City Hall And Bazaar, 83 Albion Street, Glasgow

City Hall And Bazaar, 83 Albion Street, Glasgow

A complex of buildings occupying a large rectangular site. Buildings to the north completing the block have been demolished.

The Bazaar to the south was formerly a cheese and fruit market. It began in 1817 as an open-air walled marketplace. Its walls were partially rebuilt to the south-east and the structure was roofed over in 1907 by architect JAT Houston.

City Hall was begun in 1839-41 by George Murray, with the Albion Street elevation completed in 1843 after Murray's death. The north end was built by John Baird Senior between 1843 and 1845. The halls were reroofed and some interior work was carried out by John Baird II between 1851 and 1854. The Candleriggs elevation of the halls was remodelled by John Carrick in 1885, and he added a curved range of single-storey shops to the Candleriggs and Bell Street corner. An arched market hall at the north was built by John Carrick with Bell and Miller between 1852 and 1853.

The main hall on Candleriggs (90-98 Candleriggs) was designed by John Carrick in 1885. It has an Italianate façade with rich detailing. The front is two storeys, five bays, built of polished sandstone with lower courses of polished pink granite. Square-headed pilastered doorways to the ground floor have heavy panelled doors. Flanking these, giant Corinthian pilasters divide the bays, each engaged to banded piers which rise through the ground and first floors to the springing point of the first-floor windows. The first-floor windows are round-arched with deep reveals and blind balustrading below. All windows have three large vertical glazing bars to the lower part and five-pane glazing to the upper part. The spandrel level has channelled masonry. The pilasters support an entablature with a dentil band and mutule cornice. A die balustrade runs along the parapet.

The Albion Street elevation is simple and astylar, with 3 and 4-storey elements arranged over 18 bays (10-5-3 bays arranged 10 bays to the south, 3-storey and plainer in detail). The truncation to the north means the elevation does not complete. The central 5 bays are shallowly advanced and taller, with channelled ground-floor masonry. Pilastered doorways to the ground serve the outer bays, some retaining original double-leaf panelled doors. The southern 10 bays have plain single-light windows throughout. To the northernmost bays, the first and second windows are architraved, with cornicing to the first. To the centre 5 bays, the inner 3 bays are recessed and grouped as tripartite windows with pilasters dividing the lights at the first floor, with a consoled frieze at the second. Flanking these are ramped architraved windows with consoled cornicing to the first. All windows are single-light with either modern 3-pane glazing or sash-and-case windows with 12-pane glazing. At the north and centre bays a continuous cornice runs over the ground string course to the second floor at the north; each section has a separate main cornice, a disc frieze over the centre, and the cornice rises to a stepped parapet over the centre bays.

The market hall is accessed via a pend to Number 71 and comprises an aisled and galleried hall designed by Carrick with Bell and Miller, featuring elaborate and very decorative cast-iron trussed roofs, elaborate cast-iron balconies, and pierced spandrel details.

The Bazaar occupies 60-82 Candleriggs and 3-9 Bell Street, designed by John Carrick in 1885. It has a long elevation of two storeys and 25 bays with shops to the ground and a saloon above, curving at the corner of Candleriggs and Bell Street. The façade is painted polished ashlar. A taller pedimented pend entrance with channelled masonry stands to the north. The masonry is otherwise plain, with shopfronts to the ground. The first-floor windows are round-arched with pilastered reveals and 6-pane glazing. Pilasters flank the bays, with a plain entablature. An eaves cornice and blocking course complete the design. At the curved angle is a wider bay, formerly a pend to the ground, with paired Doric anta piers and columns flanking a window. Above is a scrolled pediment dated 1885 with a fruit basket finial. The roofs are slate.

The section at 13-31 Bell Street and 69-97 Albion Street was built in 1907 by architect JW Houston. The Italianate single-storey façade to the south fronts Bell Street and flanks Albion Street, with a cast-iron framed interior.

The Bell Street elevation is symmetrical with seven bays in polished red sandstone. Fluted giant engaged Ionic columns (pilasters to the end and centre bays) divide the bays, each with a large recessed opening below housing vehicle entrances to the end and centre bays, shopfronts and pedestrian access to the intermediate bays. Above each opening is a large moulded semi-circular arch with disc moulding. At the central bay is a shallow segmental arch with foliate mouldings and a cartouche. The columns support an entablature and at the centre bay a segmental pediment.

The Albion Street elevation is longer and plainer, with six bays and channelled masonry. At the northernmost bay is a large roll-moulded vehicle entrance and pend with cornice above. The remaining bays each have bipartite timber shopfronts (all recently restored) under a common cornice. The eaves are finished with a plain band and cornice.

The interior features a good cast-iron framed structure with plain cast-iron columns supporting roof trusses in a 3-aisled layout. The roof is of slate and glass.