Room in the City, April 22-24th
Members may be interested in this conference which is looking at city squares, urban public space, and how they are designed and used.Spatial Agency
Spatial Agency is an ongoing research project that aims to shift the of focus of architectural discourse from one that is centred around the design (= building) and making (= technology) of buildings to one where architecture is understood as a situated and embedded praxis conscious of and working with its social, economic and political context.
In the spirit of Cedric Price the project started with the belief that a building is not necessarily the best solution to an architectural problem. Architecture, and it is easy to forget this, is about a lot more than just objects in space. The project attempts to uncover a second history of architecture, one that looks at other ways that people have operated beyond the building, working on behalf of others as spatial agents. Buildings are of course not excluded, but the project expands its reach to cover all aspects of spatial production - from publications to pedagogy, activism to enabling.
http://www.spatialagency.net/database/
Well worth an explore.
As a member, what are your thoughts on how the New Glasgow Society has or could relate with the organisations on this database?
glaspaper
Click/Download/Read
Imagine
Protest
Listen
Observe
Inform
Satire
Critique
Act
G.L.A.S. (Glasgow Letters on Architecture and Space) a co-operative of architects, designers, writers and teachers engaged in a critique of the contemporary built environment. G.L.A.S. operated from 2001 until 2005.
M74
Herald Article:
M74 extension: Will the gap ever be filled?
Published on 10 Dec 2007
Transport chiefs have until January to make a deal with the only contractors bidding to build the M74 Completion. Millions are at stake for the builders and the Government, even more for the people of Glasgow, writes David Leask
NOT so much a motorway, more a jobs machine.
The M74 Completion - or M74C for short - has always been about employment. In two decades, its backers contend, the road could bring 20,000 jobs to communities along its five-mile length, almost one for every foot of tarmac to be laid.
That figure isn't without its critics. Forecasting employment levels isn't an exact science. But, for the record, economists worked out that the M74 would boost the competitiveness of the west of Scotland economy enough to draw 11,000 extra jobs to Glasgow, 4000 to West Renfrewshire and around 3000 each to South Lanarkshire and East Renfrewshire. Even relatively distant North Lanarkshire and East Dunbartonshire would gain, respectively 1500 and 500 posts.
The forecasts, in a report from consultants Simmonds, were exactly what M74C backers wanted to hear. Local businesses clearly wanted to see growth. Politicians wanted to see growth in the areas of Scotland, like the east end of Glasgow, where they thought it was needed most.
The reporter who oversaw the public local inquiry into the M74C wasn't impressed by the Simmonds figure - and not necessarily because he disagreed with them. It was just that they did not tell the whole story. The jobs, said Richard Hickman, would be created with or without the motorway. But not in and around Glasgow.
Simmonds based their calculations on a fixed number of new jobs being created in the Scottish economy. So any new job in, say, Glasgow, meant foregoing extra employment somewhere else. With the M74C, the firm said, there would be 8000 fewer posts in the Forth Valley; Ayrshire would lose 3000; Inverclyde 1500.
Mr Hickman, whose findings were rejected by the Scottish Executive in 2005, ruled that the road would make "a positive contribution to local economy" but "at the expense of the Forth Valley, the Stirling area, Ayrshire, Inverclyde and Dunbartonshire".
"He just completely missed the point," said one backer. "The whole point was to centre economic growth in an area that was underperforming." People will follow the jobs. As many as 14,000 individuals could relocate to Glasgow and the west thanks to the M74C.
REGENERATION
THE M74C isn't just a road through Glasgow. It's a road to Glasgow too.
The proposed five-mile route of the M74 extension runs from Fullarton junction near Carmyle in South Lanarkshire to the M8 just west of the Kingston Bridge in Glasgow.
It will pass over some of the most contaminated and polluted parts of Scotland, transforming an urban waste ground into lucrative business and residential neighbourhoods.
For some years Glasgow planners have seen the motorway as the main engine for the regeneration of the east end of the city. Even the suggestion that the road will come has already helped secure investment - not least the Commonwealth Games in 2014, three years after the M74 is finally completed.
