List of Category A listed buildings in Glasgow
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This is a list of Category A
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 ...
s in
Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
,
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
. In Scotland, the term listed building refers to a building or other structure officially designated as being of "special architectural or historic interest". Category A structures are those considered to be "buildings of national or international importance, either architectural or historic, or fine little-altered examples of some particular period, style or building type." Listing was begun by a provision in the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1947, and the current legislative basis for listing is the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997. The authority for listing rests with
Historic Scotland Historic Scotland ( gd, Alba Aosmhor) was an executive agency of the Scottish Office and later the Scottish Government from 1991 to 2015, responsible for safeguarding Scotland's built heritage, and promoting its understanding and enjoyment. ...
, an
executive agency An executive agency is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate, to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government or Nort ...
of the Scottish Government, which inherited this role from the Scottish Development Department in 1991. Once listed, severe restrictions are imposed on the modifications allowed to a building's structure or its fittings. Listed building consent must be obtained from local authorities prior to any alteration to such a structure. There are approximately 47,400 listed buildings in Scotland, of which around 8% (some 3,800) are Category A. The medieval city of Glasgow formed around two axes, that of the
High Street High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...
and the
Saltmarket The Saltmarket is a thoroughfare in the City of Glasgow, Scotland. It is a southward continuation of the High Street, running south from Glasgow Cross to the junction with Clyde Street and Crown Street by the River Clyde. It runs past the High Co ...
which was bisected by
Trongate Trongate is one of the oldest streets in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. Trongate begins at Glasgow Cross, where the steeple of the old Glasgow Tolbooth is situated, being the original centre of medieval Glasgow, and goes westward changing its na ...
and Gallowgate at
Glasgow Cross Glasgow Cross is at the hub of the ancient royal burgh and now city of Glasgow, Scotland, close to its first crossing over the River Clyde. As a major junction in the city centre, its five streets run: north up the High Street to Glasgow Cathed ...
. Despite its ancient origins very little of the medieval fabric of the city survives. Only two buildings from the earliest period are extant in Glasgow; the
Cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...
and the former canon’s house. Nor do the
riggs Riggs is an English surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Anna Rankin Riggs (1835-1908), American social reformer * Arthur Riggs (geneticist) (1939-2022), American geneticist * Arthur Stanley Riggs (1879–1952), American author and hi ...
and
wynd In Scotland and Northern England, a wynd () is a narrow lane between houses. The word derives from Old Norse ''venda'' ("to turn"), implying a turning off a main street, without implying that it is curved. In fact, most wynds are straight. In m ...
s of the old city remain, though a great deal of the original street pattern has persisted down the centuries. Additionally, a mere handful of buildings from the period between the Reformation and the end of the eighteenth century have come down to us. The majority of the city’s building stock, then, is nineteenth century when the population of Glasgow rose from c. 78,000 in 1801 to 770,000 in 1901. The pattern of expansion can be traced from the commercial centre of the High Street and
Merchant City The Merchant City, a new name introduced through urban renewal by the Scottish Development Agency and the city council in the 1980s is one part of the metropolitan central area of Glasgow. It commences at George Square and goes eastwards reachin ...
westwards to the
Blythswood Hill Blythswood Hill, crowned by the elegance of Blythswood Square, is the wealthiest part of central Glasgow, Scotland. It extends from the west edge of Buchanan Street to Gordon Street and Bothwell Street, Charing Cross, Sauchiehall Street a ...
New Town laid out in the 1820s and 30s, and south of the river in Laurieston and
Tradeston Tradeston () is a small district in the Scottish city of Glasgow adjacent to the city centre on the south bank of the River Clyde. Geography Tradeston is bounded by the River Clyde to the north, the Glasgow to Paisley railway line to the so ...
. The feus of both these developments were, unusually for the British Isles, laid out on a gridiron pattern. Further development came with the construction of the
Woodlands Woodlands may back refer to: * Woodland, a low-density forest Geography Australia * Woodlands, New South Wales * Woodlands, Ashgrove, Queensland, a heritage-listed house associated with John Henry Pepper * Woodlands, Marburg, Queensland, a her ...
and
Park District A park district is a form of local special-purpose district for providing public parks and recreation in or near its geographic boundaries. Some park districts also own or maintain related cultural facilities such as monuments, zoos, sports venu ...
areas, the latter of which was the work of Charles Wilson, in the 1830s and 40s. With the relocation of the
University A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
from the High street to
Gilmorehill Hillhead ( sco, Hullheid, gd, Ceann a' Chnuic) is an area of Glasgow, Scotland. Situated north of Kelvingrove Park and to the south of the River Kelvin, Hillhead is at the heart of Glasgow's fashionable West End, with Byres Road forming the w ...
in the 1860s came the expansion of the city to the west where suburbs at
