WHO do you think is the greatest Glaswegian of all time? The summer we are showcasing the top 50 men and woman who have put the city on the map. Once they have all been revealed, we will be holding a public vote to find the winner. Today we feature the woman who launched one of the city’s best known landmarks.

Maggie McIver

WITHOUT her, we wouldn’t have one of the UK’s best loved music venues or the world-famous market that’s synonymous with Glasgow or maybe even the comedy legend that is Billy Connolly.

It is said that the comedian was inspired to do stand up after watching a Barras stall trader named Frank Bennett leave punters in hysterics with his patter.

The woman who became known as the Barras Queen was born in Ayrshire in 1879 but lived in Bridgeton from a young age.

With the industrial expansion of the city and mass immigration from the Scottish Highlands, Ireland and elsewhere, the swelling population of the lower working class needed somewhere to trade and make a living.

Glasgow Times:

The Bridgegate or Briggait was synonymous with the rag and second-hand clothes trade at that time and the Glaswegian word barras describes the handcarts which the traders used to sell their wares.

Maggie had her first taste of business aged just 12, when she looked after a family friend’s fruit barrow in Parkhead.

Read more: Pavement films bring Bearsden and Kirkintilloch history to life 

She later opened a small fruit shop in Bridgeton and love blossomed when she met her future husband and business partner, James McIver, at the local fruit market.

The pair launched a small business in the Calton area, hiring out horses and carts to local hawkers, mainly women, on a daily basis.

After the first world war, the McIvers started organising Saturday markets on land they bought, on the site of the present Barras market and soon had more than 300 barrows.

Glasgow Times:

When her husband died of malaria, which he had contracted during the war, Maggie was left to raise nine children, and had to think of new ways to raise income, and came up with the idea of opening a ballroom, which was built above the now enclosed market.

Read more: Do you recognise any of these old pictures of Glasgow 

While the venue has a macabre association - Bible John met three of his victims on the dance floor - Barrowland is more famous as a world-renowned music venue, beloved by fans and bands alike. Famous for its sprung floor, the venue has played host to everyone from David Bowie and Bob Dylan to Simple Minds and Oasis.

Glasgow Times:

Maggie McIver was a multi-millionaire by the time she died in 1958. Months after her death The Barrowland Ballroom was burned to the ground before it rose from the ashes on Christmas Eve 1960.

TOMORROW we find out about our next shortlisted Greatest Glaswegians; legendary musicians Alex Harvey and author Catherine Carswell.