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This was a large terminus with 12 platforms in Glasgow. The main entrance was from St Enoch Square in the city centre.

It was originally built for the cross city City of Glasgow Union Railway but became the main terminus, and headquarters, of the Glasgow and South Western Railway. The station was covered by two large glazed trainsheds, the northern of which was the original covering platforms 1-6. The eastern portion of these platforms constituted the site of the temporary terminus, Dunlop Street (1870-1876).

To build the station required demolition of existing buildings, including the Theatre Royal.

As designed, platforms 1 to 3 were for departures and 4 to 6 for arrivals. Platforms were numbered 1 to 6 from the south (this was reversed with the station's extension).

The original station (1876) consisted of the northern 6 platforms and original northern trainshed. This curved shed was 204 ft long and 83 ft high. It was designed by John Fowler and James F Blair. Unlike the similar trainshed at London's St Pancras this shed was without ties at its base.

Platforms 1 and 2, the northernmost platforms, were separated by three tracks, the middle being a locomotive release line or carriage siding, and were approached both from Clyde Junction [CGU] to the south and Saltmarket Junction to the east (lines met at Stockwell Junction at the east end of the platforms). The platforms extended from under the trainshed out to above Stockwell Street.

Platforms 3 and 4 were separated by three tracks and led to Clyde Junction [CGU]. The centre line was a locomotive release line or carriage siding. These platforms extended out from the trainshed to above Stockwell Street.

Platforms 5 and 6 were separated by two tracks and led to Clyde Junction [CGU]. Following the extension of the station to the south platform six had a canopy which also served the new platforms to the south.

The station had several signal boxes over time. A box first opened in 1876, with the station. The box was replaced in 1882 (when the chord to Saltmarket Junction opened). It was located closed to platforms 1 and 2, in the 'V' of the junction between the curve to Clyde Junction [CGU] and curve to Saltmarket Junction.

Platforms 7 to 12 were the extension to the south built in 1898-1902. These were covered at their western end by a smaller trainshed 140 ft long and 80 ft high, designed by William Melville. Canopies continued out onto these platforms. This extension dated from the quadrupling of the line south to Gorbals Junction and west to meet the two Paisley lines. It was part of a quadrupling which effectively extended from Glasgow the whole way to just shy of Kilwinning. All of these platforms led to Clyde Junction [CGU].

Platforms 7 and 8 were separated by two tracks and ran from under the trainshed to above Stockwell Street and curved south to alongside the locomotive shed. These were covered with canopies which also covered platform 6 to the north and platform 9 to the south.

Platforms 9 and 10 were separated by two tracks and platform 9 extended from the trainshed to alongside St Enoch Locomotive Depot. Platform 10 was shorter finishing above Stockwell Street. It had a short canopy shared with platform 11.

Platforms 11 and 12 were short platforms, separated by two tracks, and finished above Stockwell Street. Platform 12 had a canopy of similar length to that above 11.

A new (third) signal box opened with the extension. It lasted until 1933 when a new power box opened at the same location. This box subsumed several boxes:
Clyde Junction [CGU] Gorbals Junction Gorbals Station
St Enoch
Saltmarket Junction
The western frontage of the original trainshed, and its north side, were a large hotel opened in 1879, closed in 1974.

In front of the station was St Enoch [Subway].

After closure in 1966, the station remained open briefly as a parcels depot and, after track lifting, it was used as a car park. The hotel survived the closure for a short time.

The signal box closed in 1967, partly taken over by High Street Junction.

On demolition in November 1977, the stonework of the station was used to fill in the Queens Dock (250,000 cubic metres of material).

The station site is now the St Enochs Shopping Centre and the nearby car parks. None of the station has survived except the wide southern abutment of a bridge which carried the fan of lines into the station from the south and the east abutment of the bridge which carried two lines to the east. The station clock survives in a shopping centre in Cumbernauld.

Local

St Enoch Hotel, the station frontage onto St Enoch Square, was built by the railway company. A cab road ran up on arches to the first floor level, for the hotel, circulating area and platforms, from ground level. The entrance was covered.

This hotel was six storeys high with an attic.

The hotel ultimately became a British Transport Hotel and was closed in 1974 and then demolished in 1977/78. Rubble from the demolition was used in the filling in of the Queens Dock.

The western part of the site of the station and hotel is now the St Enoch Centre , a retail shopping centre.

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