CHEERFUL bunting criss-crosses Glasgow's Buchanan Street above the heads of the passers-by in 1909 to mark a royal visit to the city. The fashions of course are rooted in that era with cloth caps for the working classes and bowler hats for the middle classes. However the buildings themselves are relatively unchanged.

You can just make out the Kodak shop which opened at the turn of the century for the sale of cameras.

Although the archive says this is 1909 it might in fact be a few years earlier when then King Edward VII, who succeeded his mother Queen Victoria, arrived in the city with Queen Alexandra to lay the foundation stone in George Street for the new building for the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College which later became Strathclyde University.

The King didn't just walk up and trowel on a bit of cement. A temporary platform was built, seats were arranged for 2600 spectators, the King made a speech, and the stone was ceremonially lowered before the King tapped it into position.

Edward had been the Prince of Wales, and due to his mother's longevity, he did not succeed to the thrown until he was 59, and died when he was 68.

IAIN Cuthbertson was a Glasgow lad, educated at Glasgow Academy, who started acting at the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre, but found public fame as the gravel-voiced dodgy businessman Charlie Endell in the television series Budgie. He later made a sequel series Charles Endell Esquire with Scottish Television in 1979.

However his best role in Scotland was in Sutherland's Law where he played the eponymous procurator fiscal in a small Scottish town.

IT was an exciting time for Scottish politics in 1973 when a 30-year-old Margo MacDonald won the Govan by-election for the SNP. Here she is campaigning in Govan where even the dogs in the street were happy to see her. Her win shook the Labour Party which had taken seats such as Govan for granted. The following year Govan barber Harry Selby, who famously told people that wanted to join Labour locally that the party was full-up in order to keep himself in power, beat Margo by a slim margin.

Margo of course returned years later to the Scottish Parliament. Harry never really made much of an impact.