A hotel with student rooms, coworking space and a rooftop restaurant is coming to the city centre

The Social Hub already has a European nextwork of venues with 16 properties open in locations including Berlin, Vienna, Paris, Florence, Madrid and Amsterdam amounting to nearly 10,000 rooms. The Glasgow opening will be joined by launches in Porto and San Sebastian and adds 500 bedrooms to the city centre. The £50 million design and build contract is part of a £300 million masterplan in the Merchant City area.

Previously branded as The Student Hotel, Edinburgh-born Charlie MacGregor founded the company in his early-20s, based around the concept of community-led hospitality. He has raised more than €3 billion from investors since its inception in 2003.

Within The Social Hub there will be hotel rooms, student accommodation, coworking, office and event space, restaurants and bars, a gym and lounges. The main hospitality hubs in the new Glasgow building will be a ground floor bar and cafe with an expansive restaurant space on the roof with views across the city centre and East End.

It will be an anchor tenant of the Candleriggs development that links Trongate to the Merchant City.

The hospitality spaces will be open to the public with the hotel facing onto a new square at the front of the building. Memberships will be available to access coworking spaces and the gym with members invited to an ongoing roster of events. There will be an amphitheatre style performance space.

They say: “From hotel and student rooms and co working spaces to auditoriums, gyms, events spaces and a host of events, programmes and social moments, The Social Hub is created to inspire and connect people. The Social Hub properties are dynamic hubs for people to meet, work, eat, drink, hold events, or stay for one night to a whole year.”

Construction firm Gilbert-Ash are completing work on the site ahead of the February 2024 opening. Hotel rooms will be available alongside long-stay rooms for students during term time that will be available for visitors outside of the academic year. Work began on the site in May 2021.

TSH states that its mission is to “create boundary-blurring spaces where students, travellers, mobile professionals, creative nomads and enterprising minds can connect and thrive in smart design co-living and co-working spaces”.

When completed, Candleriggs Square will be a mixed-use scheme combining homes, offices, hotel, restaurants and local amenities along with landscaped open spaces and walkways.