and present, the A–Z of Glasgow will appeal to residents and visitors alike.