A Short History of St Enoch Square in Glasgow

Below a city centre square in the middle of Glasgow lies a saint.
Saint Thenew, or Saint Teneu, was the mother of a 6th century priest, Kentigern, regarded as the man wholly responsible for the creation of Glasgow, a city variously named over the centuries as Cathures or Glaschu, the dear green place. Kentigern later also became a saint, affectionately known as Saint Mungo. Saintishness must have ran in the family.
And long time ago what is now St Enoch Square was indeed a dear green place, sitting on the western edge of the city and noted as being 'a solitary spot in the country, surrounded by cornfields'. How times change.
The name Thenew or Teneu changed over time, as words often do, and eventually became 'enoch'. And that is why we have a St Enoch Square in Glasgow; burial place of a saint.
Of course, you'd never know that beneath your feet lay the remains of 'a 6th century Brittonic princess of the ancient kingdom of Gododdin', or Lothian, as it's now known. And you'd never know that she was buried below a medieval chapel built over her resting place. For today, for a few months each year, St Enoch Square hosts a fun fair, where kids have fun and long-departed saints throw up their bony hands in despair. Is there no respect these days!
Of all the streets, lanes, squares and byways in Glasgow, St Enoch Square has probably seen more change, demolition, and general upheaval than anywhere else.
A church was built over the old chapel and Saint Thenew's remains back in the late 18th century. For a while it was the only thing in the square. Then houses were arranged around it, and a small fountain - visible only in Sulman's Bird's-Eye View of Glasgow dating to 1864 - and what had previously been a nice spot in the countryside became something of an upmarket residential area. But times change and people move. The church lasted until 1925 before being demolished.
Then in the 1870s the railway arrived, and St Enoch Square was dominated by a huge railway hotel containing upwards of 200 bedrooms. But the railway station and the hotel only lasted about 100 years before they too were demolished. Thank you Doctor Beeching! The rubble from both was used to fill in Queen's Dock by the River Clyde.
And then - are you still paying attention? - something else was built, a massive glass and metal shopping centre, opened in 1989, and it too dominated the square, although not in as grand a way as the old hotel and station.
But the St Enoch shopping centre itself is now due for demolition, sometime in the next 15 to 20 years. What will replace it? Does anyone care? More upheaval. More demolition and building. Glaswegians could be forgiven for thinking they live in a building-site and not a city.
Meanwhile, the bones of a saint lie under the ground.