Grosvenor Building, 80 Gordon Street, Glasgow

The Grosvenor Building, located at 80 Gordon Street in Glasgow, was designed by Alexander Thomson (A and G Thomson) in 1864, with additional storeys added by J H Craigie between 1902 and 1907. This six-storey building, featuring an attic, showcases distinctive Thomsonesque Greek architectural details, with modern shops occupying the ground floor. The façade consists of 15 bays made from polished ashlar, predominantly featuring casement windows.

On the first floor, there are pilaster aedicule windows set on a continuous incised podium that projects at the bases. Each window is adorned with incised ornamentation at the frieze, a projecting cornice with antefixae and acroters, and a dado decorated with anthemion and palmette motifs. The frieze features sculpted anthemion designs that separate the bays, with blind aedicules in the outer bays.

The second floor displays a stylised pilaster order with recessed glazing, while the outer bays are blind and feature a geometric incised design. An entablature with disc, anthemion, and palmette frieze, along with a projecting cornice, completes this level.

On the third floor, there is a former eaves gallery supported by sculpted consoles, with a geometric Greek frieze and incised star and disc motifs, topped by a cornice.

The fourth and fifth floors rest on a continuous podium and are topped with an elaborate Edwardian Graeco-Baroque hammer. The bays are arranged in a 1-3-2-3-2-3-1 pattern, featuring two outer bays and one central bay with tetrastyle Ionic fluted attached porticos, all pedimented in the centre. The pilaster architrave extends to the fourth floor, with a mutual cornice and pilasters dividing the bays that rise through the fourth and fifth floors. The main cornice is adorned with a full entablature. A central three-bay window features an elaborate central aedicule in the attic storey, while three-bay cupolas sit above exaggerated attic windows in the outer bays, which are separated by carved consoles and topped with a broken, shaped cornice above single light corniced windows. Set-back dormers complete the design.