1 Sauchiehall Street

Sauchiehall Street: A Great Glasgow Thoroughfare This tour tells the story of Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow’s most famous street, and its buildings. The street has been a major residential, entertainment and shopping centre since the 19th century and stretches over 1½ miles from Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in the West End to Buchanan Galleries in the City Centre. At its heyday, at the turn of the last century, it would have teemed with trams, horse-drawn carts, bicycles, and pedestrians. The number and scale of buildings richly demonstrate Victorian Glasgow’s place as the ‘Second City’ of the British Empire. The important thing is to look up and enjoy the city’s architectural riches! ------------------------------------- 1. The tour begins at the junction of Sauchiehall Street and Argyle Street at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum (J. W. Simpson and E. J. Milner Allen; 1891–1901), one of Glasgow’s most popular destinations. It was the centrepiece of Glasgow’s International Exhibition in 1901 and is sited in Kelvingrove Park (1850s). The elaborate building with its towers, buttresses, corner pavilions and cupolas is Spanish Baroque in style. Notice the richly carved decorative and figurative sculpture by George Frampton, William Birnie Rhind, and McGilvray & Ferris, among others. The building’s rich red sandstone is a distinctive feature of late Victorian Glasgow, as improved production techniques and rail links provided access to quarries beyond Glasgow, notably south-west Scotland. Kelvingrove (free admission) houses one of the UK’s finest civic art collections, including work by Mackintosh and his contemporaries. 2. Walk along Sauchiehall Street past the bowling greens towards the city centre (to your left as you face away from Kelvingrove). Up to the left you will see the impressive Victorian Gothic main building of the ancient University of Glasgow (George Gilbert Scott; 1864–70), Britain’s second largest Gothic building. Further along, through the trees, you will see Park Circus (Charles Wilson; 1855–8) on the hill to the left. This prestigious development was home to many of Glasgow’s leading citizens. 3. At the corner with Kelvingrove Street, you will pass a handsome tenement block on your right (Charles Wilson; 1853), now part of the Kelvin Park Lorne Hotel. The building makes considerable use of applied pilasters and has a central Corinthian-columned portico. Much of this first stretch of the walk is dominated by handsome mid 19th-century terraces and tenements built in local yellow sandstone. Continue along Sauchiehall Street as the street curves left. 4. On your left you will come to Royal Crescent (Alexander Taylor; 1839–49). The crescent has a shallow curve, raised central and end pavilions, and alternating Ionic-columned porticoes and round bay windows at ground-floor level, which create an attractive rhythm across its length. On the right-hand side is plainer two-storey Fitzroy Place (John Burnet Senior; 1847), with a central pavilion, and balustrade parapet. 5. Continue along Sauchiehall Street to the intersection with Elderslie Street. On your left you will see the three towers of the former Free Church College (Charles Wilson; 1856–7), a highly decorative element of Glasgow’s skyline. The next block on the left is Newton Place (George Smith; 1837). Masked behind a row of trees, this terrace extends for 81 bays with a central bay and end pavilions. Note the handsome cast-iron balconies, lamp standards and railings. 1 6. Continue along Sauchiehall Street to the 1960s motorway junction at the tilted Cameron Memorial Fountain (Architect: Clarke & Bell; sculptor George Tinworth; 1895–6) erected in memory of Sir Charles Cameron MP. Cross the motorway. Facing you, beyond the bridge, is the imposing Charing Cross Mansions (J. J. Burnet; 1891) with its bold French Second Empire style façade and figurative sculpture by William Birnie Rhind representing, among others, the seasons, commerce and industry. To the left, across the motorway is St. George’s Mansions (Frank Burnet and William James Boston; 1900–1). Continue along the south (right-hand) side of Sauchiehall Street to get the best views. This part of Sauchiehall Street is characterised by retail and mixed use buildings. 7. At 518 on the left, is the former premises of photographers T. & R. Annan & Sons (John Keppie; 1903– 4) which contained a showroom and studio. The façade is in the style of a 17th-century Dutch gable and incorporates two imposing statues by McGilvray & Ferris derived from Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel frescoes. Annan’s was the leading Glasgow photographers of their day and photographed many Honeyman, Keppie, and Mackintosh buildings. In 1959 the building was acquired by the army, who used it first as a recruiting centre and then, in 1992–3, converted it into a regimental museum for the Royal Highland Fusiliers. 