April 1855: The Opening of the McLellan Rooms, Sauchiehall Street – Grand Ball on Friday the 20th

There is an advertisement on the front page of The Glasgow Herald, on Friday the 13th of April, 1855.

It contains a list of the ladies who consented to be “PATRONESSES” of the Ball planned for the opening

of the McLellan Rooms, the following Friday.

 

The twenty-two names include: The Right Hon. Lady Octavia Shaw Stewart, The Right Hon. Lady

Isabella Gordon, The Right Hon. Lady Belhaven, Lady Maxwell of Calderwood, Mrs. A. H. Dennistoun,

Mrs. H. Blackburn, Mrs. Campbell of Blythswood, Mrs. Wm. Dalglish, Mrs. Dunlop of Tollcross, Mrs.

McCall of Daldowie, Mrs. Robert Reid, Mrs. Scott of Finnart, and Mrs. George Stirling.

 

The Committee “secured the services of Mr. Mackenzie, of Edinburgh, with his celebrated Band”.

Ladies’ tickets were seven-shillings-and-sixpence. Gentlemen’s tickets were twelve-shillings-and-

sixpence. They could be obtained at 204 Sauchiehall Street, one door east of the main entrance to

the McLellan Buildings.

 

Patrons were informed that “Carriages to set down at the side entance in Rose Street, and to take up

at the main entrance, Sauchiehall Street, driving west.”

 

 

George Fairfull-Smith, July 2022.