Govan Town Hall is a former municipal facility on Govan Road,

Govan Govan ( ; Cumbric?: ''Gwovan'?''; Scots: ''Gouan''; Scottish Gaelic: ''Baile a' Ghobhainn'') is a district, parish, and former burgh now part of south-west City of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated west of Glasgow city centre, on the south ba ...

, Scotland. The town hall, which was the headquarters of Govan Burgh Council, is a Category B

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

Former Govan Police Building and Govan Municipal Buildings (cropped)

The building was commissioned to replace the old municipal offices in Orkney Street which had been designed by John Burnet and completed in 1866. After rapid industrial expansion and population growth in the local area, civic leaders found this arrangement was inadequate and they decided to procure a purpose-built town hall: the site they selected was open land at the corner of Summertown Road and Govan Road. The foundation stone for the new building was laid in September 1898. It was designed by Thomson & Sandilands in the

Beaux-Arts style Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorporat ...

, built at a cost of £60,000 and officially opened by the Provost of Govan, James Kirkwood, in October 1901. The design involved a symmetrical frontage with thirteen bays along Govan Road with the end bays projecting forward; the central section of three bays featured an arched doorway on the ground floor; there were three windows behind a

tetrastyle A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

Ionic order The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite or ...

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

on the first floor and a large

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

containing a carved tympanum above. At roof level there was a large dome with a

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

on top. There were several portrait busts, designed by Archibald Macfarlane Shannan, placed on the Govan Road elevation of the building. Internally, the principal rooms were a council chamber in the eastern section of the building, together with a large public hall with a grand organ and a smaller "upper hall", both in the western section. The grand organ was designed and manufactured by

Norman and Beard Norman and Beard were a pipe organ manufacturer based in Norwich from 1887 to 1916. History The origins of the company are from a business founded in Diss in 1870 by Ernest William Norman (1851–1927). In 1876 he moved to Norwich where he wen ...

and had four

manual Manual may refer to: Instructions * User guide * Owner's manual * Instruction manual (gaming) * Online help Other uses * Manual (music), a keyboard, as for an organ * Manual (band) * Manual transmission * Manual, a bicycle technique similar to ...

s. The town hall was the headquarters of Govan Burgh Council until Glasgow annexed Govan, after a series of anti-amalgamation demonstrations, in 1912. The building was subsequently used by the social services department of Glasgow Corporation: the ornate decoration in the two halls in the western section, including a magnificent

proscenium arch A proscenium ( grc-gre, προσκήνιον, ) is the metaphorical vertical plane of space in a theatre, usually surrounded on the top and sides by a physical proscenium arch (whether or not truly "arched") and on the bottom by the stage floor ...

inside the public hall, which had also been designed by Shannon, was completely destroyed during a refurbishment of the building in 1973. In the early 2000s, Gillian Berrie, a

film producer A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working independently, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script, coordinating writing, di ...

, secured access to the building and raised £3.5 million to convert it into a film production facility known as Film City Glasgow. The works involved refurbishment of the upper hall, installation of a Dolby theatre and upgrading the eastern section (i.e. front) of the building for use by creative media businesses.

References

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Government buildings completed in 1901 Government buildings with domes 1901 establishments in Scotland Govan Category B listed buildings in Glasgow Listed government buildings in Scotland

History

See also

References