People say the Hatrack on St Vincent Street is the building Glaswegians love the most but I look at it and think: really, that one, why? I know it’s a good example of art nouveau and everything and that’s fine, but don’t you think all the spikes and prongs and urns and wings are a bit much? And what’s with the screaming goat’s head over the front door? You know who’d feel right at home there? Rosemary’s baby.

A much better building in my view is the office block just up the hill from the Hatrack at the junction with West Campbell Street. It was built for the North British and Mercantile Insurance Company in the 1920s and I first got to know it because it’s on my old route to work, right by the traffic lights. I’d sit there waiting for green and stare at the North British and Mercantile Insurance Company like a weirdo and so grew to like it more and more. Ask me what I think and I’d say it’s the best building in the city.

Someone else who shares my love for it is Colin Drysdale, a photographer and writer who’s known for the social media account This Is My Glasgow where he posts pictures of some of the city’s finest buildings. Colin has now written a book, Glasgow Uncovered, which features 18 walks round the city and I went out with him the other day to stroll round the St Vincent Street area and talk about the buildings we came across and some of the details I might have missed (there were many).

The Mercantile Insurance building was only one of the places we visited but it sticks in my mind not only because I love the look of it but because of the tragedy of the place. One of the details I’d previously missed, which Colin pointed out, is the sculpture of the ship to the right of the door and the letters carved........

© Herald Scotland