The Games have been widely championed as a vehicle to regenerate the east end of Glasgow and should help lure thousands of new homes and scores of businesses.
What is more important, the M74 or the Commonwealth Games? Few Glasgow figures were prepared to say yesterday. "It would be like choosing between my children," said one decision-maker.
The Commonwealth Games - whose benefits are far wider than economic - are expected to create 1000 permanent jobs; a fraction of those brought by the new motorway alone.
In fact, the cost benefit ratio for the M74C is almost off the scale, at 1:16 in 1999. That compares with 1:4 for other transport projects, like the M77, which were given priority over it.
One policy-maker called the M74C "our Olympics". The road, he said, would do for Glasgow what the 1992 Games did for Barcelona. Even the road's stub - built under the Tories in the early 1990s to bring the M74 as far into the city as Carmyle, has proved that point.
When Weir Pumps began looking for a new home earlier this year council officials in Glasgow could only find one suitable site to offer them, near the M74 in Carmyle, The Herald understands. Another new road, the East End Regeneration Route, is planned to link the M74 right into the heart of Scotland's poorest communities and lucrative industrial gap sites.
Jim Fairbairn, chief executive of Clyde Bergemann, a manufacturing firm in Bridgeton that exports to 70 nations, is already seeing the pressure on the east end's regeneration. "The amount of traffic in the east end has doubled in the last 10 years. Sometimes we are struggling to get our lorries in. We desperately need this road."
TRAFFIC
IS the M74C a good idea? "Ask somebody sitting in a traffic jam at the Kingston Bridge," said Lesley Sawers, chief executive of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce. "Ask anybody who is in the distribution or sales business trying to make a delivery or anybody trying to commute to work. We have got to re-route traffic off the M8."
Something like 180,000 vehicles use the Kingston Bridge over the Clyde every day, many at a snail's pace. The universally loathed crossing was only designed to carry 20,000 when it opened four decades ago. The bridge is now - as anybody listening to morning and evening traffic bulletins - the biggest logjam in Scotland.
Ms Sawers believes it is costing business money. "The time lost has a price in commercial terms, never mind quality of life. It plays a part in why Glasgow has such low productivity."
The new M74C would take much of that pressure off Glasgow's road network, diverting cars, lorries and buses on a shorter and more direct route from east to west. The M74C is expected to cut the number of vehicles on the M8 between Baillieston and Charing Cross by 20,000 a day. Some sources reckon the new motorway would take 28,000 cars off the Kingston Bridge alone.
So what will these cuts in congestion do to journey times? Project backers claim they will shave five to 10 minutes off cross-Glasgow trips. Journeys from EuroCentral, the business and transport hub at Mossend, Lanarkshire, to Glasgow Airport will be cut by six minutes. From Hamilton to the airport, the saving is even bigger, some 12 minutes. Journeys will be quicker from south to north too. The new towns of Cumbernauld and East Kilbride will be five minutes closer.
The M8 is not the only congested road in Glasgow. Others too could be freed up. Modelling carried out on behalf of Glasgow City Council shows other local roads, especially streets like London Road currently used as an alternative route into the city centre to the M8, will see a substantial drop in traffic.
In some areas, like Govanhill, planners admit there will be little difference in traffic levels. But will M74C bring more cars to city roads? The overall impact, say backers, is for quieter local roads and as many as 700 fewer accidents over 20 years.
Greens aren't so sure: they think any new road will bring more cars and more traffic in the long run Even Transport Scotland, the agency in charge of trunk roads and, ultimately, the project, admits overall traffic will rise: but by no more, it says, than a fifth of one percent.
ENVIRONMENT
THE man who was officially asked to look into the pros and cons of the M74C was sceptical about regeneration and jobs. And the environment too.
"The policy in support of environmental justice would be breached by the proposed road," said planning reporter Mr Rickman in his final report. "Those living along the route would suffer from the adverse environmental impacts, with little benefit, while the main advantages of the new road would accrue to non-resident vehicle users passing along the new motorway, and to businesses located mainly outwith the area."
