“The Scottish Field”, February 1942, page 40: ‘Unknown Glasgow — No. 49 Spreull’s Court, Trongate’

“The wide close at 182 Trongate which leads into this interesting relic of Old Glasgow has now been closed to the public, but admittance was readily granted by the proprietors of the old-established firm of Messrs Millers, Drawing Materials Ltd. There are still two Millers in this shop which adjoins the pend in the original Spreull’s Land, and the business of equipping artists with their materials has been going on for a century.

 

“The Spreull family with its Glasgow and Paisley connection goes back for several centuries. For the full story I commend a reading of ‘Notes on the Family of Spreull,’ published by McLehose [sic] & Sons in 1915.

 

“The notable member of the family was John Spreull, apothecary and merchant of Glasgow, who, like his father, a Paisley merchant, suffered for his allegiance to the Covenanters. He built a mansion and laid out ground around this courtbefore he died in 1722.

 

“In 1784 James Shortridge, who had assumed the name of Spreull by order of the terms of his legacy – the Spreull mansion – began to create changes in the property.

 

“He pulled down the old house and erected what at that time was considered the choicest of the many town tenements, Spreull’s Land, luxury flats of their day. Its tenants were the cream of the city gentry. Its spiral hanging well staircase was one of the sights of the city.

 

“With grave head-shaking anent the slim supports of this oddity, architects still come to view it, for the hanging staircase and Spreull’s Land (now purely business premises with a few alterations) are still to the fore.”