9 "GLASGOW - AN ARCHITECTURAL TREASURE HOUSE" by D. SLOAN

GLASGOWs AN ARCHITECTURAL TREASURE HOUSE

5.

By DA YID SLOAN

Ask anyone to name those towns and cities in Britain today which represent the most important repositories of our architectural heritage and the likes of Bath, York,

Edinburgh and London will spring to mind.

But surely not Glasgow? However, within months of moving to Glasgow where I was based for three years from 1980, I was to appreciate just why the late Sir John Betjeman saw fit to declare that Glasgow had the finest Victorian architecture to be found anywhere in the world.

Despite the wholesale destruction of much of the inner city which was wrought by town planners and motorway builders alike during the sixties and seventies, Glas~ow is still endowed with a rich and varied legacy of buildings from the last century. The exuberance and enormity of Glasgow's rich architectural inheritance is especially evident in the opulent 19th Century villa suburbs such as Kenvinside and Pollockshields West - not to mention the city centre which _is liberally studded with some of the more spectacular creations of the architects who dominated the Glasgow scene in the last decade of the last century and the first decade of this one. Indeed, the Glasgow scene at the turn of the century was graced by a veritable galaxy of architectural starts, of which my personal favouraites are: Sir John James Burnett, John A Campbell, J. Gaff Gillespie, James Salomon II, Willliam Seiper and last but not least, the partnership of Donald Bruce and Edward May. One especially famous name who made an indelible impression in sandstone and mortar on the city during this particular golden era was that of Charles Rennie Macintosh (1868-1-928). For all that he is the one Glasgow architect who, above all others, is likely to be mentioned from Land's End to John O'Groats by anyone who is even remotely interested in arch·tecture. I must however confess that he is not one of my personal favourites and strikes me more as a pioneer of the Modern Movement and all that was to eventually bring in the way of monotonous modern monoliths errected in such dismal abundance during the sixties and seventies. Indeed the massive, almost blank fenestration of large areas of the Glasgow School of Art and the twin stair towers which dominate the front of his Scotland Street School bear a disturbing similarity to that which adorns, or should I say blankets the "glass stumps" of the post-war period of reconstruction and development which are .. so righly reviled by Prince Charles. ·. ·

Having said that, there is one elevation and errection of his which is a particular favourite of mine; namely a purpose-btµlt structure which he designed for the "Glasgow Herald" newspaper. This was completed in 1895 and represented his first major contribution to the architecture of the city. Although it was constructed in partnership with one John Keppie of the Honeyman and Keppie practice and Keppie was formally in charge, all the preliminary sketches were Mackintosh's.

6. GLASGOW: AN ARCHITECTURAL TREASURE .HOl,JSE

What I like about this particular pile was the ever-so-subtle use of shallow relief, especially the minor segmental at pediments which are so deftly and d~li~ately reminiscent of the fuller blooded Baronial buildings of an earlier age. For an additional and slightly less restrained effect, two triangularly pointed 'Arts & Crafts' gables - a la La Voysey add to the building's overall attractiveness, However, at complete variance to all this. cleverly restrained subtelty is a gigantic water tower which errupts 150 feet fron the corner of the building. In keeping with the 'Arts & Craft' idiom of the day this tower is capped with an ogival roof. What is particularly interesting is that of one looks immediately beneath the overhand of this roof one finds that for reasons which defy all architectural and aesthetic logic the top floor of the tower is constructed of red brick - in sharp contrast to the red sandstone which was used for the rest of the tower and indeed, for the rest of the facade. This building, his first major work, marked the commencement of the fourteen year period which saw Mackintiosh at the peak of his creative powers. It was during this hectic phase of his life that the two most critically acclaimed designs were translated into reality in the form of the Glasgow School of Art and the Scotland Street School. His involvement in the building of the School of Art came about when the Governors of the School announced a competition for a new building in 1896, Having duly won the contest, Mackintosh · executed the construction of the School complex in two phases; the east wing came first in 1899, but due to financial constraints the School was not able to commission the errection of the west wing for another eight years, with the actual completion taking place two years later The symmetry of the facade to both the east and west of the main entrance clearly shows that in the eight year hiatus - with all that implied in terms of rapidly changing architectural fashion - he was still adhering to the original overall ground plan.

However, the east facing elevation, with its pronounced 'Arts &. Crafts' overtones, is is in sharp contrast to the forward-looking west side of the building. One can only assume that he kept to his original competition winning entry, deciding to do the logical thing and leave his more modernistic designs for the later stages of the School's reconstruction. Indeed, it is the eastern facade which ls so highly acclaimed by architectural historians for its three twenty six foot high oriel windows, wheras contemporary Glasgow critics - rightly in my opinion compared its functionalism unfavourably with the floridity of the creations of Burnet et al. It is precisely because of his overt tendency toward Modernism that one cannot really regard him as the ultimate Art Nouveau architect Indeed, the actual external architecture of his buildings is either distinctly Modern Movement (the Willow Tea Rooms in Sauchiehall Street being another example of this aspect of his work) or decidedly

GLASGOW: AN ARCHITECTURAL TREASURE HOUSE 7.

