Royal Exchange Square is a public square in the City of Glasgow in Scotland. The square is situated at the junction of Queen Street with Ingram Street. It is also easily accessible from Buchanan Street, through two prominent archways on the West side of the square.The square is a landmark that attracts many visitors due to the central building which houses the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art, (also known as the 'GoMA') and the humorous Duke of Wellington statue.
Along the sides of the square are lots of open air cafés and restaurants. The Square is lit up with a large overhead net of lighting between the Gallery of Modern Art and surrounding buildings. The lighting was originally only activated around the Winter season as part of the city's Christmas decorations, but due to being highly favoured by the citizens of Glasgow it remains, to this day, as a permanent feature.
At the Queen Street entrance there is a statue of Duke of Wellington which usually has a traffic cone placed on his head. This was originally a joke by youngsters, but it is now encouraged by the public to leave the cone intact. The statue has become a representation of simple Glaswegian humour and is favoured by many citizens and tourists who have seen it. However, some tourists have conveyed disappointment upon visiting the statue to discover that the cone has been taken down.
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Famous quotes containing the words royal, exchange and/or square:
“High from the summit of a craggy cliff,
Hung o’er the deep, such as amazing frowns
On utmost Kilda’s shore, whose lonely race
Resign the setting sun to Indian worlds,
The royal eagle draws his vigorous young”
—James Thomson (1700–1748)
“I cannot say what poetry is; I know that our sufferings and our concentrated joy, our states of plunging far and dark and turning to come back to the world—so that the moment of intense turning seems still and universal—all are here, in a music like the music of our time, like the hero and like the anonymous forgotten; and there is an exchange here in which our lives are met, and created.”
—Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980)
“In old times people used to try and square the circle; now they try and devise schemes for satisfying the Irish nation.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)