The sweeping pedestrian boulevard that runs through Glasgow’s city centre takes its name from a previous Lord Provost of Glasgow, Andrew Buchanan of Drumpellier, who feued (a form of land tenure) the street in 1777.
Buchanan was a maltster-turned-tobacco trader – one of the ‘Tobacco Lords’ who rose to prominence in the 18th century supplying the growing demand for Virginia leaf throughout Europe.
The Act of Union in 1707 gave Scotland previously unattainable access to England’s colonial
