 The judging panel also praised it as being '‘magisterial' and considered it to be a 'pioneering study'.In addition to winning the overall Saltire Award, the book was named as the 2014 Saltire Society Scottish Research Book of the Year.Scottish historian Professor Ian Donnachie praised the book as 'a major contribution to urban, social and cultural history' and felt it was an appropriate tribute to the research and work of Charles McKean who died when the book was being written.