Telephone Exchange, 29 College Street, Glasgow is a Grade B listed building in the Glasgow City local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 4 September 1989. Telephone exchange. 3 related planning applications.

Telephone Exchange, 29 College Street, Glasgow

WRENN ID
hollow-ledge-winter
Grade
B
Local Planning Authority
Glasgow City
Constituency
Glasgow East MP: John Grady (Lab)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
4 September 1989
Type
Telephone exchange
Address
Telephone Exchange, 29 College Street, Glasgow, G1 1QH
OS grid reference
NS 597 652
Coordinates
55.85957, -4.24205
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

Also on this page: EPC · related consents · flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Telephone Exchange at 29 College Street in Glasgow, designed by C J W Simpson and built around 1922, is a large, classically inspired building featuring five storeys and a basement. The basement is made of polished grey granite, while the main structure is clad in polished ashlar stone, with banded detailing on the advanced bays.

The College Street elevation consists of seven bays, with the central bay serving as the main entrance flanked by narrower terminal bays that are shallower and taller, each containing single light windows. The wider bays feature tripartite windows. The central entrance is highlighted by a disc band margin and deep cavetto reveals, with a modern glazed and metal-framed door. Above the entrance is a panel displaying a coat of arms that leads into a semi-circular window on the first floor. The terminal bays have architraved doors topped with oculus windows and panelled double-leaf doors.

The ground and first floor windows are set within shallow recessed masonry panels, with the ground floor featuring column mullions. The first floor windows are semi-circular with small-pane glazing and top-hopper windows. Other windows throughout the building are either tripartite or single light, with sash and case 12-pane glazing, while the lower sashes of the ground floor windows have plate glass.

Flanking the central fourth floor window are decorative cartouches, and the building is topped with a deep cornice and a plain parapet that steps up over the central bay.

The Shuttle Street elevation mirrors the detailing of the College Street side, featuring a similar five-bay arrangement. All windows on this side are tripartite, with the end bays being blind, and it also has shallow advanced bands of masonry, a deep cornice, and a plain parapet.

Local climate

Telephone Exchange, 29 College Street, Glasgow sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,250 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 93% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 80% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 58 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 97% of listed buildings. Of these, 34 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.2°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
  • No sale records on file
  • Related listed building consents — 3 applications
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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