8. Further along on the left, at the corner with Garnet Street, is the eight-storey Art Deco Beresford Hotel (Weddell & Inglis; 1937–8) now converted to flats but originally built for visitors to Glasgow’s 1938 Empire Exhibition. Its drum towers, surmounted by flagpoles, and the central fins which rise above the roofline, are the most dramatic elements in the composition, alongside more subtle Art Deco motifs like the thin corner canopies, fluting and stripe patterning. 9. The next block is dominated by the red sandstone Edwardian Baroque Ashfield House (T.L. Watson and Henry Mitchell; w. end 1900–3; e. end 1907–8). The block provided shops and warehouses on the lower floors with dwelling houses above. The ground floor and surviving doorways are faced with marble. Notice the handsome metal gates. One of its architects, Henry Mitchell, had worked alongside Mackintosh as a draughtsman at John Honeyman & Keppie from 1889 to 1893. 10. Continue to the intersection with Pitt Street and Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson’s Grecian Building (1867– 8) on your left, one of the city’s most important buildings. The squat, top-floor columns, which recall ancient Egyptian architecture, are one of the building’s most striking features. The pavilions at either end and the bold central doorway have decorative caps reminiscent of ancient temples. 11. Cross the street to get a view of a contrasting later building on the opposite side. 309-313 Sauchiehall Street (John Keppie; 1903–6) was built as a warehouse and offices for the furniture firm of James Simpson and Sons. Notice the skilful handling of the upper floors. Pairs of canted bay windows frame the façade. The central windows have Corinthian columns as mullions. The pediments above attic level windows are similar to the upper floors of the Annan building, and are framed by pairs of blocked columns. 12. We will now take a detour from Sauchiehall Street. Turn left up the steep hill on Scott Street and turn right onto Renfrew Street to view Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s most celebrated building, the Glasgow School of Art (e. end 1896–9, w. end 1907–9). The proportions of the main elevation followed those of the housing which originally surrounded it. Notice the asymmetrical grouping of the vast north-facing studio windows; subtle modelling of the window openings; sculptural detail above the main entrance; and the railings with their decorative roundels, inspired perhaps by insects and plants. Regular tours (entrance at Dalhousie Street; charge). Facing the Mackintosh building is the Seona Reid Building, the School of Art’s most recent addition. This daring glass box by American Stephen Holl opened in early 2014 and houses the design school. 13. Walk past the School and turn right down Dalhousie Street, crossing Sauchiehall Street. Look left to view the yellow sandstone McLellan Galleries (James Smith; 1855–6) on the north side of the street. Built by Archibald McLellan to house his collection of art (now in Kelvingrove), this building also housed 2 the Glasgow School of Art prior to the construction of Mackintosh’s design. The galleries have a long, restrained classical façade, with the corner dome and shop fronts being added in a partial reconstruction by Burnet & Boston in 1904. Continue south on Douglas Street to the intersection with West Regent Street and Blythswood Square, one of Glasgow’s most beautiful squares. 14. Blythswood Square was designed and constructed in the neo-classical style in the 1820s as part of the Blythswood New Town. At No. 4 (to the left as you enter the square) are the premises occupied by Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh from 1906–10; other tenants at the time included a dressmaker and the designer and artist David Gauld, one of the ‘Glasgow Boy’ painters and a friend of Mackintosh. Next door, at No. 5, is the former home of the Lady Artists’ Club. The Club commissioned Mackintosh (1908) to partly redesign its interiors, as well as create a new entrance. The doorway, with its exaggerated pediment and fluted pilasters, is a witty response to the square’s neo-classical style. This short detour from Sauchiehall Street reveals Glasgow’s city-centre grid plan, established in the 18th-century, and which has more in common with American than British cities. 15. Turn left at Blythswood Street to exit the square and return to Sauchiehall Street, passing on your right the site of 120 Mains Street (now redeveloped as Mackintosh House, 120 Blythswood Street), the first home of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his artist wife, Margaret Macdonald. To your left at 185 Bath Street is the porticoed private members Glasgow Art Club. In the 1890s, John Keppie was commissioned to connect the interiors of two terraced houses to create a new home for the club. Art Club members at the time included Keppie and John Honeyman (but not Mackintosh), as well as Francis Newbery, Director of the Glasgow School of Art, and many of the Glasgow Boys painters and leading city architects.

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