Backers aren't so sure. They believe the road - despite its obviously complex and often contradictory impact - will actually have environmental advantages as well as some fairly obvious disadvantages.
"I am not a scientist," said Ms Sawers. "But I thought cars produced more emissions when they were stuck in traffic than when they were moving."
Transport Scotland too believes there will be an overall improvement in Glasgow's air quality because of the road. However, emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas behind global warming, would rise, Mr Rickman reported.
Over 20 years the M74C could account for an increase in C02 emissions of 138,000 tonnes or around 5.9%. On the other hand, the road will cover up some of the worst contaminated land in Scotland and clear derelict sites. It will also cut noise pollution for most Glaswegians.
TRANSPORT LINKS
FOR years the campaign for the M74C was led by the head of BAA Scotland, the firm that owns Glasgow Airport. It's easy to see why. Airlines regularly cite problems on the Kingston Bridge when explaining why they choose not to fly to and from Glasgow. For some aviation executives, the transport links to the airport have proved a deal-breaker.
Finishing what is effectively Glasgow's ring road has long been a major strategic transport aim. First envisaged in 1945, the city's motorway network was always planned as part of a wider transport system combined with air and rail hubs.
Glasgow Airport has suffered from poor access links more than most businesses. The terminal, just off the M8, is on course to get a new rail link, for £210m. But the trains will only go to the city centre and most passengers will continue to use the motorway to access Scotland's biggest airport.
Privately airport executives admit they lose business because of the Kingston Bridge. The perception, said one, is worse than the reality. A small proportion of passengers worry about missing flights and book from Edinburgh or Prestwick instead of Glasgow.
The executive said he believed the M74C would swing about 2% of passengers back to Glasgow.
The M74C will also bring the eurofreight rail hub closer to central Glasgow than ever before. The terminal, at Mossend, near Coatbridge, for example, will be six minutes closer to, say, Glasgow Airport and the businesses clustered around it.
The M74 itself is now a motorway all the way to the English border. There are motorways or dual carriageways to Edinburgh and Stirling. Glasgow's roads enthusiasts seem satisfied they won't need any new motorways.
The M74C, they say, really was the missing link and not an excuse for what would be a highly controversial new problem of highway building.
1945-2011:History of a road to nowhere
March 1945: First proposal for a Glasgow motorway inner ring road, with south-eastern connection similar to proposed M74 completion, although routed through Glasgow Green rather than Govanhill.
1968-1972 M8 is ploughed through Glasgow, effectively destroying historic Charing Cross and several other neighbourhoods. Horrified residents fear the same insensitivity on the south side with long-planned inner ring road. By end of 1970s planners, facing protests and big relocation costs for businesses on the route, drop scheme. Only a half-finished off-ramp from Kingston Bridge remains of proposed road.
1988-1994 Strathclyde Regional Council tries to resurrect project. Scottish Office agrees to fund a short stretch, taking M74 into Carmyle in east end of Glasgow, sparking major local industrial development but leaving a five-mile "missing link" in Scotland's road network.
January 2001 First Minister Donald Dewar bows to pressure after three-year campaign by business and political groups to "Complete to Compete". Transport Minister Wendy Alexander calls for road, then priced at £270m, to be finished by 2007.
April 2003: A month ahead of Holyrood elections, Labour-led Scottish Executive gives formal backing to M74 project, at an official bill of between £375m and £500m. Work was scheduled to begin in autumn 2004 for completion in 2008.
December 2003: Public inquiry into project begins, after objections from businesses along proposed route.
March 2005: Public inquiry finds that the road would have no "net" economic benefit but substantial environmental drawbacks. Ministers rejected its findings and order that the road should go ahead regardless. The Herald reveals that £40m had already been spent on relocating businesses even before ministers announced results of the inquiry. Final relocation bill hits £180m.
March 2005: Transport Minister Nicol Stephen rejects findings of public inquiry and orders project to go ahead.
May 2005 Green groups launch a legal bid to halt project and drop it in
June 2006: Delay added at least £20m to cost of project.
