FOR years Sauchiehall Street was one of Scotland's finest boulevards.

A place to see and be seen, it housed expensive department stores, ballrooms, tearooms, restaurants, theatres and cinemas.

Its architecture was eclectic - from the Art Deco/Streamline Moderne of The Beresford to the A-listed Charles Rennie Mackintosh designed Willow Tea Rooms.

Glasgow's other great architect, Alexander 'Greek' Thomson is responsible for another famous Sauchiehall Street building, the A-listed Grecian Chambers.

In 1888 Hubners Ice Skating Palace, which was later to become the ABC music and nightclub venue, was one of the first in the city to have electricity.

B-listed, The Beresford was built to provide accommodation for visitors attending the Empire Exhibition and was known as the city's first skyscraper, soaring 10 storeys high.

In the 20th century, Sauchiehall Street was an upmarket shopping destination with ladies coming to browse the rails at Graftons and Trerons, or make purchases at Woolworths and Marks and Spencer.

Trerons, which opened in 1904, was one of the city's most glamorous shops, modelled on the retail outlets of Paris.

Glasgow Times:

M&S had opened in Glasgow in 1918 on Argyle Street at number 28, a single unit offering household goods, haberdashery and children's toys.

The firm then moved to a more spacious location at 18-26 Argyle Street before finally, in 1966, opening in its current location on the street.

Its second Glasgow store was opened in the Art Deco building on Sauchiehall Street on November 29, 1935, where it has remained continuously until now.

It was the first M&S in Scotland to have a cafe in-store.

Glasgow's M&S branches became a target for the enemy during World War II and were hit by 11 bombing raids over the six years of the conflict.

Sauchiehall Street's branch also employed some highly decorated staff members, including Flight Lieutenant Robert James Greenfield, who was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross and Distinguished Flying Medal; and Sergeant Observer Robert James Alexander, who was awarded an MBE.

Sauchiehall Street's hey days arguably ended in the 1970s but the thoroughfare's decline has been particularly marked over the past 10 years.

The area suffered badly from the first Glasgow School of Art fire in May 2014, before the second fire in June 2018 that also engulfed the historic ABC building, almost completely destroying it.

Glasgow Times:

The Victoria's nightclub fire in 2018 saw an entire block on the street demolished with the gap site still lying vacant.

A slew of big-name retailers have left the street in recent years, such as Starbucks, BHS, Greaves Sports, Dunnes Stores and Watt Brothers department store shut down.

Glasgow City Council believes the world-famous boulevard can rise from the ashes but, without major intervention, its future looks sadly bleak.