The entrance to a Baroque style former warehouse on Queen Street in Glasgow. Designed by David Barclay, it was originally built for Hunter, Barr and Co. The site on which it was constructed was previously the location of an ornate and imposing branch of the National Bank of Scotland, the first in the city, designed by John Gibson in 1847. Rather than simply demolishing this building, it was moved to the Southside of Glasgow, where it became Langside Halls.

#glasgow #architecture #queenstreet

Servitude: the thread about why James Craig’s New Town isn’t as regular as he would have liked

Have you ever wondered why at the far western end of Queen Street, where it meets North Charlotte Street, the regular, right-angled Georgian grid of the First New Town does something odd and has a bevelled corner? You have? Great! Lets find out why that is.

No, the Georgians weren’t future-proofing the street corner here for a 20th century traffic engineer’s filter lane. This has to do with something much more predictable than that – land ownership disputes!

You see, when Town Council first had a plan of land ownership drawn up for the planning of the New Town, they didn’t actually yet own all the land on which they intended to build. In fact, they only owned about three quarters of it. Standing in the way to the west was “Allan’s Park“, owned by Dean of Guild Allan (Thomas Allan), and “Barjarg’s Feu” – owned by James Erskine, Lord Barjarg of Drumsheugh House.

Allan’s Park was relatively easy to acquire, and was done so by the time the above plan was released to James Craig and other prospective architects for the design competition in April 1766, but Barjarg’s Feu still formed a salient into it. But planning proceeded on the basis that the Council hoped to acquire the land anyway and James Craig’s winning entry therefore drew the western town blocks over it.

Building commenced at the eastern end within short order and by the late 1760s or early 1770s, the New Town was creeping westwards. By the time it reached the boundary of Barjarg’s Feu in 1785, in the vicinity of Castle Street, the the owner – by now styled Lord Alva having inherited that estate – agreed to sell to the council and the plan could continue uninterrupted (although it took until 1820 to conclude, and was not on entirely favourable terms for the Cityand subsequent proprietors). But if we look closer at the western edge of Craig’s plan, and compare it with what is on the ground, we notice that Queen Street should meet North Charlotte Street on a regular grid (it doesn’t) and both Queen Street and the city grid should extend for another block west from where it does (it doesn’t!). Something else stood in the way. (P.S. Charlotte Square was originally to be St. George’s Square)

So what went wrong? Well, it wasn’t just Lord Alva’s land in the way. In 1782, the Trustees of Heriot’s Hospital (who had sold much of the land for the northern portion of the New Town to the city) had sold a portion of land to Francis Stuart, 9th Earl of Moray and on this he had built for himself a mansion, Moray House, and laid out extensive gardens. And Moray wasn’t for selling, so the New Town plans had to be hurriedly altered to build around his land.

This explains why the north western corner could not be completed as planned, and why Queen Street stopped short at North Charlotte Street, but not why they build that awkward and incongruous bevel on the corner? Well that’s because of a little legal thing called “servitude”. What does servitude mean? “A right that an owner of heritable property has over property owned by another. A servitude runs with the land and not the owner“. The Earl of Moray and Lord Alva had servitude over each other that neither could built within 90 feet of their boundary. When Edinburgh bought the land from Alva, Moray maintained his servitude over it. And can you guess what the distance from the bevelled façade on the corner of Queen Street and North Charlotte Street is from the boundary with the Earl of Moray’s land? Yes, that’s right, it’s *exactly* 90 feet.

This old boundary cut through what is now Glenfinlas Street and explains why the pavement suddenly changes width about 1/3 of the way down – it was built at two different times.

It wasn’t until the intransigent Earl of Moray’s son began to be feu the ground in 1822 that the owners of the properties on the north side of Charlotte Square got the change to buy the rest of “their” gardens. The maps below show 1817 compared with 1849 (slide to compare). You can see at this time, a garden wall still existed on the old boundary at the very west of these gardens, and that the formal portions (marked out by the perimeter paths) also conform to the boundary.

You can find the result of this boundary dispute in other places too. It is the reason for instance that Randolph Lane takes an odd, irregular form if you follow it northwards.

Amazingly, the last of the legal niceties over this portion of land weren’t resolved along this boundary for almost 170 years! Those nicely cleaned and restored “Georgian” townhouses at 1-3 Glenfinlas Street? They were only built in 1990 to finally finish this corner of the New Town (almost) as planned.

There’s actually a few more of these incongruous and awkwardly non-right angles scattered through the New Town – it’s always about old boundaries. This thread details the Gabriel’s Road boundary and the line it still cleaves across the New Town. If you want to understand why any New Town street in Edinburgh isn’t on a right angle – overlay an old land boundary plan on it (in this case, the eastern end of John Laurie’s 1766 plan) and it will probably reveal the answer. Broughton Street and York Lane? Cathedral Lane and the foot of Leith Street? St. James Square and Gabriel’s Road? Truncated southern side of Abercrombie Place? Property boundaries are your answer.

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An 1899 warehouse on Queen Street in central Glasgow. Designed by George S. Kenneth, it bears the crest of the Clan Buchanan, and the monogram C.B., indicating it's a Clan Buchanan Society building, the oldest clan society in the world.

Cont./

#glasgow #architecture #glasowhistory #architecturephotography #queenstreet

Love the grandeur of this building on Queen Street in central Glasgow. Built in the 1910s, it was designed by Thomson and Sandilands in a free style, with Art Nouveau influences and Edwardian Baroque details, that seems to be edging towards Art Deco.

#glasgow #architecture #architecturephotography #queenstreet

Queen Street in Glasgow this morning, and someone's in for a rather bad start to their day.

#glasgow #cycling #glasgowtoday #streetphotography #queenstreet

Good morning, Glasgow. It's a clear, but chilly start to the day, but the rather spectacular sunrise made getting up and about early well worth the effort.

#glasgow #sunrise #sculpture #silhouette #queenstreet

A 1950s Office Building on Queen Street in central Glasgow. There's a definite air of Late Art Deco/Modern Classicism about this building.

#glasgow #architecture #glasgowbuildings #queenstreet #buildingphotography #architecturephotography #nightphotography #glasgowatnight

"wide access gate".

Useful for anyone with a pram, wheelchair, heavy luggage etc, but also if you just happen to have an exceptionally large bottom 😋

#Glasgow #photography #photographie #NightPhotography #WideAccess #TicketBarrier #QueenStreet #QueenStreetStation #gare #RailwayStation