The Glasgow
Guide
www.glasgow-guide.co.uk
©
David Williams
Page 2 of 4
The Mercat Cross (1930, Edith Burnet Hughes (née Burnet)) stands at the south-eastern corner of Glasgow Cross. Market crosses like this are found all over Scotland to mark the places where markets were legally held and this example represents one removed from Glasgow Cross in 1659. A town`s cross was often its symbolic centre as markets and other communal events took place beside it and the absence of such an important monument must have caused a bit of a dent in civic pride. The new cross was paid for by Dr William Black and his wife and its inauguration on 24 April 1930 was a day of great pomp and ceremony. The next day`s Glasgow Herald reported that:
-
Probably
not since 1649 when Charles II was proclaimed King to the accompaniment
of a carillon from the city bells, has the Mercat Cross been the centre
of such striking ceremonial… The gold, scarlet, and blue robes of
the Lyon King of Arms and his heralds and pursuivants struck a note of
brilliance, and stood out in bold relief against the black and ermine
gowns of the Lord Provost and Magistrates… That pomp and circumstance,
those gorgeous robes, the royal greeting, the arresting sound of the trumpets,
the whole magnificent pageant, belonged not to that day alone, but to
centuries of that past life which has made us a great nation.
The structure is in the form of an octagonal tower with the cross (which is topped by a heraldic unicorn holding a shield) rising high above it. On the tower`s western side a plaque declares that this is The Mercat Cross of Glasgow, built in the year of grace 1929. Above that is the coat of arms of the city with its motto Let Glasgow flourish. On the tower`s eastern side there is a badge (with a thistle and a St Andrew`s Cross) and the Latin phrase Nemo me impune lacessit (`No-one provokes me with impunity`). This is the motto of Scotland and can be translated as `Wha daur meddle wi` me` in Scots. Above that is an unidentified coat of arms (with a lion, a knight`s head and a shield on which is a St Andrew`s Cross) and a Latin phrase.
Behind the cross stands the tall and many-sided Mercat Building (1925-28, A. Graham Henderson). This unusual building has a pair of giant columns above which is a space with the shape of a semi-dome; at the top is a winged head on the prow of a boat. Six large statues of semi-clad male and female figures decorate the building`s front and sides. These figures are seated or crouched and hold various tools or other artefacts associated with Glasgow`s trades.
On the opposite corner of Glasgow Cross stands the Bank of Scotland (1922, A. Graham Henderson), whose curved frontage allows space for traffic going round the Tolbooth Steeple. It is built in the same style as the Mercat Building.
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