October 2006: In a huge embarrassment for the Scottish Executive, just one bidder emerges for the right to build the road. Interlink M74 is a joint venture of Balfour Beatty, Morgan Est, Morrison Construction and Sir Robert McAlpine.
November 2007: Interlink M74 makes formal bid amid considerable secrecy. Administration holds behind-the-scenes talks to reduce costs.
January 13, 2008: Date by which the Scottish Government and Interlink M74 must sign a construction deal.
2011 Official M74 completion date.
The Victorian Walk
Before New Glasgow Society there was The Victorian Walk, a tour of the city centre's most notable locations. Covering a large area, the Walk route is described in the notes on buildings, which include questions and comments on potential improvements and losses:
VICTORIAN GROUP WALK on 6th September 1964
ROUTE AND ARCHITECTURAL OBSERVATIONS
ST VINCENT STREET
Left: Church by Alex. (Greek) Thomson. Built 1859. The commission was secured by George Thomson, who is said to have had a hand in the design of the tower, and was also bound up with the purchase by the brothers of the previous church in Gordon Street where the Grosvenor Restaurant now is.
Note the mighty podium containing the halls, brilliant use of a most difficult site, excellent details. Apart from the architectural qualities, church is wonderful townscape because it dominates this area.
If it was demolished what would replace it?
Should any renovation of the church (perhaps by the Corporation) include the neighbouring tenement, also a Thomson creation? Could the shops be made more attractive externally?
Right: St Columba's Church, 1901/2, by W Tennant and F V Burke. Financed by the purchase of the previous church by the Caledonian Railway. Gothic spire contrasts with Thomson's square campanile.
Are spires and towers worth preserving in a town for their decorative qualities?
Turn right into INDIA STREET
Of patchy architectural quality but 6 & 29 have distinction - astylar renaissance of c.1845. Unfortunately, the street not designed as a whole.
With the new corner blocks, would redevelopment of the street be beneficial? If so why?
Turn Left into ELMBANK STREET
Probably by John Thomson. Original fine scheme ruined by the railway.
Edwardian block at the end by J.B. Wilson. Obviously run-down and so no problem of preservation, which should be selective.
Turn right into KENT ROAD
Left: Warehouse of Wylie & Lochhead by James Sellars about 1880. Detail is inexpensive but very elegant. John Keppie commented particularly on the area railings. Eastern attic storey is a later indiscretion Scale matches St. Andrews Halls.
Turn right into GRANVILLE STREET
St. Andrews Halls. Designed by James Sellars in 1873 and completed in 1877 at a cost of £101,100 - about £750,000 in to-day's money. Design taken over from Cunningham of Liverpool at the sketch stage and the elevations completely redesigned. Sculpture is by John Mossman.
Note great size, outstanding and monumental architecture and effective
statuary groupings. In area of grey stone, no distraction from Sellars' architecture.
If, as is claimed, the facades remain in sound structural condition, could they not be restored as a cladding for new interior - in design and purpose.
Turn left into BERKELEY STREET
Very neat architecture. Rare type of domestic architecture in Glasgow.
Note satisfactory quality of street design - street width, low building height and especially, uniformity on both sides.
Right: New Office Block. Note that floor levels, possibly materials and roof wall height are a variance with all the other buildings in these terraces. Is this the kind of development which is wanted in the middle of a complete example of a modest Victorian terrace? If this is to be a prestige office, would it not have more prestige to have situated it in the centre of the town or to have retained the distinctive existing facade?
Turn right into ELDERSLIE STREET
Right: Newton Terrace by George Smith c 1838. Hilltop was laid out by Charles Wilson except for Rochead's Park Church (1858), where the gothic tower groups splendidly with Wilson's Italianate towers.
Left: Somerset Place built around 1842. Architect is thought to have been John Baird. Office block reproduces old style. Is it worth while to copy the style a previous age, especially when traditional materials and masonry are no longer used?
Left: Clifton Place. Very indifferent design. Office block in modern idiom. If there has to be change here, which is the answer? Or is the answer neither?
