The streets between Royal Exchange Square and the old Glasgow Cross were built on the money of the 18th-century tobacco trade, and they still show it. This guide covers six places in and around the Merchant City: the Gallery of Modern Art, George Square, the City Chambers, the Merchant City itself, Smug's wildlife mural on Ingram Street and St Andrew's in the Square, the merchants' own church.
Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA)
GoMA stands in Royal Exchange Square in a building that began in 1778 as the town mansion of William Cunninghame of Lainshaw, one of the tobacco lords. It later became a bank and then, after a rebuilding by the architect David Hamilton around 1827–1832, the Royal Exchange, where merchants met to trade; the big Corinthian portico dates from that time. In the 20th century the building housed Stirling's Library, and in 1996 it opened as the Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow's main venue for contemporary art. A library still occupies the basement.
- The equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington by Carlo Marochetti (1844) in front of the portico, usually with a traffic cone on his head. Glaswegians have kept up the joke since the 1980s, and when the council proposed raising the plinth in 2013 to stop it, the public outcry made it drop the plan.
- The Corinthian columns of the portico and the lantern on the roof, from the building's Royal Exchange days.
George Square
A few steps north-east, George Square is Glasgow's main civic square. It was laid out in the 1780s and named after King George III, although the column in the middle carries not the king but Sir Walter Scott: put up in 1837, it was the first monument to the writer. The square is full of statues of people linked to Glasgow or Scotland, including Robert Burns, James Watt, Thomas Campbell and Queen Victoria and Prince Albert on horseback. The square has also been a place of protest: in January 1919, during a strike for a shorter working week, a rally here turned into a riot, and the government sent troops into the city.
- The Scott column in the centre, the oldest monument on the square.
- The two equestrian statues of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and the seated figure of James Watt.
- The cenotaph in front of the City Chambers, Glasgow's main war memorial, designed by Sir John James Burnet and unveiled in 1924.
Glasgow City Chambers
The whole east side of George Square is taken up by the City Chambers, the seat of Glasgow City Council. The architect William Young won the design competition, building began in 1882, and Queen Victoria inaugurated it in August 1888, at a time when Glasgow called itself the Second City of the Empire. The interior is famous for its marble staircases, mosaics and banqueting hall, and the building has stood in for the Vatican in the film Heavenly Pursuits (1986) and for the British Embassy in Moscow in An Englishman Abroad (1983). The council usually offers free guided tours; check before you go.
- The Jubilee Pediment above the entrance by James Alexander Ewing, with Queen Victoria enthroned among figures for the four nations of the United Kingdom and the colonies.
- The domed corner towers and the central tower that rises above the square.
Merchant City
East of George Square, the grid of streets down to the Trongate and High Street is the Merchant City. It grew in the 18th century, when merchants who traded in tobacco, sugar and cotton with the American colonies and the Caribbean built their mansions and warehouses here; much of that wealth came from plantations worked by enslaved people. Many streets still carry the merchants' names, such as Glassford Street, Ingram Street and Buchanan Street, and Virginia Street recalls the tobacco trade. The name Merchant City itself is more recent, from the regeneration of the 1980s, when old warehouses were turned into flats, bars and restaurants.
- The Trades Hall on Glassford Street, designed by Robert Adam and built in the 1790s and topped by a shallow dome.
- Hutchesons' Hall on Ingram Street, by David Hamilton, with statues of the Hutcheson brothers who founded a hospital and school in the 17th century.
The Fellow Glasgow Residents mural by Smug
On Ingram Street, the wall of a multi-storey car park carries one of the best-known works on the City Centre Mural Trail. It is by Smug, the street artist Sam Bates, who is known for hyper-realistic work painted with spray cans; he also painted the mural of St Mungo with a robin on High Street. Here he painted the animals that share the city with its people, among them foxes, badgers, hedgehogs, squirrels and Highland cattle, among leaves and fungi. It is not one of the scavenger hunt stops, but it is on the way between George Square and the Merchant City.
St Andrew's in the Square
At the south-east end of the Merchant City, near Glasgow Cross, St Andrew's in the Square was built between 1739 and 1756, designed by Allan Dreghorn and built by the master mason Mungo Naismith. It was paid for by the tobacco lords as a show of their wealth, and its model was St Martin-in-the-Fields in London, with a temple-like portico and a tall steeple. It is one of the finest 18th-century churches in Scotland. After a restoration from 1998 to 2000, it reopened as Glasgow's Centre for Scottish Culture, with concerts and ceilidh dances of traditional music, and a café in the basement.
- The temple-like portico with its tall columns, the feature borrowed from St Martin-in-the-Fields.
- The quiet square of 18th-century houses around the church, a short step from the bustle of Glasgow Cross.
How to see them in one walk
Start at GoMA in Royal Exchange Square, then walk to George Square and the City Chambers on its east side. From the square, head into the Merchant City along Ingram Street, where you pass Smug's mural and Hutchesons' Hall, then turn down Glassford Street past the Trades Hall towards the Trongate. Continue east past the Tolbooth Steeple at Glasgow Cross and turn into St Andrew's Square for the church; from there, Glasgow Green and the People's Palace are close by.
See Glasgow with World City Trail
Our Glasgow scavenger hunt turns the city centre into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops, from St Enoch Square to the People's Palace, and five of the places in this guide are among them: the Gallery of Modern Art, George Square, the City Chambers, the Merchant City and St Andrew's in the Square.
If you prefer a different format, there is also a self-guided walking tour and an outdoor escape game in Glasgow.
Play the Glasgow scavenger hunt →
Take the self-guided walking tour of Glasgow →
Play the outdoor escape game in Glasgow →
Facts checked in October 2026.