AS GLASGOW’S shops open once more just in time for Christmas, Times Past has been delving into our archives for photographs which sum up the city’s festive retail frenzies of yesteryear.

Remember when the hustle and bustle of shopping for presents was not hampered by social distancing and face masks?

This scene at Wylie Hills on Buchanan Street in 1955, for example, is a lovely snapshot of festive times gone by. Shoppers gaze at the goods on offer, enticed by the beautifully decorated window display.

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Wylie Hills was a much-loved store at the bottom of Buchanan Street (sportswear store Nike now occupies part of it) built in 1888 and rebuilt the following year after a devastating fire.

Glasgow Times:

(Incidentally, the architect on the project, John Hutchsion, had a young apprentice at the time, a certain Charles Rennie Mackintosh, who designed some of the interior plasterwork.)

Equally lovely is the scene at Pettigrew and Stephen on Sauchiehall Street (now the Sauchiehall Street Centre) in 1955.

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Pettigrew and Stephen was built in 1888 and redesigned in 1901 by John Honeyman and John Keppie, with a gilt dome designed by, guess who, Charles Rennie Mackintosh. It sold a wide range of goods, including clothes, millinery, confectionery, carpets, furniture, ironmongery and china.

Glasgow Times:

Elsewhere, at Marks and Spencer in 1971, a crowd of gift-hunters gathers with purpose in the Argyle Street mecca….

What are your favourite memories of Christmas shopping in days gone by? Get in touch to share your memories and photos.