Left: Clairmont Gardens. Probably c 1860, by Charles Wilson. Is there any need for change here? Surely essential to maintain pattern of long, continuous facade, roof-line and height? Removal of even one house would be enough to upset integrity of design and would be the thin edge of the wedge of other parts of the Park district.
Turn right into WOODSIDE TERRACE
Woodside Terrace, Crescent and Place were designed by George Smith, an
Aberdeen man who practised in Edinburgh. Scheme began in 1831 and
extended over the next ten years. Removal of parapets, railings and carriage blocks. Use of wrong colours, quarry tiles, neon sign, No 'uniformity of decoration. Note excellence of town planning - gardens, use of contours, service lanes, continuity of architecture of which while basically the same, has rich variety of detail.
Insertion of picture window?
Should there be some insistence that window proportions should remain
unaltered? Is it aesthetically pleasing to have modern doorways in an old setting? What has happened to the Corporation's plan to control and harmonise all development in the Park area? And since there are so many public clashes over selection and retention of buildings, where does the fault lie? In the weakness or inoperation of existing laws? Poor Planning procedure? Refusal by public authorities to accept knowledgeable public opinion?
Continue right down WOODSIDE CRESCENT
Left: Nos. 15 and 14. Strategic siting of porches on curve
Left: Nos. 8 and 9. High central block terminates vista from Woodside Place.
Left: Clydesdale Bank. Is this the kind of development which is more in keeping with the architectural history of the street?
Turn left for CHARING CROSS
Grand Hotel by J. Thomson. It may well be removed in order to provide for the Ring Road which at this point will be depressed with the possibility that part at least of it will be built over.
Charing Cross Mansions is J.J. Burnet at his most Francophile. Excellent quality of sculpture, failure to maintain clock and some of the world's least appealing shop fronts.
Turn right into NEWTON STREET and left into BATH STREET
Right: Redevelopment necessary. Note curve of street, scale of houses and foils provided by the spire and tower.
Right: Albert Dance Hall - unsuitable infilling.
Left: St. Matthew's Church by J.T. Ernet of London 1849-52.
Splendid detail and spire in second pointed manner.
Left: Elgin Place Church (1856) by J. Burnet Sen. Academic neo-Greek of the highest quality. Demolition a distinct possibility.
Left: Nos. 210-202 Adelaide Place c 1840. Ruined by ill considered 'repairs' and 'renovations' Centre still fine feature. In this decorative street of gas lamps, railings and facades, is some restraint in advertisements and sign not called for?
Turn left into WEST CAMPBELL STREET
The corner block with the consoled eaves gallery is a reconstruction of a mansion formerly at this site by Greek Thomson for the Alexandra Hotel 1875-7.
Also fine clean-cut warehouse by Honeyman and Keppie
Turn right into SAUCHIEHALL STREET
Right: Fine Art Institute by J.J. Burnet. This most scholarly and dignified work having been gutted by fire might well be demolished.
Turn right into WELLINGTON STREET
Right: Copland's romantic Italian warehouse. By Bruce and Hay.
Left: Sculthorps. Is it not possible to provide new ground facades more in harmony with upper storeys? Compare this with the Minty Shop at Charing Cross.
Left: Wellington House which is one result of piecemeal development.
Should the Victorian centre of Glasgow become like this or should an attempt be made to retain the finest architecture of last century.
Turn left into ST. VINCENT STREET
This is a street of commercial buildings which in size and magnificence outdo the domestic architecture which is still to be seen in much of the neighbouring streets, although much architectural diversity is historical unity.
Left: No. 144 - Office by H. Salmon Jun. 1899-1902
Right: Norwich Union Insurance Society.
Right: Scottish Mutual Assurance Society.
Left: Bank of Scotland, Head Office by James Miller 1927
Right: National Commercial Bank, Head Office by J. M. Peddie of Edinburgh 1908.
Also the Scottish Provident Institution in St. Vincent Place.
Turn left into BUCHANAN STREET and ST. GEORGE PLACE
Western Club and Stock Exchange are an interesting pair in spite of strongly contrasting styles. Former by D. Hamilton 1840 and the latter by J. Burnet Sen. 1876 was considerably enhanced by a finely designed extension by his son J.J. Burnet in 1899.
