The focal point of Glasgow's business district is lined with an impressive collection of statues of worthies: Queen Victoria; Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns (1759-96); the inventor and developer of the steam engine, James Watt (1736-1819); Prime Minister William Gladstone (1809-98); and towering above them all, Scotland's great historical novelist, Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). The column was intended for George III (1738-1820), after whom the square is named, but when he was found to be insane toward the end of his reign, his statue was never erected. On the square's east side stands the magnificent Italian Renaissance-style City Chambers; the handsome Merchants' House fills the corner of West George Street.
Off and around George Square, several streets—Virginia Street, Miller Street, Glassford Street—recall the yesterdays of mercantile wealth. The French-style palaces, with their steep mansard roofs and cupolas, were once tobacco warehouses. Inside are shops and offices; here and there you may trace the elaborately carved mahogany galleries where auctions once took place.
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