Arts &: Crafts as illustrated by his occasional incursions into church building, with the Queen's Cross Church to the north of the city being a particular example. In the case of Hill House, a large villa which he constructed in nearby Helensburgh, he actually plumped for a synthesis of Baronial and Arts &: Crafts when settling for a final choice of design. Despite such a relatively conventional external treatment it is what he did within that revealed the true extent of his flair as a designer. Hi11 House, which was errected in 1902, was a showpiece for his penchant for total design which took in everything right down to the subtly Art Nouveau floral motifs with which he embellished the wardrobes · n the master bedroom. Another interior which he tackled as a otal design concept was that of the Willow Tea Rooms (1904) in Sauchiehall Street which, unlike Hill House, is not .:otally preseved for posterity. Enough, !'\owever, remains of the interior to give '11ore than a hint of what the tea rooms -nust have looked like in their full glory. Even the street front of the building is '11issing its original ground floor level, : eluding the florid Art Nouveau swing oors which once graced its entrance. However, with a few exceptions, including this door, his 'Modern Movement' exteriors - along with his almost entirely 'modern' ·nteriors complete with matching furniture and fittings - tended to sport only the '110St subtly refined Art Nouveau embell· shments. These would usually be floral in nature; doubtless a direct reference to is youthful passion for painting watercolours of flowers. This dabbling in Art Nouveau is in contrast to the more full-blooded works of the likes of Gaudi and Guimard on the continent. This was often just too sinuously curved and outlandishly and outrageously decorative to be anything as remotely straightlines and geometrical as Mackintosh at his most modernist.

In summing up one can describe Mackintosh as an architect with a traditionalist heart and a modernist with his head most definitely ruling his heart when it came to the interior work which he carried out on his creations. He most certainly was not the extravagent exponent of art Nouveau that he is sometimes made out to be. Whilst on the subject ·of Art Nouveau in whatever guise it takes, it is perhaps appropriate to exa.mine the career of James Salmon II whose undoubted masterpiece is his 1902 office building in the heart of the city at 144 St. Vincent Street. Although the facade is fairly restrained by continental standards, there is enough in the way of subtly sinuous and curved decoration to suggest that Salmon's designs were influenced by contemporary European practice. The curved lanternlike oriel windows above each of the entrances are decidedly Art Nouveau, whilst the segmental pediment adornding the first floor, although more subtle, is in · the same vein •

8. GLASG01h AN ARCHITECTURAL TREASURE HOUSE

Despite the ornate nature of some of the S<tulputre, the overall treatment of the facade is highly restrained. This is particularly exemplifed by the fact that the four bay windows, which are symmetrically arranged in pairs at each end of the front elevation and which run from the first to the fourth floor, are embellished with nothing more than segmental p~diments carved in the shallowest of relief at first floor level. These protruding ·bays are in fact all part of a cleverly symmetrical composition, with the gl'.ound floor comprising nine recurring. arches, of which eight are infilled with shop fronts, while the middle one comprises the main entrance to the building.

The Art Nouveau theme recurs in the gentle curvature· of the two balconies fronting the sixth floor, and in the odd and unusual shape _of the dormer windown on top. In its original state this building sported a massive finial above, thus earning it the nickname of "The Hatrack".

So much for the fine details of the facade. It should however be said that the overall frontage of this building was very cleverly worked, Ten stories all told, including the basement, on a single Georgian house plot a mere 29 feet 6 inches wide and fronted . to such an extent by glass that the stonework is whittled away to virtually nothing. There is however no need to throw one's hands into the air and cry out "Modern monolith!". Far from it. The overall compositional arrangement of the facade is based in three interlocked bays with the result that, save for the attic and the floor below, all of the windows are either recessed or protruding; thus obviating the fenestration monotony one would normally associate with such a highly glazed frontage as this. Although "The Hatrack" is undoubtedly his best building, this is just one of ~everal with which he graced the city during a highly productive period from 1894 to 1905 {often in collaboration with his partner J, Gaff Gillespie). His other nominally solo creation of note is the Mercantile Chambers at 53 Bothwell Street, which went up in 1898, Although he undoubtedly worked without the assistance of Gillespie when it came to the overall design and layout of the building, this essentially low-key but modern interpretation of the Germanic Gabled idiom would not have been bought to life without some stunning sculpture by J. Derwent Wood of London and James Youn of Glasgow. Of particular note is the pin sandstone depiction of "Mercury in hi Niche" which is located immediately abov the main entrance. Almost equally stunning are the fou gigantic caryatids which embellish th facade at second floor level. Althoug this female statuary is undoubtedly mo umental it is not purely ornamental. Th pink ladies are arranged in pairs to ser as elaborate brackets to support the tv. small balconies on the floor above.