The stretch from J.J. Burnet's Athenaeum Theatre to the corner of Gordon Street is the finest piece of mixed urban townscape in Glasgow.
Turn right into WEST GEORGE STREET and GEORGE SQUARE
The west side of the square has been worked into a single composition by several Architects. Bank of Scotland (Rochead 1869) the centre by Sellars in 1874 and the Merchants' House by J. Burnet Sen. 1874-7.
Left: Church (now a railway office) by Gillespie Graham but, along with the station which has a fine iron span) will soon be no more.
Turn right into HANOVER STREET, MILLER STREET to DUNLOP STREET
Left: G.P.O. Italianate design by Robert Mathieson, the Government Architect
1875-6.
Left: Telfer's warehouse in the Thomson manner, apparently built in 1877.
Right: Arthur's warehouse in James Salmon's finest 1850 Superb detail and surprising adherence to Georgian Glazing.
Left: No.54. The old Stirling Library is by James Smith , son-in-law of Hamilton and father of Madeleine.
Right: Nos 37-51 by Alexander Kirkland, 1854. The courtyard onto the street is a remarkable feature. It is the usual warehouse plan turned outside in for purposes of displaying the sumptuous Venetian style. Compared to the strength and vigour of the architecture and the overwhelming sense of power in the use of stone and situation of the narrow street, are the modern stores of Woolworths and Littlewoods satisfactory products of the mid 20th century?
Left: Buck's Head Building. With his directly glazed giant pilastrade treatment of the 1st and 2nd floors, Thomson first surprised Glasgow in 1849. The slim ironwork on the corner block come later.
Right: North Drive for St Enoch's Station, the Scottish St Pancras designed by Thomas Wilson of Hampstead. Splendid ironwork devised by Sir John Fowler and James F. Blair 1875-9 Station it now would seem doomed.
Turn right into CLYDE STREET
Right: Carlton Place 1802-18 is by Peter Nicholson, Greek Thomson's father-in-law, Gorbals John Knox Church is by David Hamilton and erected 1806-10. In its present sorry state with truncated spire but a shadow of Hamilton's original design. This is the first Civic Trust Scheme in the city. Its completion served to show the need for its extension. A plan has been prepared for the north and south banks of the Clyde and has received much publicity.
Certainly, there is a need to improve upon the river frontages and to bring into focus such features as church tower which is so dominant on the south bank. But if the church closes, will there be a tower much longer?
Left: Victoria Bridge. Built 1851-4 to design by John Walker of London. Has fine cutwaters and balustrade.
Left: Suspension Bridge 1851. The architect of the pylons was Alexander Kirkland; the engineer George Martin. The project ran into trouble and it was not till 1871 that it was finished.
Right: Custom House, 1840 by George Ledwell (Octogenarian) Taylor a London architect. Attractive neo-Greek but modest indeed compared with the giants at Greenock, Leith and Dundee. The flanking tenements were not symmetrical but balanced nicely. Note how bridge design fell off in standard towards the end of the century.
Turn right into JAMAICA STREET
Jamaica Street is the place to study early iron architecture.
Left: A large iron warehouse with big elliptical arches. Look at the ironwork brackets of the heavy cornice. The date is not exactly known, but it is later than the pioneer.
Iron Building(Gardners') designed by John Baird I with R. McConnell
ironfounder, who held a patent for the iron beams with which the interior is constructed. Next is 24-34 very acceptable Venetian by John Honeyman. It cost £10,048. Its neighbour has been somewhat spoiled.
Ácross ARGYLE STREET
Note in passing James Miller's Francois ler iron veneer on the "Highlandman's Umbrella"; just next to it on the left is another McConnell iron warehouse designed by James Thomson, John Baird's successor in 1863; note how the desire to treat iron frankly as such has slightly worn off. At right note Boots veneer over their modest neo Palladian.
