Virginia Galleries

The Virginia Galleries, in Virginia Street, sat at the centre of what was once the commercial heart of Glasgow. The Galleries, built from 1817 until 1819, were originally the Tobacco Exchange, and later the Sugar Exchange. The building, one of the most important in the city, demonstrated the important link between the colonial trade in tobacco and sugar and Glasgow’s continuing economic growth in the nineteenth century. Sadly the building was demolished in 2003.

A Tobacco Lord relaxing with his pipe, on the cover of a booklet for the 1901 International Exhibition, by Glasgow tobacco merchants F & J Smith.