GLASGOW’s great department stores, like Lewis’s, Trerons and Pettigrew Stephen, are fondly remembered.

However, after our recent feature on a lesser-known institution – Forsyth’s, on the corner of Gordon Street and Renfield Street – a reader got in touch to remind us of another forgotten gem.

Dorothy Connor, from Rutherglen, has lovely memories to share of a shop which is not often mentioned in stories about the Glasgow greats.

“Lawson’s was my mum’s favourite,” she says. “It stood on the corner of Argyle Street and James Watt Street, near to Waterloo Street Bus Station and the Alhambra Theatre.

“It was big, but I thought everything was big and exciting as a wee girl going ‘into the town’.”

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Lawson’s was known as a 'warehouse' and it was not open to the general public, explains Dorothy.

“To be allowed entry to this magnificent palace required the possession of a precious piece of paper known as a line,” she says, smiling.

“To get this 'line', unknown to me as a child, my mother had to apply for credit and was granted a certain amount, never much by today's standards, and no more could be added until this was paid off.

“A man would call round to the house every Friday night - wages were paid in cash then - and an agreed sum handed over, written up in a cardboard booklet and given back to my mum. Interest would be added at some point.”

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She adds: “At Christmas - or any time of the year, really, but we only used it at Christmas - the precious 'line', which was a slip of paper with the agreed amount of credit to be spent, was given to her.

“Then, we’d go off on an adventure into town. Oh, the excitement, of going round all the departments, choosing what to spend this precious slip of paper on.

“The purchase was handed over and the assistant would write on another slip of paper and put it and the line in a glass and metal tube, which was then sent into another tube in the wall which was connected throughout the building to the cash office upstairs.

“Magically, it seemed to me, this container then returned down the tube and the updated credit note was given back to my mum.”

Prices were rather high in Lawson’s, recalls Dorothy, “but we couldn't leave until the full amount of the credit note had been spent.”

She adds: “Then we would load up with our parcels, all perfectly wrapped with brown paper and string and, if money allowed, go the Alhambra Cafe on the corner opposite the bus station, for a ice cream and a snowball. The joy!

“When I was younger, my mum would make the Christmas visit by herself and hide all the games and jigsaw puzzles for my brother Douglas and I at the bottom of her and dad's big wardrobe.

“Little did she know that I had found the stash, but I would never touch anything, I just felt reassured that it was there.”

Do you remember Lawson’s? Share your memories of Glasgow’s great department stores - email ann.fotheringham@glasgowtimes.co.uk or write to Ann Fotheringham, Glasgow Times, 125 Fullarton Drive, Glasgow G32 8FG