Anderston from the past to the present for local shops pubs  restaurants and shopping that Anderston has to offer

Anderston was originally a small village which was planned and laid out for development in 1725 by James Anderson of Stobcross House on his land.
 It was named Anderson Town in his honour, later becoming Anderston. It began close to the Gushet farm, which became Anderston Cross and today is the site of the Kingston Bridge which carries the M8 motorway.

Anderston ownership of the area changed in 1735 when it was taken over by John Orr. In those days Anderston had bleachfields down by the river and Main Street consisted of weavers cottages along both sides. As business and trade increased so did the size of Anderston.

Finnieston, a nearby village was established in 1768 and soon a busy community was growing up. From its origins as a weaver's village, the area became an industrial centre with the growth of Glasgow's cotton industry. Other industries included engineering, brewing and glassmaking. This led to a large Irish immigrant population moving to the area, and they formed a key part in the character of the area. Thomas Lipton opened his first shop in Stobcross Street. The area would also later become the home of Italian and Asian populations.

Anderston throughout the first half of the 20th century, even though it had been a part of Glasgow since 1846, Anderston remained in many respects like a large village within a city. There was a strong sense of local identity (which still survives to this day), with the area being well-served and self-contained in regard to shops, cinemas and places of employment. Like many other similar areas of Glasgow, relatives and friends tended to live locally (often in the same building), and everyone knew everyone else in the area, to a large extent. But this situation would change in the post-war era.

Anderston after World War II, there was a determination by national and local government that something had to be done about the bad housing and over crowding of the inner city areas which existed in most of the major cities in Britain. These problems were so intractable in Glasgow that one solution considered was 'Comprehensive Development', which meant the demolition of areas of sub standard housing in the city, so that new, planned communities could be built on the cleared ground. 20 Comprehensive Development Areas were designated in Glasgow, with one of them comprising a large part of Anderston.

 Anderston's housing problems were no worse than many other areas of Glasgow, Anderston was made an area for priority treatment as the need to improve Glasgow's road network had led to the plans for building a motorway through the city. The route of this motorway was to go through Anderston Cross, the traditional heart of the community, and the plan for the comprehensive development of the area was approved in 1961. The work on the road network and the demolition of housing progressed throughout the 1960s. By the following decade, the new Anderston bore little resemblance to the old area. The high density housing and streets full of tenements had been swept away, and most of the residents had been rehoused in places such as Knightswood, Easterhouse, Cumbernauld, Drumchapel and East Kilbride. In 1951, the population had stood at 31,902; by 1971, it had dropped to 9,265 as a result of redevelopment.

Anderston area was much changed irrevocably by the construction of the M8 motorway and Kingston Bridge, whose tangle of concrete flyovers and pedestrian bridges destroyed much of the western fringes of Anderston. The problems were compounded by the construction of the Anderston Centre, a typical 1960s architectural vision of urban regeneration in the form of a combined shopping, office and residential complex consisting of concrete multi-storey tower blocks, underground carparking and above ground shopping mall. The idea was not a success, and by the 1980s the centre's many covered underpasses and service roads had become a notorious red light district, with prostitution a major activity in both Anderston and neighbouring Blythswood Hill in the evening.

Anderston with the exponential growth of Glasgow's flourishing new financial district, by the turn of the 21st century, Anderston's fortunes seemed to be improving. New ultra-modern office developments, international hotels and new residential buildings have sprung up, which have improved the look and reputation of the area markedly. There are also tentative plans to demolish the three remaining tower blocks of the Anderston Centre, which may still be saved in favour of refurbishment. The three tower blocks in question are set to form part of Second Stage Transfer  proposals from Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) to Glasgow West Housing Association (GWHA). GWHA is a registered social landlord.