A FURNITURE store is to close after 80 years in the city centre to make way for student flats.

MacDonald Furniture Gallery, in Cathedral Street, will shut its doors to customers in weeks.

The store, which is owned by Forrest Furnishing, is relocating to the firm's Whiteinch showroom.

All staff have been invited to relocate. A closing down sale will get underway on April 1 and the store will begin relocating from mid May.

Ken Forrest, Managing Director, said the store was "trading well" but the firm had been offered the right price to relocate.

He said: "It's both sad and exciting.

"There is a lot of work happening in the area, a lot of development, in what's now known as the Buchanan Quarter.

"We've had a lot of interest in the property, with interesting prices so we thought that what we would do is explore the possibilities.

"It seems the best way forward to close the property for developers and expand our premises at the South Street showrooms.

"All our staff have been invited to relocate. There are no redundancies.

"We took over the store, 30 years ago and it's still trading well.

"It was a difficult decision. If the price wasn't right it wouldn't be happening.

"It's looking likely to be student accommodation. There is a great demand for student accommodation."

It comes weeks after Crocket the Ironmonger announced it was to close its iconic premises after nearly 50 years in Glasgow city centre.

The firm blamed increasing costs, high rates and parking restrictions as well as internet trade for the decision.

 

Are you being served? Charles Fletcher recalls working in the furniture store as a lift boy

On the ground floor there was no perfumery, stationery and leather goods, wigs and haberdashery, kitchenware or food. Going up...

I was elevated onto the first steps of my career ladder in Glasgow with a Saturday job at the MacDonald Furniture Gallery.

I learn from the Evening Times MacDonald’s is closing. It may be transformed into student flats. It is all the rage, this redevelopment in what they now call the Buchanan Quarter. It used to be the toon.

The author of The Glasgow Bible, Jamie Stuart, worked at the store. He phoned my parents on their party line back in the day to ask if I would be interested in “a wee joab”.

Apparently, I was and the next thing I knew I was being taught how to safely pull back the first of the two folding doors.

The next set was the trickier one. This was the brass internal door that pulled back “gently, son, gently, mind yer fingers, noo” to reveal what would become my Saturday work station.

The dimming memory vaguely suggests it was carpeted on the floor and three walls. Was it the tartan lining of a gilded cage?

The long brass plate to one side had a slew of large black buttons finished off with a dainty scarlet one in case the balloon went up and the lift didn’t.

I only recall pressing that alarm button once when I was in an impish mode. A glare cast in my direction served to give me a beamer and a general agreement never to do it again.

Those far-away Saturdays were generally busy, more so from mid-morning to mid-afternoon.

They were also, I seem to remember, the days when it was pure sunny outside and I hardly had any time to sit down for a breather on my wee three-legged wooden stool by the button panel.

Ah, the memories.

Materials, soft furnishings, G-Plan and accessories. Going down...