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Every time you go through Central, as I have thousands of times, it feels like stories are ready to roll across to you. On a Friday early evening, as some are heading home, many excitedly bundle off trains, the boys in a cloud of Buckfast and hormones and Lynx Africa, girls in shoes so vertiginous they seem to be willing A&E triage to take them.

There are still, even in this time of constant messaging, people waiting anxiously under the big clock to see if their date is on the train as promised. Our man Mick is outside selling Big Issue, Japanese tourists check their phones against the departure board and wonder which exit to take. Unlike a lot of stations, Central is all in front of you, that great big concourse opening as you step in off Gordon Street and see humanity waiting. It’s a place of more than bricks and mortar.

But the fire, and there have been quite a number of fires in Glasgow – the renowned School of Art burnt down TWICE – illustrates the fragile state of Glasgow’s built heritage. The city centre has 143 buildings on Historic Environment Scotland’s “at risk” register. Advocates to maintain them and the unique character of Glasgow, like MSP Paul Sweeney, have been calling for better measures to preserve and bring back into use. 

It must feel like pushing water up a hill. Glasgow, like many major cities, faces local authority budgetary tightening. Therefore, it’s understandable that an older building, with all the inherent costs of bringing centuries-old construction up to code and into better use, is not of primary importance.

And Glasgow has a habit of turning a blind eye to fires that helpfully clear sites. There is an old joke that goes: two Glaswegian pub landlords are having a drink on a Monday night. One says to the other, I’m sorry to hear about your pub burning down at the weekend. The other replies, shhh, that’s next Saturday. There is no suggestion there was anything malicious in the fire by Central, but once these places are gone, they’re gone.

What makes a city is, as Glasgow says, people. But it’s also where they go, what they can feel is of them in the streets, where they take pride and where they touch their history. The fire that almost led to the destruction of Central Station is a reminder of how fragile that connection is. And why work must go on to maintain it. Time to get on the train.

Paul McNamee is editor of the Big Issue. Read more of his columns here. Follow him on X.

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