Hopes Union Street and Egyptian Halls will spark investment

The scaffolding has come off the Egyptian Halls in Union Street and across the street progress is being made on the gap site caused by the fire in March.  

The beauty of the Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson’s 19th century masterpiece has been glimpsed as scaffolding was taken down, but new scaffolding is going up to carry out repairs under an defective building notice.

Egyptian Halls on Union Street. Photograph by Colin Mearns 30th June 2026 (Image: Colin Mearns)

It is all part of the plan to carry out a Compulsory Purchase Order on the building which has been unused for decades.

The owner of the building, Union Street Investments/Union Street Properties, disputes the CPO and has its own plans but lacks backing from the council, who want to take it over and transfer it to developers, Ediston.

Susan Aitken, leader of Glasgow City Council, said the Egyptian Halls has been a hindrance to investment in the area.

View of the Egyptian Halls on Union Street, Glasgow. The category A- listed building was designed by Alexander "Greek" Thomson and built between 1870 and 1872. Workers are currently in the process of removing the old scaffolding. Photograph by Colin Mearns 30th June 2026 (Image: Colin Mearns)

The ambition is that getting it back into meaningful use will attract interest in developing the fire site and then the wider area around Central Station.

She said: “We've talked in the past about having a plan and some thinking around what the experience of the area around Central Station should be like.

“Whether you're a commuter and you already live in Glasgow and when you arrive in the city centre or if you're getting off a train coming from London.

 “We've all thought for a long time that it's less than optimal just now. And my view is that the Egyptian Halls have been perhaps the biggest barrier.

“How would it be possible to attract high end retail, for example, to a street which a huge chunk of it is permanently covered in scaffolding.

“Being able to address that now, it could be a potential game changer.”

On the wider area she said: “Also, and it's been reprofiled a bit in terms of the timing to take account of the unplanned works that meant we've had to close Union Street.

Union Street (Image: GCC)

“As the Avenues works move on to Argyle Street east, that's utterly transformational.

“You can see how that area then has the potential to come together into something really, really great, a really great place that lifts that part of the city centre.”

David Cook, Chief Executive of Glasgow Building Preservation Trust echoed the council leader’s thoughts and said there is an opportunity to join up projects.

He said: “There's an Avenues programme, there's the Hielanman's Umbrella stuff, there's Gordon Street, there's Argyle Street, there's stuff happening in Egyptian Halls.

“This is actually being an opportunity to join those pieces up and actually make sure it becomes more than the sum of its parts.

“I could see this kind of approach, I would like to think, being adopted a bit more by the city.”

Egyptian Halls on Union Street. Photograph by Colin Mearns 30th June 2026 (Image: Colin Mearns)

The owner of the building has maintained developments could have been carried out by now had promised financial support materialised.

Egyptian Halls on Union Street, Glasgow. Photograph by Colin Mearns 30th June 2026 (Image: Colin Mearns)

There has reportedly been plans for development under the current and previous ownership, including at least two for hotels, but funding problems led to them being abandoned.

One such scheme had commitments from Scottish Enterprise and Historic Scotland but they subsequently withdrew and reduced their contributions respectively, leading to the project to stall.

Derek Souter, director of owners Union Street investments/Union Street Properties, has said: “A series of near-viable regeneration schemes between 2000 and 2015 were repeatedly undermined by inadequate grant support from the Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council.”

On the current works he has said: “Repair to the parapet does not solve the wider stability/ structural issues dating back to Glasgow City Council’s own assessments from 1995 onwards and would increase public safety concerns significantly unless there’s been a pre DBN Risk assessment."