The Scottish Granite Memorials Company

The Scottish Granite Memorials Company is a memorial mason based in Glasgow. The company has been placing gravestones for over 40 years and is family-run with over 50 years of experience. Its founder, Philip Lipton, opened a grocer in Bridgeton on London Road, Glasgow in 1927. Gerald Lipton, son of Philip, started a firm on the southside of Glasgow concentrating on stones, markers, bibles, vases and adding inscriptions for the whole of Scotland.

Gerald Lipton retired in 1997. Charles Lipton joined the business before Gerald retired and set up the premises in Bishopbriggs. Charles Lipton will celebrate 45 years in the trade during 2020. The company serves East Dunbartonshire, Glasgow, Stirling, North & South Lanarkshire, Renfrew, and East Renfrewshire. It provides memorials, markers, plaques, and vases, and renovation and repair services within Glasgow cemeteries, including headstone cleaning, re-erecting gravestones, updating or adding inscriptions, or building other features to an existing memorial.

The company's memorials come with a guarantee. It has worked with charities including Marie Curie, St Margaret’s Hospice, Diabetes Scotland, Parkinsons UK, Poppy Scotland, and as an ambassador for the Bumble Bee charity. The company has an agreement with the US government to provide stones for soldiers in unmarked graves in Scotland.

Considerate handling of family gravestones is the theme running through the accounts. Maggi at Charles Lipton is named for making the arrangements straightforward, taking care of the administration, arranging for a gravestone to be cleaned and completing the inscription. Customers describe being put at ease from the first conversation, confident that matters would be resolved without them having to chase anything.

A second account recalls Charles and his staff going beyond what was expected in caring for a mother's memorial, with the family expressing lasting thanks for the kindness shown. The work covered inscription, cleaning and the administration surrounding a memorial, all carried out with professionalism, alongside granite supply through The Scottish Granite Memorials Company in Glasgow.