Jack House refers to Spreull’s Court and the Hanging Staircase in ‘The Heart of Glasgow’, 1965 edition

In Chapter 7 of The Heart of Glasgow, which the author named ‘Beyond the Plainstanes’, Jack House comments:

 

“If you keep to the north side of the Trongate you will come to an arched entrance with a legend painted above it – ‘Spreull’s Court’.  … The present Spreull’s Court was built about 1784 and is a good example of an eighteenth-century land. It was only well-off Glaswegians who could afford to live in this kind of tenement. … Most lands in the Trongate area of Glasgow were built in the form of a square.

 

Spreull’s Court today [1960s] is famous for its fine old hanging staircase. You stand in the lobby and look up to the lovely oval spiral. Climb the stairs and you will see how the doors have been curved to suit the curve of the staircase and how the whole scene fits the cupola at the top of the building. Today the flats and houses have become offices and showrooms, but you can still see in some of them original fireplaces and ceilings.”

 

The Heart of Glasgow, 1965 edition, pages 94-5.