In pictures: This is what Glasgow looked like in the 90s...

The city has changed a lot in the last 30 years, as our photos from the decade show.

Do any of these spark memories for you?

Share your stories and old photos by emailing ann.fotheringham@glasgowtimes.co.uk or write to Ann Fotheringham, Glasgow Times, 125 Fullarton Drive, Glasgow G32 8FG.

As our photos show, there was a lot of building going on in Glasgow in the 90s.

This was the decade which marked the beginnings of the Merchant City and the development of the Briggait and Sauchiehall Street’s McLellan Galleries. It also saw the creation of Glasgow Film Office, and new arts spaces like Tramway, the Arches, and Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.

Down on the Clydeside, Glasgow Science Centre’s shimmering silver IMAX cinema was taking shape in 1999.

The IMAX in 1999 (Image: Newsquest)

This was the first IMAX to be built in Scotland, and it opened its doors in October 2000. Its first film was Dolphins.

The IMAX seats 370 and its 24m by 18m screen is the biggest in Scotland.

This whole area has been transformed since Glasgow Science Centre moved in, with BBC Scotland, STV and hotels and other businesses moving in.

As one cinema has gone from strength to strength, another Glasgow favourite is sadly no more.

This image of the Odeon – “six screen multiplex”, as the sign proudly proclaims – will no doubt tug a few heartstrings as the famous Renfield Street venue was a part of the city’s entertainment scene for decades.

It opened in 1934 as the Paramount, complete with a restaurant and tearoom, and a grand, Italian Renaissance-style interior. Its auditorium seated 2800.

It became an Odeon after the Second World War, and famously hosted the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix in the 1960s.

Despite renovations and refurbishments, falling audience numbers led to its decline and eventual closure in the mid 2000s. Its glorious Art Deco exterior remains – the building is now home to offices and a restaurant.

It wasn't all urban regeneration in the 90s - the city's nature spots were places for relaxation and breathing space.

A cold snap “left parts of Hogganfield Loch near Stepps looking like a supermarket checkout” according to our photographer in 1991, as swans and ducks jostled for food.

Hogganfield Loch, 1991 (Image: Newsquest)

Looking at this image of St Andrew’s Square, on the eastern edge of the city centre, it is hard to remember this part of the city looking so bare and rundown.

Now a bustling Merchant City hub, with stunning apartments, flourishing businesses and a thriving cultural quarter centred around the Tron Theatre, this picture feels like it belongs in the very distant past, not simply 33 years ago.

St Andrew's Square, 1990 (Image: Newsquest)

St Andrew's Square, which sits close to Glasgow Green, is home to the magnificent 18th-century classical church St Andrew's in the Square. It was built in 1758 by architect Allan Dreghorn and master stonemason Mungo Naismith.

After congregation numbers dwindled, it closed and reopened as an arts and cultural centre.

The square became a fashionable residence for Glasgow’s well-to-do merchants but eventually, as more moved west, it fell into disrepair. Most of the buildings were demolished in the 1980s, but in the 90s, plans to regenerate this part of the city led to a massive revamp, with new flats and businesses created.

Who remembers Saxone shoe shops?

Saxone, Argyle Street, 1996 (Image: Newsquest)

In the 80s and early 90s, they were everywhere, and the company's Kilmarnock factory employed 1000 workers at its height.

This Argyle Street store, pictured in 1996, was one of 180 nationwide. The factory closed in the 80s and the shops followed within the next decade.

Of course, the 90s started with Glasgow at the centre of attention, thanks to its year as City of Culture.

The 1990 City of Culture launch (Image: Newsquest)

There was a lot going on, from Pavarotti, Sinatra and The Rolling Stones, to huge theatre and dance events and art exhibitions, including The Ship in the Harland and Wolff Shed; The Big Day, the largest free rock concert ever organised in Scotland; and Call That Singing, a choir of a thousand Glaswegians aged from nine to 90.

The decade ended with another cultural celebration in 1999.

Buchanan Galleries was hailed as the future of retail, when it opened in the spring of 1999, during Glasgow’s reign as City of Architecture and Design.

Buchanan Galleries under construction, 1997 (Image: Newsquest)

Our picture captures work underway on the Buchanan Galleries two years earlier. At the time, it was Scotland's largest city centre shopping scheme – at 600,000 sq ft, it was equivalent in size to nearly six Hampden Parks.

John Lewis, Habitat, Next, Boots and H&M all took up residence quickly and then Glasgow Lord Provost Pat Lally predicted a new era for the city, in which Buchanan Street would become a “European grand street – internationally famous".

He added: ''I firmly predict that by 1999 Glasgow will be the UK city of shopping.”

He was right - the mall helped cement Glasgow’s reputation as THE fashion retail destination, second only to London’s Oxford Street, and it was at the heart of the city’s Style Mile.

Fast forward to 2023, however, and plans are afoot to demolish the mall, and replace it with a ‘shopping, office and residential’ quarter.