Springburn Public Halls was a public events venue on Millarbank Street in

Springburn Springburn () is an inner-city district in the north of the Scottish city of Glasgow, made up of generally working-class households. Springburn developed from a rural hamlet at the beginning of the 19th century. Its industrial expansion began ...

, part of

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, Scotland. The building, which was derelict for three decades before being demolished in 2012, was a Category B

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

Following significant population growth in the area, largely associated with the

locomotive A locomotive is a rail transport, rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, Push–pull train, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for ...

manufacturing industry, James Reid of Neilson, Reid & Co. decided to donate £12,000 to fund the building of a local events venue for the Springburn area. As part of this arrangement

Glasgow Corporation Glasgow City Council (Scottish Gaelic: ''Comhairle Baile Ghlaschu'') is the local government authority for Glasgow City council area, Scotland. In its modern form it was created in 1996. Glasgow was formerly governed by a corporation, also kno ...

committed to fund the

Springburn Winter Gardens The Springburn Winter Gardens is a former large winter garden located at Springburn Park in the Springburn district of the Scotland, Scottish city of Glasgow, constructed in 1900. The building was damaged in a storm and fell out of use in 1983 but ...

. The site that Reid selected, in Millarbank Street, was open ground adjacent to the Cowlairs Somerville Church. The foundation stone for the new building was laid by the

Lord Provost of Glasgow The Right Honourable Lord Provost of Glasgow is the convener of the Glasgow City Council. The Lord Provost serves both as the chair of the city council and as a figurehead for the entire city, and is elected by the city councillors from among i ...

, Samuel Chisholm, in 1899. It was designed by William B. Whitie in the Italian Renaissance style, built in red

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

stone and was officially opened on 16 May 1902. The design involved a main frontage of five bays facing onto Millarbank Street. The left-hand section of five bays was symmetrical and featured, in the central bay, two doorways with

fanlight A fanlight is a form of lunette window (transom window), often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing (window), glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open Hand fan, fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, ...

s and keystones on the ground floor, and a tall round headed window, flanked by

Corinthian order The Corinthian order (, ''Korinthiakós rythmós''; ) is the last developed and most ornate of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Ancient Roman architecture, Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric or ...

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s supporting a

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

, a

frieze In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...

and a segmental open pediment, on the first floor. The bays on either side of the central bay contained windows with keystones on the ground floor, and niches with statues of Greek goddesses on the first floor. The outer bays of the left-hand section contained doorways with curved pediments on the ground floor and were blind on the first floor. The right-hand section of two bays contained, on the left, a doorway with a keystone flanked by a pair of windows, and four windows on the first floor, all surmounted by a

pyramid A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...

-shaped roof. The far right-hand bay contained a three-stage tower, which was blind in all stages and surmounted by a

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

. Internally the principal room was the main assembly hall which was long and wide. A pipe organ by

James Jepson Binns James Jepson Binns (c. 1855–11 March 1928) was a pipe organ builder based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Organs Pipe organs at the following locations were either built or rebuilt by James Jepson Binns or his JJ Binns company. A number of ...

was installed above the stage in 1905. The building served as an events venue, for activities such as dancing, until it closed in 1960. It was then converted for use as a sports centre until it was shut down, because of dry rot, in 1985. The building was subsequently badly maintained and became dilapidated: it was demolished, because of public safety concerns, in December 2012. The statues, which had been sculpted by James M. Sherriff, were recovered before the demolition and placed in storage. North Glasgow Homes and Chameleon subsequently redeveloped the site for residential use with a new block of 49 flats.

References

External links

*{{commons-inline Category B listed buildings in Glasgow City chambers and town halls in Scotland Listed government buildings in Scotland Government buildings in Glasgow 1902 establishments in Scotland Government buildings completed in 1902 2012 disestablishments in Scotland Buildings and structures demolished in 2012 Springburn

History

See also

References

External links