Many buildings in Glasgow we walk past everyday have a hidden history - today we're exploring that heritage in 15 pictures
It wasn’t too long ago that Glasgow was a truly industrial city, and before that a merchant city - there's generations upon generation of different buildings, structures, and spaces that date back hundreds of years in the city, that we might not even realise have such a storied history.
Old factories, warehouses, former churches and post-industrial spaces - we're a enterprising bunch when it comes to re-using out old spaces, so much so that we can forget that these buildings we see everyday were formerly used for an all-together different purpose.
The re-use of these old buildings is all-in-all a good thing, too many great Glaswegian buildings have been razed to the ground in the last 60 years.
Thanks to the listed building initiative however, many of the better presented spaces like the Templeton Carpet Factory were preserved for their architectural significance.
These spaces produced much more than just the products they manufactured, lifelong friends and even romances were made in the four walls of the factory - as Glaswegians worked ridiculously long hours before returning to slum tenement housing conditions.
The re-use of these old buildings is all-in-all a good thing, too many great Glaswegian buildings have been razed to the ground in the last 60 years.
9. Clay Pipe Factory
Built 1876-79, and designed by architect Matthew Forsyth (1850-80). The former factory comprises of three ornate red and white brick buildings around the Barras, which were originally linked by an equally ornate two storey building filling the site between the three buildings. The three buildings sited in the Gallowgate at the east end of the Barras market area have Italian renaissance inspired design details and have some of the most intricate and ornate use of brick to be found within the city. Originally a clay pipe factory, the three buildings are currently a mix of commercial and residential usage. The buildings are category B listed.
10. Galvanizers Yard / SWG3
Much of the SWG3 arts venue is retrofitted from old warehouses by the River Clyde - but this is no more apparent than in the Galvanizers Yard. Formerly a warehouse filled with the sound of pounding steel as it was prepared for the shipbuilding on the River Clyde.
11. The Engine Works
The Engine Works along the Forth & Clyde Canal in Maryhill has a history dating back to 1837 and is an important part of Glasgow’s industrial heritage. It was built originally for Victorian industrialist and crude & shade oil producer William Walls. Clarkson and Becket brothers bought the Engine Works in 1873 producing steam engines for boats and ships around the world. Owned by just a handful of families over the years, the building remained in use until 2012, when it was vacated by Craig & Buchanon – unfortunately the property had been neglected for decades and had fallen into substantial disrepair.
12. Beresford Building
Designed by the architect William Beresford Inglis from the firm Weddell & Inglis, the Beresford Hotel opened in 1938 to provide accomodation for visitors to the city attending Glasgow’s Empire Exhibition. It was described as ‘Glasgow’s first skyscraper’, the tallest building built in the city between the First and Second World War, standing at seven storey’s high. The building is the city’s most notable example of Art-Deco architecture, and is protected as such under it’s B-listed categorisation. Rather unusually, William Beresford Inglis, the architect of the building, went on to manage the hotel as both the owner and director during the buldings tenure as a hotel from 1938-1952. It was the Baird student halls of residence for the University of Strathclyde from 1964 to 2004, since then it has been used as private residential accomodation.
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