Glasgow in 1727 was described by Daniel Defoe as “one of the cleanest, most beautiful and best- built cities in Great Britain”. The city's population at that time stood at somewhere around 12,500; by the end of the 18th century it had risen to over 62,000, and by the middle of the 19th century – the time when the property business which we know today as Ross and Liddell was first established - it had reached in excess of 395,000 and was still rising fast.

The reasons for this tremendous influx of people into Glasgow lay, of course, in the growth of industry and commerce in the city. The beginning of the industrial revolution at the end of the 18th century had changed the economic pattern, drawing craftsfolk away from the countryside where they had traditionally used their skills to support an independent, self-sufficient lifestyle, and concentrating the workforce in towns and cities all over Great Britain. Many workers settled in the new Glasgow suburbs of Tradeston, Hutcheson to Laurieston around this time.

The opening of the Forth and Clyde Canal to Port Dundas in 1790 also brought in trade, and communities grew up the Calton and Anderston where new cotton mills provided mass employment. Increasingly, the cottage industries found that they could not compete with the mill and factories in the towns, and country folk had little choice but to leave the impoverished country areas where they had grown up and go in search of employment A significant number of Irish immigrants were also coming to Scotland, believing that the new industries there would bring them prosperity. So Glasgow was crowded with thousands of people who had come looking for work; the new immigrant communities established themselves in the city centre, as is usually the case, taking over the old properties in the High Street, Gallowgate, Saltmarket and Bridegate.

This movement led to a buoyant property market, and Mr. Alexander Barron, who had set up shop as a house factor in premises at 24 Rutherglen Road in 1854, would have had no shortage of clients amongst the shifting population of Glasgow in the mid-19th century. As the new working-class moved in, the former occupants of these areas moved out, leaving the now overcrowded city centre in favour of superior housing in the suburbs. Overcrowding remained a problem, however, and it was clear that more housing was needed to accommodate the city's workforce.

Already, in the first half of the 19th century, some very fine tenement housing had been erected in Laurieston, and the 1860s saw the beginning of the development of a series of large new working-class suburbs; Bridgeton, Dalmarnock, Springburn, Partick, Govan, Govanhill and Maryhill all date back to this time. Alexander Barron's property management business was prospering; it had moved to 5 Alston Street in 1859, then to 94 South Portland Street two years later, and in 1865, trading as A and R Barron, it was able to move into the very heart of the commercial centre, taking offices first at 128 Union Street and the following year, at 5 Dixon Street. As the building boom continued the firm expanded steadily, and in 1876 the prosperous business changed its name to T. Ross.

Meanwhile, eight miles away in Paisley another housing factor was having a rather more difficult time. Formed in 828 by Mr. Andrew Deans and carried on after his death 1 years later by Mr. James Winning, this firm had struggled through a great trade recession which had hit Paisley's spinning industry so hard that almost a third of e workforce had no regular income. In 1839 James Winning's firm became Winning and Gordon after being taken over by Mr. Gordon, who retired in 1848; a lifelong supporter of the temperance movement, Mr. Gordon was commemorated after his death by a monument erected by is friends in that movement. He left no family heir to the business, however, and in due course Mr. William Fulton joined the business which in 1886 adopted the name of Winning and Fulton. By this time the thriving shipbuilding industry had restored economic prosperity to Paisley, with shipbuilders John Fullarton and Company building some 60 vessels of up to 500 tons between 1867 and 1883 and generating work for many smaller firms in the district.

In 1888 the collapse of the City of Glasgow Bank, upon which much of the local building industry depended for its finance, brought building activity in Glasgow to a sudden halt and put a number of building firms out-of business, but by the early 1890s other firms had taken their place and the construction of new housing had resumed its momentum. By this time, too, much had been learned about the importance of good planning, and a wider understanding of the links between poor sanitation and disease had given rise to increased hygiene-consciousness. This new social awareness was reflected in the housing which was built during this period, which was of a higher standard than previously; often, too, the fronts of tenements featured oriel or bow windows. Glasgow was once again living up to Defoe's praise a century and a half earlier.

Property management companies such as T Ross, which in 1898 changed its name to Ross and Liddell, were able to offer prospective tenants accommodation which was of a very high standard indeed. The stylistic attraction of the buildings being erected was further enhanced, in many people's opinion, by the new architectural trend which began during the last decade of the 19th century of bringing in pink freestone from Ayrshire and Dumfriesshire for use on frontages, instead of the local white stone. The pink stone was widely used in the construction of properties at Hyndland, Battlefield and other suburbs built at that time, although the best example of its use is probably Charing Cross Mansions, a massive block in the French Renaissance style.

The vogue for elaborate architecture continued throughout the late Victorian and Edwardian era. The many substantial tenement blocks which were built during this period were both spacious and aesthetically pleasing, but the economic pattern was by now poised ready to make another shift, this time away from Glasgow. Although the city continued to be regarded as one of the greatest shipbuilders in the world, other industries disappeared, and Glasgow's period of great prosperity and optimism was at an end. The infamous Rent Act passed by Lloyd George's government also had a major impact on the pattern of housing, discouraging the speculative builder by limiting the profit potential, and placing the onus of providing housing upon the local authority.

