The residents of Paisley Road West are justifiably proud of the stunning coat-of-arms that decorates the building at the corner of Stanley Street.

As Eye Spy Glasgow was taking a photograph, a passer-by approached and informed us this was the old British Linen Bank building and the coat-of-arms was a reminder of those days.

Nowadays a convenience store occupies the site. The inside of the shop retains the beautiful architecture and windows associated with old bank buildings.

The coat-of-arms of the bank, founded in Edinburgh in 1746, includes a lion, a horse and a Scottish saltire.

Anyone who catches sight of it on the first floor of the building in Kinning Park cannot fail to be impressed.

But there is more to the history of British Linen in this part of Glasgow than just banking. One of the most sensational crimes in 20th century Scotland was committed at a British Linen Bank further along this road.

It happened in July 1955 and was the first professional bank robbery in Glasgow's history. So keenly did it catch the imagination of the public that it became known as the "crime of the century".

The robbery was planned by an organised gang from London, led by a charismatic Australian. It also involved a fair amount of brutality, with a delivery man being coshed, bound and gagged.

In his book "Law, Life and Laughter: A Personal Verdict", lawyer Irvine Smith wrote of the raid: "Its planning and execution would have been entirely at home in the Chicago of the 1920s, with the difference that here no-one was shot."

The gang had cased the area thoroughly and knew the movements of bank delivery vans down to the last minute.

On the morning of the robbery they pounced on the van just outside the bank in Cessnock, got in the back when only one delivery man was left inside, and drove it off.

The man was coshed then tied up and the gang got away with £44,025. It might not have been the Great Train Robbery but, in the 1950s, it was a substantial sum of money.

They transferred the cash to a fleet of stolen vehicles and travelled back to their base, the Rob Roy Roadhouse in Aberfoyle.

Good old-fashioned policing saw the gang rounded up fairly quickly and their trial at the High Court in Glasgow attracted massive interest. Among the solicitors involved was Lawrence Dowdall, the best-known defence lawyer of his day.

Three defendants were found guilty but the sentences of between six and eight years seemed lenient for such a high-profile case.

The British Linen Bank eventually merged and ceased to exist in 2000. It had a long and proud history in Scotland.

But in Paisley Road West, banking was only part of the story. Remember that next time you pass by and see the coat-of-arms.