Description

James Salmon junior, (Salmon, Son, and Gillespie) 1897-8. Sculptor Derwent Wood (4 statues in stone). 6 storeys and attic, 9 main bays. Symmetrical Art Nouveau commercial building. Polished ashlar, brick rear elevation. Arcaded ground floor with squat columns and sculpted imposts, modern shops. Semi-circular projecting aedicule above main entrance at No 53 Bothwell Street with canopy supported on barley-sugar columns framing sculpted figure of seated man supported by richly sculpted cherubim brackets. Arched entrance with wrought-iron fan grille; 2 off-centre voussoir blocks, stylised heads.

Paired outer bays with vertically linked canted windows, rising from 1st to 4th floor; 1st floor slim stylised columns with exaggerated entasis, supporting window heads with animal relief sculpture; plain windows above; double attic storey supported on giant central sculpted

corbel, free-standing columns linked by wrought-iron balustrade; sculpted, pedimented head with finial.

5-bay central section: sculpted heads to 1st floor windows and frieze with raised lettering "Trees grow, birds fly, fish swim, bells ring"; 2nd floor sculpted figures in consoled niches, from left; 'prosperity' 'prudence' 'industry'; 3rd and 4th floors with slim, giant attached

stylized composite columns, balcony breaking forward in outer bays with wrought-iron balustrade; sculpted heads above 3rd floor windows in outer bays; 4th floor plain cornice; 4-bay arched eaves gallery with canted tripartite windows; main cornice; corniced dormers with pyramidal slate roofs in outer bays of central section; canted dormer in central bay supported on richly sculpted bracket, with bell-cast roof and finial; above 1st floor, centre of elevation defined by narrow windows to each floor.

REAR ELEVATION TO BOTHWELL LANE: 8 bays of shallow, canted metal-framed windows rising full-height from 1st floor; 4-bay raised attic section in centre. 2 arched bays on ground floor with keyblocks, tripartite with pilasters, fanlight with timber glazing bars. Round-headed, incised panel between 2 arched bays with incised Art Nouveau lettering "The Mercantile Chambers" cast-iron columns in basement.

Statement of Interest

Upgraded B to A 21.7.88

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17568128

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings