Merchants’ Steeple

Quick facts

Date

Completed 1665; incorporated into the fish market in the nineteenth century

Architect / designer

Original designer not identified

Type

Seven-storey ashlar guild steeple with clocks, balconies, spire and historic stairs

Designation

Listed building, Category A (LB32665)

OS grid reference

NS 59305 64671

Architecture

The steeple is a tall, narrow square tower of finely worked ashlar, rising through seven storeys above a basement. Its upper stages diminish in steps, each level articulated by stone balconies. Clock faces occupy the fourth-floor stage; above them are paired louvred lancets, a traceried window and a spire with two tiers of lucarnes, an onion-shaped finial and a weathervane.

The lower three floors are now largely concealed by later buildings. Inside, Historic Environment Scotland records a complex sequence of access: a wide newel stair through the lower levels, an intramural spiral stair higher up and timber stairs around an open well. Blocked doorways in the north wall once connected the tower directly with the adjoining Merchants’ House.

Its story

The tower belonged to the Merchants’ House and Hospital, built in 1659 for Glasgow’s merchant guild. Historic Environment Scotland dates completion of the steeple to 1665. The institutional buildings were demolished in 1817, but the tower survived and was incorporated into the purpose-built fish market of 1873. That market and its later halls now form the Briggait.

After the fish market closed in the 1970s, the complex passed through temporary uses. Wasps redeveloped and reopened it in 2010 as a cultural hub, retaining the steeple as an older vertical landmark embedded within the Victorian halls.

Why it matters

The steeple is a rare standing fragment of seventeenth-century institutional Glasgow. Its survival within a much later market makes the city’s mercantile history unusually easy to read: the tower is both an independent architectural object and part of a layered ensemble that spans more than two centuries.

What to notice

• The way the tower emerges from the roofs of the later market halls.
• The pierced stone balconies marking the diminishing upper stages.
• The clock faces, louvred openings and traceried window beneath the spire.
• The paired tiers of lucarnes and bulbous finial at the summit.

Visiting and access

The tower can be appreciated safely from the public realm around Clyde Street and Bridgegate. The Briggait is a working creative complex rather than a conventional historic-house attraction. Wasps currently lists a staffed reception from Monday to Friday, 9am–5pm, excluding bank holidays, together with public-facing exhibition spaces and advertised events. Most of the complex has step-free provision, although first-floor studios on the Bridgegate elevation are excluded from that claim.

These opening arrangements do not imply general access inside or up the steeple. The historic stairs and tower interior are not advertised as a routine visitor route. Check the current Wasps listing before travelling, and use only areas opened to the public or an advertised guided event.

Timeline

1. 1659 The Merchants’ House and Hospital were built.
2. 1665 Historic Environment Scotland dates completion of the steeple to this year.
3. 1817 The Merchants’ buildings were demolished; the tower survived.
4. 1873 The new fish market enclosed the surviving steeple within its complex.
5. 1970s The fish market closed, followed by temporary uses.
6. 2010 Wasps reopened the Briggait as a cultural hub.
7. Present The steeple remains a landmark within working studios, offices, exhibition areas and event halls.

What we know — and what remains uncertain

This record concerns the Category A-listed Merchants’ Steeple, LB32665, not every range of the separately designated Briggait complex. Historic Environment Scotland gives 1665 as the steeple’s completion date. A current Wasps event page uses 1655; without stronger documentary reconciliation, this account follows the statutory record while recording the discrepancy rather than silently harmonising it. The original designer is not identified in the designation account.

Sources & further reading

• Historic Environment Scotland: Merchants’ Steeple, LB32665 — Designation, date, architectural description, surviving interior circulation and relationship to the former Merchants’ House and later fish market.
• Wasps: The Briggait — Current cultural use, public-facing facilities, accessibility statement and reopening in 2010.
• Wasps: contact and opening hours — Current staffed reception hours and bank-holiday exclusions, checked 27 September 2026.
• Wasps: Doors Open Days at The Briggait — Evidence of advertised public tours and the alternative 1655 date used in a current operator page.