Up UNION STREET
Right: 59-76 (over Woolworth's) is an interesting mixture of stone and iron with just thin slices of superimposed orders between wide windows. The date is about 1857 but the architect is still not known. The Egyptian Halls built 1871-3 designed by 'Greek' Thomson; note the clever superimposition of pilastrade and the great eaves gallery with it's continuous glazing behind. The last of the original shopfronts perished but a few years ago.
Left: Caledonian Chambers. Very Edwardian Renaissance by James Miller 1903, a one-time employee of the Caledonian Railway and their favourite architect in their last years.
Right: Corner of Gordon Street and Union Street. £11,000 worth of stone and iron by John Honeyman; it was built as a furniture warehouse J Gaff Gillespie got the unhappy job of putting on the top-hamper.
Turn left into GORDON STREET
Look for a moment down to the right. The near corner with West Nile Street is a Peddie and Kinnear of 1874 beyond the superb Commercial Bank, a David Rhind palazzo of 1855.
Right: Forsyth's: originally Boucher & Cousland 1858 Venetian.
The corner was pulled out and the circled corner put in by J J Burnet. The mansard is also his.
The Grosvenor Building built by Alexander Thomson and his brother George as a speculation; the money they paid for the site built St Vincent Street Church. It was a worry to them all their lives. Note the personal way in which the aedicules are pushed out beyond the pilasters, and their first eaves gallery, in this case with consoles as at the old Alexandra Hotel much later.
The fantastic top-hamper was added by J Hoey Craig in 1907.
Left: Central Station by Sir Rowand Anderson 1884 tasteful as always, this time in the early renaissance mode. The long addition down Hope Street with its huge train hall windows beyond the hotel is by James Miller. It was completed in 1907. The ironwork within lacks the thrills of Queen Street and St. Enoch's.
Right: The corner warehouse is by James Thomson in 1897 and not his best.
Straight ahead 91-115 Hope Street our finest example of the Second Empire vogue with exquisite Greek details by Peddie and Kinnear 1877. It would be the largest single commercial building at that date.: an arcade was part of the scheme.
Look left: Site of the Corn Exchange - are we quite as well off architecturally ?
Beyond, down Hope Street, 'Atlantic Chambers' J J Burnet 1899 and in Waterloo Street, Waterloo Chambers J J Burnet also, same year. Note how he loved the eaves gallery also.
Turn right into HOPE STREET
106-108 Hope Street. Early renaissance of great charm with good sculpture, 1894 by Forrest Salmon: behind in Renfield Lane a daring Mackintosh of 1900.
Turn left into BOTHWELL STREET
Right: An early terrace of offices by Kirkland and John Bryce (Baronial David's classical brother). The end block was unfortunately chewed off for a bank by James Miller, and its nicely rounded arched ground floor a good deal interfered with.
Left: The Conservative Club. Conservative indeed by Co. Edis, friend and architect of 'Tum' then Prince of Wales. Not a happy intrusion in the Glasgow scene. Down Wellington Street can be seen the Waterloo Parcels Office: Oldrewe the government architect at his best in 1906.
Mercantile Chambers. Early Salmon, June 1898. A fine product of the
Beardsley era with sculpture by Derwent Wood.
Right: The YMCA. It should be the work of Alfred Waterhouse but was in fact homegrown in three stages. The centre is John McLeod 1880; the corner blocks were added by Clarke & Bell.
Left: Legal Life. Wright and Wylie 1927 sound inter-war classic. It was not an adventurous design but is our true current commercial architecture as good in its time.
Up WEST CAMPBELL STREET
Right: At top 200 St Vincent Street the North British & Mercantile 1929 J J Burnet's swansong. He was then 72. It is not as adventurous in its fenestration as his McGeoch building or his Kodak building in London but the masterly handling of the ground floor and placing of the great chimney show that his powers of design were undiminished. It has a slightly American flavour; Burnet was a lifelong friend of Charles McKim who was a fellow student at the Beaux Arts.
Some good stretches of mid-19th-century classic with various later
emendations bring us back to St Vincent Street Church. Except for the south Douglas Street corner a disappointing charles Wilson of 1845, like so much good Glasgow architecture - anonymous at the moment.
