SO, it looks like Glasgow is going to lose a famous landmark that has been part of the city’s entertainment and social scene for more than a century.

In its many guises, the ABC on Sauchiehall Street has welcomed generations of Glaswegians, visitors and people who have made the city their home.

Its history is rich and entwined with much of what Glasgow is famous for through the years.

It opened in the 19th century as the Diorama.

It was for most of its 20th century life a picture hall, the ABC Regal, when Glasgow had more picture halls per head of population than any other UK city,

The ABC as a cinema lasted until the almost the Millennium, closing the curtains on its big screens for the last time in October 1999.

Queues would stretch round the block and up the hill at the side for the big releases.

It had briefly been a dance hall when the city would get dressed up in their best outfits for a night on the town.

And into the 21st century it became a music venue when Glasgow cemented its reputation as one of the best cities in the world for live music, providing a mid size venue for up and coming bands.

There will be few people in Glasgow who have not been through its doors in one form or another at some time in their life.

The ABC is as much a part of Glasgow’s history as any other building in that area, if not more so.

For many it is more important. It has been a venue where people went out and forged long-lasting friendships, met partners, had first dates, took their children to the pictures, saw their first band.

The ABC is an indelible part of the history of Glasgow because it is part of the people’s history.

A history of shared experiences, stories handed down through the years in families in different parts of Glasgow and beyond.

And it has economic importance too. It would draw people to the city from outside, especially in its most recent incarnation.

Now, if the demolition goes ahead, it will be lost, a landmark entrance to a space inside that changed though the years many times but which was a link through generations, where people went to have fun, meet other people and enjoy life.

A teenager in 2018 would have said they were going to the O2 ABC to see a band and their parents would likely say that’s where we used to go to the pictures 30 years ago, at the ABC.

Their grandparents would probably remember it as the Regal and tell tales of the Hollywood screen idols they watched there.

Councillors will have to decide whether it should be demolished either in full or in part. And perhaps it can’t survive the devastating blow it was dealt last year.

How much history will play in those discussions, I don’t know. But that building, that venue, will have touched the lives of so many people in this city.

Buildings are about more than who designed them or who built them. They are about what goes on inside them.

And life went on inside the ABC for more than 100 years. Glasgow life. Dancing, movies and music.

So, let’s not pretend that certain other buildings are any more important or have any more meaning or have a more special place in the city’s heart, just because a few folk say so.