Trongate is one of the oldest

street A street is a public thoroughfare in a city, town or village, typically lined with Building, buildings on one or both sides. Streets often include pavements (sidewalks), pedestrian crossings, and sometimes amenities like Street light, streetligh ...

s in the

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. Trongate begins at

Glasgow Cross Glasgow Cross is at the hub of the ancient royal burgh and now city of Glasgow, Scotland, close to its first crossing over the River Clyde. It marks the notional boundary between the city centre and the East End As a major junction at the gate ...

, where the steeple of the old Glasgow Tolbooth is situated, being the original centre of

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

Glasgow, and goes westward changing its name to Argyle Street at Glassford Street. In modern times, it forms the notional southern boundary of the Merchant City area.

History

Previously known as St Thenew's Gait (the way to the supposed site of St Thenew's burial) it was around the start of the 1500s that the name Trongate first began to be used. The name comes by virtue of a weighbeam erected in the mid-16th century, used for all goods requiring to be weighed for duty reasons, including from early shipping on the Clyde. ''

Tron ''Tron'' (stylized as ''TRON'') is a 1982 American science fiction action adventure film written and directed by Steven Lisberger from a story by Lisberger and Bonnie MacBird. The film stars Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a computer programmer ...

'' is a Scots word of Norman origin for weighing scales. The Trongate was one of the areas which was affected by a large fire on 17 June 1652 which destroyed a third of the town and left around 1,000 families homeless. The fire also affected the areas of Saltmarket and Gallowgate. The Tron

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

was founded as the Collegiate Church of Our Lady and St Anne in 1525 by James Houston. It became a Protestant church after the

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

and the tower was added in the late 16th century. The steeple was added in 1628. Most of the building was destroyed by a fire in 1793, only the tower surviving. The current church was built in 1794, separately from the tower. It was substantially redeveloped in the 1980s as the

Tron Theatre The Tron Theatre is located in Glasgow, Scotland. The theatre was formerly known as the Tron Kirk. It began as the Collegiate Church of Our Lady and St. Anne. The Tron Theatre building is home to the Tron Theatre Company and serves as a prod ...

Trongate was used as a route for the

trams A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

of Glasgow Corporation Tramways until this system was abandoned in 1962. The tramlines were subsequently removed.Brash, Ronald W. (1971). ''Glasgow in the Tramway Ages'', Longman, . Glasgow Cross railway station was situated at the eastern end of the street between 1895 and 1964 (the tracks – part of the extant

Argyle Line The Argyle Line is a suburban railway located in West Central Scotland. The line serves the commercial and shopping districts of Glasgow's central area, and connects towns from West Dunbartonshire to South Lanarkshire. Named for Glasgow's Arg ...

– and parts of the station are still present below ground). The Trongate remains a major bus corridor for services travelling to and from the east and south-eastern parts of the city (largely along the old tram routes), which use the one-way systems on the Gallowgate and London Road but merge at

References

{{Transport in Glasgow Streets in Glasgow History of Glasgow