The latest plan for the old Watt Brothers store in Glasgow has been given the go-ahead. It's a great step forward, but we still need some changes, says Mark Smith

I was speaking to some people who remember Watt Brothers in its heyday and as they listed off all the things the famous Glasgow store used to sell, in my head their voices started to morph into the words of a familiar song: ground floor perfumery, stationery and leather goods, wigs and haberdashery, kitchenware and food, going up. There’s a chance the tune is in your head right now and will stay in your head all day. You’re welcome.

The truth is there was more than a passing similarity between Watt Brothers in Glasgow and Grace Brothers in Are You Being Served? because there was once a time when that sort of store was common: the sort that aimed to sell everything, with a slight air of appropriate formality. Sometimes it was for events that aren’t as monumental as they once were, such as clocks for retirement presentations or crystal decanters for wedding anniversaries, but there was also a fiercely practical side: if you needed to stitch or shine or hammer or bake or cut or nail or paint something, you’d head for Watt Brothers and they’d sort it for you.

But then, in October 2019, the decline of the high street, and the decline of one in particular, Sauchiehall Street, led to Watt Brothers going into administration and it was a sad day. An announcement was made in the store that it was closing (for good) and within an hour, the staff were out and the administrators were in. You’ve got to wonder if changing shopping habits hadn’t killed the store in 2019, whether the pandemic would have done the job a few months later. The building has lain empty ever since.

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