Description

Sir George Gilbert Scott, 1868-71; Principal's Lodging porch added by Honeyman & Keppie, 1898. 3-storey, attic and basement terraces of townhouses for 12 professors and the Principal on 3 sides of a square (4 houses to N terrace; 7 houses to W terrace; 2 houses to S terrace) in Early Netherlandish style with 16th-century Scottish details. Rock-faced rubble with ashlar dressings, ground level band course. Stone-mullioned and transomed single, bipartite, and tripartite windows. Crowstepped gabled entrance bays (predominantly paired) and bargeboarded gabled dormers.

S SIDE (INCLUDING PRINCIPAL'S LODGING): 5-bay, outer bays raised and advanced; irregular fenestration; crowstepped gables in outer bays; 2 dormers; return elevations with central gables, arched entrances. Rear elevation: double gable, E advanced with full-height canted bay. W SIDE: 15 unequal bays, 3rd and 4th, 9th and 10th, and 15th bays advanced with crowstepped gables; arched entries with continuous dripmoulds over window lights arranged 3-1-3-3-1-3-3-1-3-3-1-3-3-1-3; 2-light attic windows shaped windows to 1st floor to gables. Plain return and rear elevations. N SIDE: 12 bays arranged 2-2-4-2-2, 3rd and 4th, 9th and 10th bays advanced and raised with paired crowstepped gables; detailing similar to W side.

2-pane timber sash and case windows. Grey slate roofs. Corniced gable and mutual stacks.

INTERIORS: (seen 1988) Plain, many altered. Carved timber staircase balusters, some timber or marble chimneypieces.

CARRIAGE STEPS: approx. 150mm thick sandstone slabs forming pavements and roofs to coal cellars; circular cast-iron coal-hole gratings. Sandstone slabs projecting over stone road gutters to form carriage steps.

RAILINGS AND LAMP STANDARDS: decorative cast-iron railings to street and steps over basement areas. Cast-iron lamp standards with barleysugar motif built into the railings.

BOUNDARY WALLS: buttressed and coped bull-faced sandstone boundary walls to rear (W) of Nos. 5-11.

Statement of Interest

See separate list descriptions for the nearby structures enclosed by the University Avenue boundary railings, gatepiers and Quincentenary Gates, including the Gilbert Scott Building, Bower Building, Thomson Building, John McIntyre Building, Pearce Lodge, Lord Kelvin's Sundial and Hunter Memorial.

The Square is an outstanding example of later 19th century Gothic Revival architecture by a leading UK architect, Sir George Gilbert Scott. The Square (originally 'Professors' Square'), three terraces of houses for 12 professors and the Principal, formed part of the scheme for relocation of the University from the High Street to Gilmorehill in the late 1860s and early 1870s.

Joseph Bignell of Scott's London office sent plans of the professors' houses at Gilmorehill to the Building Committee in Glasgow in early 1868. The estimated cost of £30,200 was of some concern. The design provided for seven terraced houses on the west side of the square and four houses on the north side. By spring 1868 the two houses on the southern side of the square, including the house for the Principal, were also on the drawing board. However, arguments over costs delayed completion of the houses until 1871. Prior to the completion of the Bute and Randolph Halls, West Range and Memorial Chapel, Professors' Square faced into the single large quadrangle formed by the main Gilbert Scott buildings.

The pioneering mathematician and physicist, William Thomson, Baron Kelvin of Largs (1824-1907), lived at No. 11 for much of his long tenure as Professor of Natural History until 1899. The house was the first in the UK to be lit by electricity, using a carbon arc system installed in 1881.

Apart from the Principal's Lodging, the houses are now all in departmental or administrative use.

Formerly listed as '1-13 (inclusive) Professors' Square and Principal's Residence, University of Glasgow'.

List description updated as part of review of the University of Glasgow Hillhead Campus, 2011. The building numbers are 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 Q17803462

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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