GLASGOW: AN ARCHITECTURAL TR~ASURE HOUSE 9.

Like the building referred to earlier, these arches are particuarly cleverly worked, with the four levels split into three distinct segments. The flanking bay window areas are on either side of a flatfronted central portion which is virtually unadorned save for Mercury and his four female friends which so cleverly break up the vrtual blankness of_ this middle third of the composition. This division into three distinct segments is continued into the upper floors, and each set of twin bay windows leads up to the subtly Baroque upper floors which are topped off by steeply pitched gables, continuing the symmetrical effect, whilst the plainly treated higher levels of the central section capped by nothing more than a small dome and flanking dormer windows only serve to further emphasise the symmetry of the composition. In the next issue I shall focus on the work of J, Gaff Gillespie, including work done in collaboration with Salmon. I shall also be aking a look at just some of the many t·ne buildings erected by the prolific partnership of Sir John James Burnet and John A, Campbell.

DAVID SLOAN

10. CAMPSXTES X HAVE KNOWN

by RXKKJ:

In thirty years of archeology, more than twenty with a camera of some ·kind, I have lived in all sorts of places.

Looking back, I now wish I had taken a picture of each campsite at the time. Of course, in those days, the impressions were so vivid that it seemed as if they would · stay in my memory forever. Unfortunately that has not been the case, so I decided to set down some of the more interesting and amusing memories before they fade away.

I recall one site (in the earlu seventies) which, on arrival presented the impression of a Somme battlefield. Mud was thickly plastered all over and some of the unfortunate diggers lost shoes WITHOUT

REALISING IT! There was one tap, but it was at the wrong side of the mud, as was the ELSAN. Luckily we were forewarned, and decamped to an excellent field behind the local pub, with clean toilets, fresh water and the public bar within easy reach! Another site we dug about the same time was in idyllic surroundings, situated among pine trees on the edge of a pretty river. As I remember, the diggers were a particularly sociable lot, and on at least one occasion we all clubbed together to buy dozens of frozen chickens, sausages etc. from the local supermarket, and the lot were barbecued on an old wrought iron 1 gate over a wood fire. On the same site I awoke one morening to the sound of rustling in our waste-box which was just inside the awning of the tent. Peering out, I saw a little creature straight off the label of a BABYCHAM bottle with its nose in the box. The following morning my wife, hearing a similar sound, carefully edged to the entrance in the hope of seeing the bambi. This time it was a bunch of rats and she woke me with a piercing scream! During the very early sixties, we dug a Romano-British small far.ming settlement close to where Drax power station now stands. Out there, the lcmd is very flat and it is no unusual occourence to see a sea-going ship apparently moving across the fields. On one occasion we held and open day for the locals, and an old farm labourer lost no time regaling us with local history. "Did tha know, " he said "that Great Danes came up that theer river?" !! Our director asked politely of they stuffed their Jong ears inside the horns on their helmets, but this witticism was totally lost on our local historian. A few years later, the dig was on a Roman road on the outskirts of Leeds. The spot was again idyllic, with trees and a small stream. H Q was a caravan, with the diggers in tents around it. Each morning we filled the water-containers from the stream, and during tea breaks filled the_ teapots from the same source. One evening after work a couple of us walked upstream to try and find the source of this lovely beck. Imagine our horror when we found it flowed through a farm cess-pit! Amazingly nobody came to any harm from drinking that water, but the idyllic spot is now, of course, covered with houses. Quite the nicest camp-site was during the first couple of seasons of the last SUTTON HOO dig. This would be 1967 /68 and the director and his wife were staying at the Wood Hall Hotel, Shottisham. We lesser mortals were camping in the walled orchard behind the hotel, and all around us the apples and pears were beginning to ripen, but the best part was yet to be revealed. In the centre of the orchard there was a large marquee, and each evening dinner was served straight from the hotel kitchens! Talk about a Gourmet Excavation! Most evenings we walked into Shottisham to the SORREL HORSE, where the Landlord and his wife made us most welcome. There was a Juke-Box in the back room, but for some reason it would only play "The Carnival is Over". To this day, that tune immediately brings back memories of SUTTON HOO as do the calls of wood-pidgeons which were common in the orchard. We had several "Do's" in the SORREL HORSE. Mrs Markham baked all sorts of goodies, and the diggers, nearly a hundrec strong one year, sat around drinking. eating and singing.