Description

Central part by Walker and Ramsay, 1913; additions and alterations by Launcelot Ross, 1924. Single storey, symmetrical, Arts & Crafts style, 13-bay tennis clubhouse with distinctive central pyramidal roof and splayed wings. Red brick base course, painted render. Set diagonally between ranges of tennis courts. Central roof swept over veranda with timber balustrade, roofs supported on timber posts and boarded ceilings. Central two-leaf timber and glass doors. Similar single doors to wings.

Multi-pane, fixed-pane timber glazing with hoppers. Felt roofs with red tiled ridges.

INTERIOR: (Seen 2012). Original layout largely intact. Most rooms timber boarded with 4-panelled timber doors. Members' room in centre (now the pro-shop), kitchen to rear and changing rooms in each wing.

Statement of Interest

This is a good example of an early 20th century clubhouse with an unusual plan form. The Arts & Crafts style adapted itself well to the design of pavilions, and this is seen here with the roof swept over the central veranda providing protection from the elements and adding character to the building. Part of the Titwood recreational site comprising a bowling green, tennis courts and respective clubhouses, the tennis clubhouse is distinctive for its interesting plan form with splayed wings and for its siting.

The history of the Titwood recreational site began on 5 May 1889, when a number of Pollokshields residents met in the house of Mr James Mair Davies in Glencairn Drive to discuss the founding of a new club. The unanimous agreement of those present was that a Bowling and Tennis Club be formed and that sufficient ground be leased in Glencairn Drive from Sir John Stirling-Maxwell for two bowling greens and several tennis courts. The grounds and first pavilion at Titwood were completed by the summer of 1890 and was for both tennis and bowling members. By 1913 a second pavilion, designed by Walker & Ramsay, was constructed and was described at the time as 'tennis pavilion for gentlemen members of Titwood Bowling Club'.

However its present appearance dates from 1924 when Launcelot Ross was employed to enlarge the building which provided space for lady members as well as a kitchen and committee room and a larger gent's changing room. Ross added the striking swept roof and elongated the splayed wings.

Both architectural practices employed by the Titwood club were of some note. Walker & Ramsay had a distinguished history winning various architectural competitions both in Scotland and further afield in the early years of the 20th century. Launcelot Ross spent some time as an assistant to the eminent Sir John James Burnet in Glasgow and London. He gained further experience with other London firms before returning to Glasgow to set up in independent practice in 1912. He adapted Walker & Ramsay's simple design into an Arts and Crafts pavilion. He undertook a wide range of work and later played a major role in the design and execution of the Glasgow Empire Exhibition of 1938.

Modern lawn tennis was established in 1874 by Major Walter Wingfield who developed a new style of the game and a new type of court in order to speed up play. The Wingfield version came to Scotland when James Pattern tested the new game outside at the Grange Cricket Ground in Edinburgh around 1874 date and it soon became the version which was preferred by players.

List description updated as part of the sporting buildings thematic study (2012-13).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77772998

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

• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)