Compare the Square
New Look for the North Bank
The following is the text from a discussion document for a meeting held between Glasgow Corporation, Strathclyde University and the New Glasgow Society at the Trades House, Glassford Street, Glasgow. The date is given as June 13th but the year is not included in the document. The content suggests a date in the early 70s.
New Look for the North Bank
"DESPITE the major redevelopment and motorway schemes which are transforming large parts of the city, the outside world’s image of Glasgow seems limited to either “Gorbals” or “Sauchiehall Street”. The main reason for this is probably that Glasgow still lacks an obvious focal point o centrepiece with which people can identify the city – and which could present the image of a dynamic and forward-looking metropolis.
A rare opportunity to create such a centre exists at this moment on the North Bank of the Clyde, between Stockwell Street and Jamaica Street and stretching back from the river to Argyle Street. At present run-down, the area provides a unique opportunity to develop over a number of years a group of buildings and open space which in the future would be of inestimable value to the city.
The most important feature of the site is its proximity to the river. Previous generations flocked to the quaysides at Clyde Street to board sailing ships or steamers, either as a way of getting around the city (in 1884 steamers began running from Stockwell Street Bridge to 11 landing stages on the way to Whiteinch) or to sail “doon the watter”. But changing means of travel have resulted in a string of derelict sheds along the waterfront. At the very least, we should be able to clear these away and to landscape the ground between roadway and river. This valuable area of open space, right in the heart of the city, could be achieved in a very short time.(Note 1)
A second feature of the area is the St Enoch Station. This was regarded as the most important structure in Glasgow when built in 1880 but it now also stands empty, another victim of changing travel patterns. Eventually the site may be redeveloped although this could take many years because of the maze of premises beneath the station itself.(Note 2) At the moment it serves as a car park – but surely we can find a more imaginative and exciting use for this great covered area in the city centre? An exhibition area linked with St Enoch Hotel to expand the facilities the city offers major exhibitions (Note 3); a “fun palace”; a transport museum; a permanent exhibition of Glasgow’s industry close to the river which made the city; or just leave it as a a car park? (Note 4)
Thirdly, St Enoch Square, once a spacious residential square with St Enoch Church (now part bus station-traffic island-taxi rank-subway station) – again, surely we can do better than this. The Corporation’s plans to pedestrianise Buchanan Street and Argyle Street could be extended naturally into at least part of St Enoch Square. (Note 5) In the sketch we have prepared of a re-designed square buses and taxis are retained at the southern end of the square, beneath the pedestrian ramp across which would cross the proposed high-capacity road, to provide easy access from Buchanan and Argyle Streets to the revitalised riverfront.
Other possible developments for the area include a new Roman Catholic cathedral which promises to give Glasgow a building of world stature. Furthermore, what a splendid and dramatic setting the Clyde could provide for the new Concert Hall which seems destined to be built on a derelict piece of wasteground at the other end of Buchanan Street (Note 6) – and what better place to site the new Citizens Theatre when it has to make way for the Ring Road? (Note 7)
If developments of this nature begin to take place on the North Bank it should also be possible in the future to attract a major international hotel and a limited number of prestige office buildings to this key Scottish site. (Note 8)
The opportunity exists on the North Bank for a series of developments which could steadily transform the area from its current nondescript character to one which would substantially enhance the prestige and image of the city. In the short term the riverfront could be landscaped and St Enoch Square tidied up. Around these could then be sited over a number of years the entire area with the exception of the Customs House is gradually redeveloped.
But it is important to start thinking and planning for this now, before piecemeal development destroys today’s once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
Notes on developments since:
1 Quay Gardens at Customs House Quay were laid out in 1975
2 St Enoch Station was demolished in 1977
3 Stone from St Enoch Station was used to fill in Queen’s Dock, where the SECC was built in 1985
4 St Enoch Centre was built in 1985
5 Buchanan Street was pedestrianised in 1978
6 Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, built at the top of Buchanan Street, was opened in 1990
7 Although the façade of the Citizens’ Theatre was demolished the theatre remains on the same site and the current building, including two new studio theatres, opened in 1992
8 The Glasgow Hilton was opened in 1992