Dowanhill Dowanhill is an area in the West End of Glasgow, Scotland. An upper middle-class residential district, the area generally contains a mixture of terraced townhouses with private communal gardens, detached villas with private grounds and a number ...
and
Partickhill Partickhill ( gd, A' Bhrae na Partaig) is a district of the city of Glasgow. Located to the north of Partick, south of Hyndland and west of Dowanhill, it contains mixed housing stock of tenemental type property and villa style houses, as well as ...
were laid out on the garden principal with villas and cottages in a number of styles. Similarly, the coming of the railways and trams permitted the development of the suburbs of
Pollokshields Pollokshields ( gd, Buthan Phollaig, Scots: ''Powkshiels'') is an area in the Southside of Glasgow, Scotland. Its modern boundaries are largely man-made, being formed by the M77 motorway to the west and northwest with the open land of Pollok C ...
and
Langside Langside is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated south of the River Clyde, and lies east of Shawlands, south of Queens Park, west of Cathcart and north of Newlands. The district is residential and primarily middle-class, ...
to the south. In 1866 the city corporation established the City Improvement Trust to control planning and clear slums. The outlying burghs were amalgamated into the City Corporation in 1891 and in the following decades the city witnessed its peak population of circa 1.1 million. With the post-war period came the proposals of the
Bruce Plan The Bruce Report (or the Bruce Plan) is the name commonly given to the ''First Planning Report to the Highways and Planning Committee of the Corporation of the City of Glasgow''Robert Bruce (1945), ''First Planning report to the Highways and Pla ...
in 1945 and the Clyde Valley Report in 1946. The former recommended the phased replacement of the entire city centre and its encirclement with a ring-road, of which scheme only the M8 at
Charing Cross Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Clockwise from north these are: the east side of Trafalgar Square leading to St Martin's Place and then Charing Cross Road; the Strand leading to the City; ...
and
Anderston Anderston ( sco, Anderstoun, gd, Baile Aindrea) is an area of Glasgow, Scotland. It is on the north bank of the River Clyde and forms the south western edge of the city centre. Established as a village of handloom weavers in the early 18th ce ...
was completed. The latter advised the displacement of the population of the City centre to
New Towns A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...
and peripheral estates which led to the contraction of the city’s population and the wholesale redevelopment of areas such as the
Gorbals The Gorbals is an area in the city of Glasgow, Scotland, on the south bank of the River Clyde. By the late 19th century, it had become densely populated; rural migrants and immigrants were attracted by the new industries and employment opportun ...
and
Townhead Townhead ( gd, Ceann a' Bhaile, sco, Tounheid) is an area of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated immediately north-east of Glasgow city centre and contains a residential sector (redeveloped from an older neighbourhood in the mid 20th ...
. The architectural character of Glasgow has been described as follows: “ e architecture of the City Centre exhibits a distinctive confidence from the late 18th century into the 21st century that makes it unique in Scotland. Although a variety of architectural styles exist, there are certain Glasgow characteristics: depth of modelling; wealth of ornamentation and sculpture; animated roofline; and consistent building lines and predominantly flat (not stepped or curved) linear elevations along the backs of the pavements. Glasgow architects and engineers were, and remain, frequent pioneers of new building technology and materials.” Perhaps the most striking quality of Glasgow’s urban form is the eclectic mix of styles which it exhibits. Of those belonging to the early nineteenth century include: the
neoclassicism Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism was ...
of William Stark and David Hamilton; a vigorous tradition of
Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...
, possibly the longest lasting in Britain, which persisted down to the 1890s;
Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...
evidenced in the Western Club and Rochead’s 2 St Vincent St.; and
Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
notably practised by Leiper and G. Gilbert Scott. By the mid-century Glasgow had produced its first native architect of national and later international importance in Alexander Thomson, whose eclectic historicism produced its own school. Later nineteenth-century work includes the
art nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...
inspired buildings of James Salmon, particularly the “Hatrack” on St Vincent St.; the Beaux arts style common to many public buildings of the period especially the City Chambers; Mackintosh’s art and crafts inflected work; Edwardian Baroque revival; and the distinctive free Glasgow Style of Millar and the later Salmon. The inter-war period sees the use of
Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
and some reference to the Chicago Style in the elevator buildings demanded by commerce of the time, specifically in James Miller’s St Vincent St. Bank of Scotland and 98 West George Street. Post-war there is the creative application of Functionalism in the work of Jack Coia and
Brutalism Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by Minimalism (art), minimalist constructions th ...
elsewhere in the city’s redevelopment. The best of Glasgow's historic architecture was metropolitan in its ambition, as the ''Buildings of Scotland'' remarks: “A visitor with time to spare will find that the city centre is rich with remarkable buildings from the height of its industrial prosperity and that its grandest suburbs are planned on a scale comparable with many European capitals.”Williamson et al., 1990, p.11


