Main Building, University Of Glasgow, University Avenue, Glasgow

Main Building, University of Glasgow

This is a major institutional complex on University Avenue, Glasgow, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott between 1867 and 1870, with the tower and spire completed in 1891 by his son John Oldrid Scott. The building forms a U-plan arrangement that was later developed into two quadrangles through the addition of Bute and Randolph Halls (designed by Scott senior and executed by Scott junior and Edwin Morgan, 1878–84). The West Quadrangle was fully enclosed by the West Range and Memorial Chapel, designed by Sir John James Burnet and built 1923–29.

The principal material is squared, coursed local blond sandstone with polished Kenmure freestone dressings, supplemented by red sandstone and granite details. The architectural style draws on Early Netherlandish precedent enriched with 16th-century Scottish details. The building displays near-symmetrical planning across its 180-metre southern elevation, with a prominent 30.5-metre central tower and open spire. The structure rises to 2 and 3 storeys with attics and basements, punctuated at each corner with pavilions featuring pepperpot angle turrets.

The southern (principal) elevation groups its bays as 2–11–3–11–2, with buttressed 3-storey end and central pavilions connected by 2-storey ranges. Central entrances to the east and west quadrangles are topped by oriels and crowstepped gables. The central 3-storey pavilion has a piended roof and supports the advanced 6-stage tower with pierced open spire.

The eastern elevation comprises 4-storey pavilions linked by a 3-storey range, with a full-height circular stairtower at the north-east angle of the south-east pavilion. The northern (University Avenue) elevation is symmetrical, dominated by a central pavilion formed by the apsidal end of the Hunterian Museum set between flanking single bays with polygonal pier buttresses and conical roofs. Three-bay links flank this, containing arched ground-floor entrances, while 7-bay buttressed ranges (the Hunter Halls and Kelvin Gallery) feature basements and cusped tracery windows. Two-bay links display crow-stepped dormers, with 4-storey outer pavilions at the extremities.

The western (Professors' Square) elevation is a 4-storey, symmetrical 10-bay range built 1923–29, situated between earlier outer pavilions of 1867–70. The west end of the chapel projects forward at the centre. Ground and first-floor windows are vertically linked in groups of 4 within arched sections with colonette mullions and a cill band. Staged, gabled buttresses linked by a pierced parapet frame an elliptically arched ground floor. Parapet finials crown blank niches.

A notable feature is the Lion and Unicorn Staircase, a balustraded scale and platt staircase dated 1690 from the demolished High Street Old College buildings. It was reconstructed at Gilmorehill by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1872, then relocated to the West Range south of the University Chapel in 1929 by John James Burnet's office and reoriented. The staircase retains sculpted lion and unicorn finials at the first platt and ball finials at other newels.

The east quadrangle's inner elevations are 2-storey with attics featuring crow-stepped dormers to the east, stair turrets with helm roofs, and a north-east corner galleried tourelle. Shaped-headed entrances display cusped tracery. The south elevations show simple detailing with a central ribbed arched entrance from the south front opening through a vaulted undercroft, and a south-west corner advanced section with a turret. The north elevation has a stepped buttressed frontage to Hunter Hall with a north-west corner squinch turret displaying blind arcading at its base.

The west quadrangle's inner elevations repeat the arrangement of the east quadrangle to the south and north. The rear elevation of the West Range mirrors the main front but incorporates a projecting ground floor and raised basement occupying a terrace.

Bute Hall is elevated on an open rib-vaulted, columned undercroft oriented north–south, linking the two earlier elevations. It displays five bays of symmetrical design to east and west, stepped buttresses, and richly detailed geometrical windows framed between circular stair tourelles with narrow loop lights and galleried tops. It has a plinth, cornice, arcaded parapet, and crow-stepped ends.

Randolph Hall is continuous in design with Bute Hall to the north, featuring crow-stepped gables to east and west with cusped lower windows and intricate Y-tracery above.

The Memorial Chapel contains a nave and chancel with string-moulded, arched entrances to the north and south flanked by buttresses. A corner turret stands at the south-west. A 4-light arched west window with finials is set in a gable with flanking spirelets. The ground floor is articulated by an elliptically arched section supporting a balcony with pierced parapet in front of a blind arcade. The east elevation mirrors the west above ground level, with a tripartite east window and semi-extruded flanking entrances with solid parapets. It is roofed in slate with a flèche.

Throughout the exteriors, casement windows are predominantly 2-light with cusped heads and colonettes, grouped in pairs or fours, with leaded lights. Grey slate roofs and gabletted dormer windows complete the detailing.

Interiors (as documented in 1988 with minor revisions to 2010) include exceptional spaces. The principal staircase in the south range has a compartmental ceiling and an open well staircase carried on decorative cast-iron beams with giant arcades of clustered colonettes, a wrought-iron balustrade, and a rib-vaulted ceiling. It is adorned with a white marble standing figure of Adam Smith by Hans Gasser, dated 1867.

The University Court is an oak-panelled room with an elaborately carved chimneypiece. The Hunterian Museum and Bute Hall stair is an open well staircase of ashlar and cast-iron construction faced with marble, featuring a highly decorative wrought-iron rail and a coved and compartmental ceiling. The Hunterian Museum entrance hall is an apsidal space with an arcade and aisles beneath a timber open wagon roof. The Hunterian Museum Gallery displays a double-columned gallery and ceiling of open cast-iron construction with stylised stiff-leaf columns, rosettes, brackets, and joists; carved timber arcaded balusters; and a timber wagon roof with column-corbelled brackets at the ends. It contains a white marble seated figure of James Watt by Francis Chantrey, dated 1823.

The Kelvin Gallery (former library) employs similar detailing to the Hunterian Museum Gallery. Randolph Hall forms an ante-room to Bute Hall, separated by a richly carved timber screen, with timber panelling and a blind arcaded south wall beneath a barrel roof stencilled with decoration. Canopied niches and quatrefoils enrich the space.

Bute Hall features clustered cast-iron columns stencilled with fleur-de-lys, an arcaded gallery, a panelled roof, and an organ gallery. Its stained glass, made between 1893 and 1970, includes windows by Edward Burne-Jones and Henry Holiday (1893–1903), Morris & Co. (1901), Douglas Strachan (1907), and Gordon Webster (1970).

The chapel interior has a nave with boldly corbelled engaged shafts and wide 2-light windows, opening through a wide chancel arch with elaborate corbel detail to a shallow chancel with arcading. Two-bay, arched transeptal galleries with arcade parapets flank the space. The choir stalls and pulpit are richly carved, the communion table is carved with symbols of the Apostles, and it is lined internally with Blaxter stone.

The chapel's stained glass comprises four west windows depicting Saints Andrew, Columba, Kentigern, and Ninian by Douglas Strachan, and faculty stained glass in the north wall showing Law, History, and Literature by Gordon Webster, dated 1954.