Description

John James Burnet (Burnet Son and Campbell), 1882. 3-storey and attic pair of classical townhouses (formerly part of a terrace to NW) with simplified Renaissance details and paired columned portico. Polished ashlar, channeled at ground floor, rock-faced rustication to 'basement, squared rubble rear elevation. Ground floor level band course; ground floor cill course; modillion eaves cornice with dentil band; architraved windows.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION: NE (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: 4-bay. Painted paired Tuscan portico with paired columns in centre; cornice parapet. 1st floor 2 outer oriels with cast-iron plant boxes; balustraded parapets. Central windows corniced. SE ELEVATION: canted corner bay to outer right with central bipartite corniced window; bracketted solid balcony at 1st floor; regular windows at ground and 2nd floor; multi-light attic windows, canted in centre bay between linked, corniced wallhead stacks; 2 further bays to outer left with 2-bay rear return continuing main elevation detailing; corner bay to outer left canted above ground floor. SW ELEVATION: irregular disposition of windows; 2-storey canted bay to outer left. NW ELEVATION: blank (rendered).

Timber sash and case windows; mainly 4-pane glazing. Grey slate roofs; 3-storey SW section with independent piended roof; corniced wallhead stacks.

INTERIOR: (No. 11 seen 2010). Numerous original features including plasterwork and timberwork. Tiled vestibule floor; Tuscan columned entrance hall; coloured glass panel below stair; turned timber balustrade to stair; decorative plasterwork and pedimented timber fireplace to principal room at 1st floor; timber panelling, dentilled cornice and decorative plasterwork to attic room, top-lit by cupola.

BOUNDARY WALLS AND RAILINGS: Balustraded boundary wall, solid corner section with bracketted panel lettered "UNIVERSITY GARDENS". Die walls flanking entrance with cast-iron parapets.

Statement of Interest

11-13 University Gardens forms an A-Group with 2-10 University Gardens, 12 University Gardens, 14 University Gardens and 1 University Gardens (see separate listings)11-13 University Avenue is a little-altered example of domestic architecture by Sir John James Burnet, one of Scotland's leading architects. No. 11 also has historical interest as the birthplace of the term 'isotope'. The paired townhouses are well detailed with a classical design scheme and some simplified Renaissance detailing, making a good contribution to the surrounding streetscape.

John James Burnet was one of Scotland's leading architects in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Son of another architect, John Burnet Senior, he trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Burnet was a pioneer of the stylistic move from historicist styles to a tradition-based, but free-style architecture. He developed enormously successful and influential practices in Glasgow and London, designing a number of eminent buildings including the Fine Art Institute, Athenaeum Theatre, Charing Cross Mansions, Atlantic Chambers and Clyde Navigation Trust Offices in Glasgow and the Kodak Building, the second and third phases of Selfridges, Adelaide House, and the King Edward VII Wing at the British Museum in London. Burnet was knighted for the latter project in 1914. Commissions for the University of Glasgow included: the Bower Building (1900), James Watt Engineering North Building (1901 and 1908), John McIntyre Building (1908), University Chapel (1923-29), Zoology Building (1923), and Hunter Memorial (1925). The neighbouring Glasgow Western Infirmary also employed Burnet Sr and John James Burnet for a number of projects. Nos. 11 and 13 University Gardens were built as private residences. Further houses were built by Burnet on the other side of the street (then Saughfield Crescent).

The houses were built on the lands of Saughfield House. No. 11 was first occupied by George Thomas Beilby, father-in-law of the radiochemist, Frederick Soddy (1877-1956). At a dinner in the house in 1913, the physician Margaret Todd suggested the term 'isotope' (Greek for 'same place') to Soddy, who went on to win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1921 for his work on radioactive decay and the theory of isotopes. From 1922 to 1997 the house was occupied by the University of Glasgow's Student International Club, and named after the club's first chairman, shipping magnate George Service (1864-1940). Since 1997 No. 11 has housed the Humanities Advanced Technology & Information Institute. No. 13 housed the Hetherington Research Club, the first university research club in the UK, from 1954 to 2010.

Formerly listed as '11-13 (Odd Nos) University Gardens'. Originally part of 11-25 Saughfield Terrace. No.11 also known as 'George Service House'.

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 Q17803610

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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