7 Elmbank Street, Glasgow

The main block of 7 Elmbank Street is an Italian Renaissance style building dating from 1846, designed by Charles Wilson. It comprises two main storeys with a later attic, and has eleven bays. The construction is in ashlar, with channelled central piers and quoins. Four central piers project forward and are topped by standing figure sculptures by John Mossman, depicting Homer, Cicero, Galileo, and Watt, which were added around 1880. A central arched doorway is flanked by windows with sculpted responds and spandrels. A deep plinth features v-joints to panels below the ground floor cill band. The windows are sash and case with decorative glazing bars; the ground floor windows are roundheaded with block surrounds, while the first-floor windows are set above a ground floor entablature and are arched with panelled spandrels and cornices. The main entablature has a consoled cornice and a dentil band.

Triumphal arches with channelled piers connect the central block to four-bay wings, added by McLure in 1875 and 1887 (the southern wing being dated 1887). These wings are similarly detailed to the main block.

At 71-83 Holland Street is a two-storey, seven-bay block completed in 1897 by J L Cowan, with an entrance bay and two additional western bays. The construction uses ashlar, channelled at ground floor, and rusticated quoins. Entrances break through the ground floor entablature with channelled voussoirs and cornices. The ground floor windows are segmentally headed, while the first-floor windows are casements in arched recesses with panelled spandrels and cornices. A modillion cornice sits above. A blank linking bay includes an oculus above the entrance at No 71 Holland Street. Gibbs surround windows are located at the first floor of the southern bays, with a first-floor cornice and parapet above.

The Science Block, designed by John Watson, Watson, Salmond, and Gray between 1931 and 1932, is a three-storey, classical style building with eight bays facing Elmbank Street. It is constructed in ashlar, channelled at ground floor, with giant pilasters rising from the first to the second floor. The ground floor windows are two-light and recessed with marginal glazing. The building features a piended slate roof and is linked to the northern wing by a paired, pilastered triumphal arch.

The lodges on Holland Street, designed by Watson, Salmond and Gray in 1938, are a pair of single-storey and attic buildings in a French Renaissance style, with pedimented dormers. They have channelled piers with urns flanking entrances with Gibbs surrounds, and a quadrant screen wall that sweeps to meet a retaining wall. A central wrought-iron gateway has an elaborate overthrow. The rear elevation features a tripartite, pilastered basement refuge with an architrave. It has two three-light windows and three dormers. Rusticated retaining walls use ashlar, segmental headed piers, and cast-iron balusters. An imperial ashlar staircase with die walls leads to Elmbank Street.