Watt Brothers Hotel

Glasgow's long-vacant Watt Brothers department store cleared planning and listed-building consent in March 2026 for conversion into a boutique hotel with a rooftop extension. The developers have not named an operator or settled a final room count, so key details remain unconfirmed.

The place

The site sits at 119-121 Sauchiehall Street, in the heart of Glasgow's main retail and entertainment thoroughfare, a short walk from Charing Cross and the Willow Tearooms. Sauchiehall Street has struggled with vacancy since the mid-2010s, and converting one of its largest and most recognisable buildings — a full city block of Art Deco frontage — is positioned as a marker of the street's wider revitalisation.

The concept

Watt Brothers traded as a family-owned department store from this building for over a century before going into administration in 2019, leaving the B-listed 1914 structure (with a 1929 extension) vacant. Sandy and James Easdale, the brothers behind McGill's Buses, bought the site in 2020. A first hotel-and-residential scheme, submitted in 2022 at roughly £20m, was rejected by Glasgow City Council in September 2022 after planning officers called its proposed rooftop extension 'incongruous and unsympathetic' to the listed building. A revised £23m scheme, retaining the classical Art Deco facade while adding a two-storey rooftop extension, received planning and listed-building consent on 19 March 2026. No hotel operator or brand has been publicly confirmed: the only public reference remains a March 2024 comment from Sandy Easdale about talks with 'a big franchising brand', which has not been followed up with a named partner as of August 2026.

Dining & wellness

Plans reportedly include a ground-floor bar and reception area and, per one planning summary, a fitness suite and food-and-beverage space for guests and the public, but no restaurant concept, spa, or operator-branded outlet has been announced.