Glasgow responded first with Mosspark and similar small garden suburbs, then, extending the city boundaries in 1912, with larger developments such as Pollok and Knightswood, before the building programme was disrupted by the outbreak of World War 1. When peace returned, provision of housing was a priority, and, encouraged by Government incentives, the city embarked on huge estates like Castlemilk, Drumchapel and Easterhouse.

As more and more workers were accommodated in council housing, property management agents found that much of their business had been effectively taken away from them. Small firms stood little chance of surviving, and Ross and Liddell began to pursue a policy of expansion through acquisition, beginning with the takeover of the property firm of Mackinnon and Browning in 1949, and going on to acquire James G Lynn in 1965 and Alexander Sinclair in 1973; in 1974 it acquired Robert Stobo and Bathgate, R.D. Paton and Thomas Stobbs and Sons, followed by James Patterson and Co. in 1975 and James McMeekin in 1977, and in 1979, the year that it became a limited company, it acquired McGill.

In Paisley in the aftermath of the Rent Act Winning and Fulton had had to face similar problems; having been appointed as the Town's first burgh factor to manage the first municipal houses when they were built in 1922, this service was later taken over by the council's own factors, and Winning and Fulton transferred its attentions instead to the insurance and property valuation markets. The company had been for a long time an agent for the Phoenix Assurance Company Ltd, and was responsible for placing policies for top Paisley industrialists such as J and P Coats and J and J Clark. In 1971 Winning & Fulton, too, embarked on the expansion route taking over the Paisley firm of WL Kirkwood.

Meanwhile Glasgow was continuing to spread, and after a further extension to the city boundaries in 1938, concern began to grow over the fact that the occupants of the new were many miles away from the city centre where of most of them worked, as well as the amount of surroundding countryside which was being eaten up by schemes. This led to the notion of building upwards than outwards. Many readers will remember the introduction of the concept of multi-storey flats in the 1950s, when the idea was hailed as the answer towards s housing problems. By building blocks of flats ten high, hundreds of people could be provided with ace; and by building blocks of flats 31 storeys high, as happened at Red Road in 196, thousands of people could be accommodated in brand new homes of their own.

It did not work, of course; even people who desperately wanted their own home found it difficult to accept the need to live in isolation miles off the ground and cut off from central amenities, any more than they found it acceptable to live many miles out of town and spend several hours of every day commuting to work and back. Like any workforce, what most of them wanted was simply somewhere that was spacious enough to raise a family in comfort, close enough to their workplace and to the amenities to be convenient, and modest enough to be affordable. The existing Victorian and Edwardian tenement blocks, which had fallen into neglect while other housing schemes were tried out, met all these criteria, and property management companies were once again able to meet the housing needs of Glasgow's workers by supervising the refurbishment of many of the city centre's tenements.

Ross and Liddell today maintain all types of residential properties - single tenement buildings, housing estates both small and large, or multi-storey developments with leisure facilities. They are committed to urban renewal, handling tenement developments, refurbishments and major repair schemes involving projects in excess of £1 million. A specialised department of building surveyors was set up in the early 1980s to deal principally with tenement refurbishment, and this service today has expanded to offer, in addition, a wide range of services in connection with the alteration and repair of buildings, such as structural surveys, Schedules of Dilapidations, and modernisation, repair and alteration of properties.

Early in 1988 Ross and Liddell amalgamated with Winning and Fulton, with each company initially retaining its own trading name and its own premises. Ross and Liddell continues to operate from its offices at 60 Enoch Square, which it has occupied since 1972, and also from 25 Gauze Street, Paisley. Working in partnership rather than in competition has brought many benefits to both companies, with a broader client base, wider influence and greater freedom to pursue new business over a wider area. This joint venture, which in 1994 incorporated William Goudie & Son of Paisley, decided to create a unified image and now trades solely under the name of Ross & Liddell, bringing them to the forefront of property management in the West of Scotland.

In April 1999, due to the expanding demand for management services in the East of Scotland, we opened our offices in Edinburgh to provide the same high level of service to clients in the Lothian's, Fife & Stirlingshire.

In addition to property management and maintenance, Ross and Liddell. provide a comprehensive range of residential and commercial services, including estate agency, surveys, valuations, insurance, investment and marketing advice, rent reviews, development appraisals, compulsory purchase negotiations, rating appeals and council tax appeals. As letting agents they undertake rent collection, tenant vetting, rent roll maintenance, and provide advice to tenants on leases, furnishings, rental values and legal requirements. In dealing with the varied housing needs of the Glasgow of today, the firm is able to call upon not far short of a century and a half's experience of meeting the needs of a constantly moving workforce, and whether it is helping tenants find the right type of accommodation for themselves or letting property on behalf of Glaswegians who are temporarily relocating elsewhere, Ross and Liddell knows the importance of providing a swift, efficient, sympathetic and professional service.

Ross and Liddell's progressive business strategy includes sophisticated management techniques and a high level of computerisation which is designed to maximise efficiency, and its enthusiastic team, backed by senior personnel with many years experience in the business of property management and surveying, is ready to meet the challenges of the new millennium. One of Scotland's oldest property management companies, Ross and Liddell has an important role to play in the future development of the city, where new ideas will interact with the best of the past to create the Glasgow of the future.