Dapper, dynamic and driven by a passion to keep trying new things, the Rag & Bone Man has found his calling in Finnieston

“RAG-BOOONE! ANY OLD IRON? RAAAGBOOOOONE!” Peter Green is often heard before he is seen. Four mornings a week, his voice ping-pongs around the paintbox-bright buildings of the Hidden Lane in Glasgow. Even if you don’t hear his 11am call, you’ll spot him soon enough. “He’s very dapper,” says an American tourist who has wandered off Finnieston’s main drag and into the lane where Peter, 57, stands in a tweed suit and silk scarf, his silver hair combed into a well-behaved quiff. Here’s a man who knows how to make an impression.

Peter’s business, Rag & Bone, only opened last April, but it already feels as much a fixture of the lane as the cobblestones it stands on. Part salvage yard, part antiques shop, and home to a cluster of specialist makers and dealers, its peeled-paint doors open into a high-low emporium of the brilliant and bizarre. Rare Victorian majolica tiles, heirloom chairs, an unfeasibly kitsch tenfoot Cupid (“It used to be at Blackpool Illuminations,” he tells me), a stained-glass crucifix. There are paintings and pottery, maps and memorabilia. Customers range from students decorating their flats to interior designers – Hugh Berry and Banjo Beale among them – digging for treasure. “I wanted to create the sort of shop that would lure me in on a day off,” he explains. “A place where you might get an utter bargain, or discover a piece of furniture that only needs a passionate owner to shine again.”

The idea for Rag & Bone percolated for some time before Peter, originally from Kent, put it into action. “I spent 20 years buying and collecting furniture while doing my previous job, and my then-secretary, Alison, used to ask why I kept buying all this stuff,” he recalls. “I would say to her, ‘Interesting people don’t retire. One day I’m going to find an old building, grow a beard, tattoo my arms and talk bollocks to people.’ I knew this was coming. I visualised it all.”

Peter had never owned a shop or even worked in retail. He didn’t go to university and one of his first jobs was as a salesman for a radio station in London. But one thing you need to understand about him is that he gets things done. “I’m a doer and I’m a good talker,” he says. These qualities have landed him several high-flying leadership roles, from commercial director at ITN to, latterly, the chief executive of National Maritime. While on maritime business, he visited Glasgow for COP26 and hired a building to host an event – the same warehouse in a former cattle marshalling yard that we’re standing in today. “I just knew it was right,” he says. “I feel very comfortable in Glasgow. It’s unfiltered and honest; it reminds me of my working-class roots and the East London communities I experienced as a boy.”

Peter’s dad was a dairy farmer, and his mum’s parents ran a greengrocers on the Old Kent Road in Bermondsey. “My parents were pretty traditional, so they measured success in uniforms – my sister became a nurse and one of my brothers joined the Navy,” he says. His grandfather George was from Hackney. “He was a bit of a rogue,” he laughs. “He drove an old blue Ford Zephyr and smoked 70 roll-ups a day.” A painting of George, commissioned after he’d died, hangs above a weathered restoration table in Rag & Bone. “His hands are black because he’s been out robbing coal.”

Although he’s spent much of his working life wheeling and dealing in cities, Peter recharges in nature. He has just reached the end of his tenancy in a bothy near Callander on the shore of Loch Lubnaig, where he swam most days. “I like people and I feed off their  energy, but sometimes I need to quieten my mind,” he recalls. “I would say to her, ‘Interesting people don’t retire. One day I’m going to find an old building, grow a beard, tattoo my arms and talk bollocks to people.’ I knew this was coming. I visualised it all.”

Rag & Bone

32 The Hidden Lane

1103 Argyle Street

Finnieston

Glasgow

G3 8ND

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This is an excerpt from our regular The Life feature in issue 165 of Homes & Interiors Scotland.

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