TheGlasgowStory 

Skip Navigation / Jump to Content

Featured Images

Doon the Watter
Doon the Watter

Fashions and... Quadrilles
Fashions and... Quadrilles

The Barras, 1920s

Burrell Collection Photo Library

*Open in New Window
The Barras, 1920s

The Barras market in the early 1920s. Traders have erected coverings of tarpaulin and other materials to protect their goods from rain.

Maggie McIver (née Russell, 1879-1958) was a grocer who had traded from a hired barrow in her youth, and who decided to invest in her own barrows to let to other traders. She assembled a stock of 300 barrows at her yard in Marshall Lane in Calton, and then struck on the idea of hiring out market pitches. In 1923 Maggie acquired a plot of ground between London Road and the Gallowgate as a market place, and in 1926 she erected a covered market in Moncur Street. More buildings were erected and a growing army of traders moved indoors to the stalls she offered for hire there. Although there are few barrows there today the market retains its world-famous name, "the Barras".

Reference: 59.83.37

Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Museums

Keywords:
barrows, market stalls, market traders, second-hand clothes markets, shoppers, shopping, street markets, street traders, tenements, The Barras



Quick Search


Photo Album

You have 0 images in your photo album.

View Photo Album

Log-In (Optional)

username:
password:
Not a user? Register now for FREE!

Other Options