That's really handy, Bridie.
From my initial investigation into the top-end of present day Otago Street, I've found a lot of information regarding construction on Smith Street right up to the workshop/garage on the corner of Otago Street and Smith Street and I've also found some information about Smith Street.
Unsurprisingly, Smith Street was named for David Smith who was the architect of James Gibson's Hillhead estate as he looked to create an exclusive little suburb within the grounds of the estate. From what I can work out, at least part of Great Western Road was designed as part of his private thoroughfare. For those who are interested, David Smith built himself a little pile called Westbank which is where the name Westbank Quadrant comes from (and where Westbank Street came from) in the 1820s/30s. It's currently occupied by the Westbank Triangle which contains Offshore, Artisan Roast etc. The gushet block that contains Offshore was completed in the late 1870s, which gives you an idea of the rapid expansion of Glasgow which, I'm led to believe, barely reached Blythswood Square by 1820.
Moving further up Smith Street and looking down Otago Lane (as it is now), you'd have seen a riding school on the banks of the Kelvin which seems to have been part of a livery stable designed by Alexander "Greek" Thomson. Next to that, where the "new-build" flats are, there was a local bakery called Hubbard's.
As you can see in this picture from 1967 which I "borrowed" from Canmore, the Horse Bazaar has long since been replaced by a modernised garage but the bakery building still stands. My research seems to suggest that it was demolished in 1988 before being replaced by the afore-mentioned flats. I believe the garage went at the same time. A few of the documents I've read suggest that when the garage was first built it would have been similar in design to the Botanic Gardens Garage across the road from Hillhead Bookclub. From the look of that photo, it looks like it fell victim to 60s' modernisation.
Perhaps the reason I'm able to provide such a passable picture of this end of Smith Street is that information actually exists about what was there. In addition to the tenements and bakery, there were three small villas which were built around 1840 as part of the original development of the Kelvin bank. These were known as Kelvinside Cottage, Rose Cottage and Janefield Cottage. Some of you will likely recognise Janefield Cottage as being the only one of these remaining to this day.
On the other side of the road there's a merchant 'mansion' called Parkview. Some of you might recognise it as looking slightly out of place and run down among the tenements on the junction of Otago Street and Great George Street. This was the home of Dr C.A. Hepburn who co-founded Hepburn and Ross Whisky Blending.
Bear with me here.
On the old Otago Street, there is a large warehouse which is currently occupied by a rug store and CC Music in the basement. Known as Kelvin House in latter days, it was built for Hepburn's family furniture firm as a warehouse and also served as the offices of Hepburn and Ross who produced... Red Hackle Whisky.
Many of you probably recognise the large advertisement on the gable of the building which is still visible (just) today.
But alas, it's time to get down to brass tacks. Why's it called Otago Street now and why was Smith Street renamed?
It seems to have been as simple as the legacy of David Smith being lost to time. Otago was indeed the 'Scots' Colony' in New Zealand. A couple of differing accounts have the name of the shipping company operating out of Glasgow as being The Otago Shipping Company. I can't find any reference to this anywhere and my gut instinct is to take some of the information from Bridie's link and extrapolate it which subsequently places the name of the shipping company based in Glasgow as P. Henderson Co.
[A Shipping Button of P. Henderson & Co.]
[The House Flag of P. Henderson & Co.]
They ran a frequent service between Glasgow and Otago during a gold rush in the region between 1861 and 1865 (it had been renamed Albion Shipping by this point). An offshoot of the Free Church of Scotland was amongst the first to settle there, thus establishing a pretty rigid Scottish connection. Regarding what Bridie said about the street potentially having offices of the shipping company on them, I'm not sure it's too likely given that I've managed to come up with uses for most of the buildings on the street (although it's possible that the tenements opposite were built at a later date). Unfortunately, the only conceivable way I can see to find out the address of their offices is to get my hands on their complete shipping records which would hopefully have details of the company's registered address. Unfortunately it only seems to be available on microfiche from New Zealand. I'm not sure I'm that committed.
It seems that the extension of Otago Street into Smith Street was simply down to time. After a while it became less important that David Smith had been largely responsible for the area being as it is today and the name of the street was just merged for ease. Otago Lane was renamed from Ashfield Lane, presumably due to the ravages of time. The current tenements on Gibson Street were built on the previous site of the Ashfield "estate" built by James Gibson. I think the only reference to the former Laird and his architect was rechristening King Street as Gibson Street.