Description

Hugh Barclay of H & D Barclay, 1889-95. French Gothic aisled church with main facades to Gibson Street and University Avenue. Stugged and snecked ashlar, polished ashlar margins, bull-faced basement.

N (GIBSON STREET) ELEVATION: 3 tiers: buttressed basement and aisle; clerestory above. 5-bay aisle; centre bay with buttresses flanking gablet window; clerestory windows with Y tracery. Advanced gabled entrance bay to left of elevation with shouldered doorpiece flanked by narrow lancets. Shallow canted apse to E, with piended roof.

W (UNIVERSITY AVENUE) ELEVATION: buttresses rising to pinnacles flank gablet windows either side of gabled pointed arch portal with engaged column reveals and moulded soffit. Paired doors. Tall tracery windows above with engaged column reveals.

INTERIOR (seen 1986): much altered; modern internal partitioning. 5 polished granite columns divided nave from aisles. 2 stained glass windows to N, remain; otherwise few original fittings.

Statement of Interest

The former Hillhead Congregational Church is a prominent and well detailed former church building in French Gothic style. The building was designed by noted Glasgow architect, Hugh Barclay of H & D Barclay. The building makes a key contribution to the streetscape of the area, with the bold design including gabled apses and buttresses making a significant contribution to a prominent corner site.

Unexecuted plans for this commission were first prepared for this building in 1884 by Bruce and Hay. Renamed Sir Charles Wilson Building when taken over by the University of Glasgow in 2007.

The Glasgow firm of H & D Barclay specialised in schools, and to a lesser degree, churches. Glasgow Academy was designed by the firm in 1878.

Formerly listed as '1 University Avenue/49 Gibson Street, Glasgow University, Sir Charles Wilson Building, Former Hillhead Congregational Church'.

List description updated as part of review of the University of Glasgow Hillhead Campus, 2011. The building number is derived from the University of Glasgow Main Campus Map (2007), as published on the University's website www.gla.ac.uk.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q56633918

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.

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