Glasgow landmarks: Chilling past of Tolbooth tower

Just the steeple remains at Glasgow Cross and the view from the top storey – as captured by our photographer in 1956 – is impressive.

This is the view, of course, that some of the city’s most nefarious characters would have enjoyed before being dealt with – hanged, if necessary – as the Tolbooth was where murderers and thieves once met their fate.

Tolbooth Steeple. Pic: Colin Mearns

View from the Tolbooth, 1956. Pic: Herald and Times

Designed by John Boyd, the original building was constructed around 1626 and housed the council hall, the town clerk’s office and the main jail, which usually served as a debtors’ prison.

Whoever might be languishing within, however, the ‘plainstanes’ in front of the Tolbooth (the paved area, an early pedestrian precinct) was where the ‘in crowd’ went to parade in their finery, and be spotted. Had social media been around, this is where the influencers would be, Instagramming away to their hearts’ content…

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Next time you walk past the Tolbooth, check out the little iron loops on the side of the tower – legend has it these were used for ‘lug-pinning’, a delightful practice of yore in which miscreants would have their ears pinned to the wall as schoolkids and passers-by chucked rotten veg and horse manure at them.

A jeweller at work on the silver model of the Tolbooth, made for Winston Churchill in 1951. Pic: Herald and Times

In 1951, Glasgow Chamber of Commerce wanted to present something special to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who had been returned to Number 10.

They decided on a silver model of the Tolbooth Steeple, pictured here being worked on by jeweller Peter Campbell.