Description

John James Burnet (Burnet, Son and Campbell), 1904. 3-storey and attic, asymmetrical 3-bay Renaissance terraced house. Polished ashlar, channelled at ground floor.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION: Anta pillars and pilasters flanking doorway and canted bay to right forming portico and supporting 1st floor solid parapet with cast-iron plant boxes, single light and tripartite windows in N bays. Canted bay rising from 1st to 2nd floor in N bay with windows in recessed margins, corbelled out at 2nd floor. Set back tripartite gabled dormer with tall, narrow, attached stack to right. Plain windows in S bays. 2nd floor modillion cornice in S bays, corniced tripartite dormer above.

Timber sash and case windows with glazing bars, 6-pane upper sashes to 1st floor windows. Slate roof; corniced mutual and wallhead stacks.

INTERIOR (seen 1988): carved timber entrance hall chimneypiece. Stained glass hall light. Ground floor room with columned, raised area. Extensive timber panelling. Carved timber newels. Open carved timber 1st floor screen.

BOUNDARY WALLS AND ENTRANCE PIERS: boundary walls and piers with cushion capped pier to right of entrance steps; short length of cast-iron railing to left of entrance; other railings now missing.

Statement of Interest

14 University Gardens forms an A-Group with 2-10 University Gardens, 12 University Gardens, 1 University Gardens and 11-13 University Gardens (see separate listings)14 University Avenue is of outstanding interest as a virtually intact high quality townhouse by the nationally significant architect John James Burnet. The architectural design is executed in high quality materials and exhibits a range of features in the Renaissance style, including a prominent doorpiece flanked by anta pilasters and a ground floor portico. The interior is highly detailed and survives with little alteration. Details of note include a columned ground floor room and staircase with elaborately carved newels. The design is characteristic of Burnet's move to the so call 'free style' of architecture which rejected a scholarly use of historicist styles in favour of a freer use of traditional architectural methods and motifs, as seen in the combination of architectural devices in the design for University Gardens.

Of outstanding interest as an intact high-quality townhouse by the major Glasgow architect, John James Burnet. The house is now in use as a University departmental building, but retains many fine interior features from the period of its construction.

Dean of Guild records show that No. 14 University Gardens was commissioned by William Bottomley from John Burnet & Son. Bottomley was a patent agent of the firm Bottomley & Liddle.

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), Anatomical (Thomson) Building (1900-01), James Watt Engineering North Building (1901 and 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.

Formerly listed as '14 University Gardens'. Originally known as 'Saughfield Crescent'.

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 Q17568067

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

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  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
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  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
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  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
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  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)