Listed buildings


See also

*
List of listed buildings in Glasgow This is a list of listed buildings in Glasgow. The list is split out in smaller parts. * List of Category A listed buildings in Glasgow Comprehensive lists of Category A, B and C buildings: * List of listed buildings in Glasgow/1 * List of l ...
* Scheduled monuments in Glasgow *
Architecture of Glasgow The city of Glasgow, Scotland is particularly noted for its 19th-century Victorian architecture, and the early-20th-century "Glasgow Style", as developed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Very little of medieval Glasgow remains, the two main landmar ...


Notes


References


Bibliography

*William A. Brogden (ed), ''The Neo-classical Town: Scottish Contributions to Urban Design Since 1750'', Rutland Press, 1996 *A.M. Doak, D. Walker, ''Glasgow at a Glance: an Architectural Handbook'', Collins, 1965 *''Glasgow Central Conservation Area Appraisal'', City Design Group, Development & Regeneration Services, Glasgow City Council, 2012
(PDF)
*A. Gomme, D. Walker, ''Architecture of Glasgow'', Lund Humphries, 1968 *Henry-Russell Hitchcock, ''Early Victorian Architecture in Britain'', Yale, 1954 *John R. Hume, ''Industrial Archaeology of Glasgow'', Blackie & Son, 1974 *Deborah Mays, ''The Architecture of Scottish Cities'', Tuckwell Press, 2001 *Ronald McFadzean, ''Life and Work of Alexander Thomson'', Routledge, 1979 *Charles McKean, ''Central Glasgow - an Illustrated Architectural Guide'', Mainstream Publishing, 1989 *Ray McKenzie, ''Public Sculpture of Glasgow'', Liverpool University Press, 2002 *Peter Reed, ''Glasgow: The Forming of The City'', Edinburgh University Press, 1999 *Sam Small, ''Greater Glasgow: An Illustrated Architectural Guide'', The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, 2008. *Robin Ward, ''Exploring Glasgow: The Architectural Guide'', Birlinn, 2017 *Elizabeth Williamson, Anne Riches, Malcolm Higgs, ''Buildings of Scotland: Glasgow'', Yale, 1990 *F. Worsdall, ''Victorian City'', Richard Drew, 1982 *Frank Worsdall, ''The Tenement: A Way of Life'', Chambers, 1979 {{Glasgow
Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
A
Category A listed buildings This is a list of Category A listed buildings in Scotland, which are among the listed buildings of the United Kingdom. For a fuller list, see the pages linked on List of listed buildings in Scotland. Key The organization of the lists in th ...
Category A listed buildings in Glasgow Category, plural categories, may refer to: Philosophy and general uses *Categorization, categories in cognitive science, information science and generally *Category of being * ''Categories'' (Aristotle) *Category (Kant) *Categories (Peirce) *C ...