voco® Grand Central Glasgow

Wall of Fame

Now the starry history of our hotel is captured in oil, pastel, pencil and print as we showcase impressive artwork by Scottish artists in our central gallery space. 

Since we first opened in 1883, our hotel has hosted some of the world’s most famous faces,  golden age stars including JFK, Gene Kelly, Nat King Cole, Jean Simmons and Frank Sinatra all stayed here. 

To celebrate, we opened a competition in collaboration with The Herald in 2019 asking artists of all levels of experience, to create a portrait of one of our famous residents. An esteemed judging panel including the art critic and writer Jan Patience, and Paul Bray, General Manager of voco Grand Central awarded Gordon Irving the winning prize with his incredible portrait of Billy Connolly. Gordon’s painting of the Big Yin is now displayed alongside 21 other portraits which were shortlisted as part of a gallery wall space inside the hotel to be enjoyed by our guests.  

We’d like to thank all of the artists who took part in the competition and a special mention goes to those who’s paintings now feature in the central stairwell of our hotel.  

With special thanks to the following artists:

Billy Connolly by Gordon Irving – 1st Place

Nat King Cole by Luke Wilson – 2nd Place

Abbot and Costello Meets Vivienne Leigh by Linda Bell

Charlie Chaplin by Keith Massey

Danny Kaye by Gordon White

Frank Sinatra by Paul Trainor

Sammy Davis Junior by Diana Quintana

Frank Sinatra by John Michael Berry

Gene Kelly by Jason Bentley

John F Kennedy by Nicola Willis

John Lennon by Dennis Shields

Mae West by Daria Zapala

John F Kennedy by Alastair Faulkner

Mick Jagger by Ian Leyden

Vivien Leigh by Malcolm McGonigle

Winston Churchill by David Hamilton

Fred Astaire by Aileen Cotton

Billy Connolly by Gregor Smith

Jean Simmons by Stuart Skinner

Mick Jagger by Ben Jeffrey

Sammy Davis Junior by Rob Keiller

Mick Jagger by Steven Murray