George Square (Glasgow)

 square, landmark

Generally regarded as the centre of Glasgow (the official centre, for street-numbering purposes, is Glasgow Cross at the confluence of High Street, Salmarket, Gallowgate and Trongate, whilst Blythswood Square father west is the true geographical centre of the city). George Square has gone through several redesigns, none of them have been particularly successful. The most recent revamp was in 1998, when the square had its 100-year old trees ripped up and the square tarred in bright red tarmac - eventually the City Council were shamed into doing it over again in a shade less offensive to the eye after the Evening Times dubbed it "Red Square" - although in truth they only replaced with a shade of red that was only slightly less offensive on the eye.

The square was the subject of another revamp in 2013 - which more or less restored it to its pre-1998 state, albeit without the trees. But mercifully the red tarmac is gone. Since the Scottish Independence campaign of 2014, the square has become nicknamed "Freedom Square" by pro-independence supporters, owing to the huge rallies staged here by the Yes movement.

It is bordered by the City Chambers, the former General Post Office (currently being converted into offices) and Queen Street Railway Station.

During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Glasgow City Council experimented with pedestrianizing the east and west flanks of the square, closing them to traffic. It is unclear if this change will become permanent or not.

The Red Clydesiders
On 31 January 1919, during a strike by engineers 35,000 demonstrators descended on the square and raised the Red Flag. Fearing that this could be the beginnings of a revolution (this was only 2 years after the Russian Revolution and disenchanted troops were still returning from the trenches of the First World War to no jobs), the British Government took a secret decision to order police and troops to charge at the crowd and the ringleaders were arrested. In the following days tanks and machine guns were rolled into the square. This is the first, and to date, only time that British tanks have been deployed on the streets of a British city against its citizens.