Central Hotel, Central Station, Gordon Street, Glasgow

Central Station, Gordon Street, Glasgow

Sir Robert Rowand Anderson designed this hotel in North European Renaissance style in 1883-4. James Miller made extensive additions to Hope Street between 1900 and 1907.

The building is four storeys with a double attic. A curved four-storey, four-bay angle link connects to a tall tower at the north-west corner. Gordon Street has eleven bays arranged as 2-7-2, with the outer bays advanced. Hope Street has twenty bays arranged as 8-2-2-6-2. The 13th, 14th, 21st and 22nd bays are advanced; the first ten bays from the north on Hope Street match the Gordon Street treatment on upper floors, as do further southern bays. The 9th and 10th bays are raised one storey. The building is finished in polished ashlar.

On Gordon Street, the central bays feature a ground floor moulded arcade with central panelled pilasters and a dentil cornice opening to the station concourse. A cast-iron porte-cochere in the central bays carries lettering. The first floor has a glazed arcade of two-light windows with colonette mullions and elaborate sculpted window heads. The second floor has paired four-light windows with pilasters, a panelled frieze and cornice. The third floor repeats these but with smaller openings and a modillion cornice. A balustrade breaks to four-light pedimented dormers raised in the centre with two additional lights and acroterion. The outer bays have arched windows to the ground floor and two-light, shoulder-lintelled windows above, repeated in the curved corner bays above the portico. A wide columned entrance at the angle has a cast-iron projecting canopy flanked by architraved single-light windows.

The tall semi-engaged clock tower has arched windows at ground floor. The first and second floors have four-light canted oriels flanked by single-light windows. Paired two-light windows with pilaster mullions sit above. Sculpted friezes appear between floors. A giant relieving arch with a lunette rises from the first to third floor. Corbelled, balustraded balconies to the north and west have decorated windows. The tower features stylised loopholes, a plain frieze and modillion cornice. A cupola finial has sculpted gable pediments with clock faces.

A six-bay, two-storey south-west section has a shouldered arcade at ground floor with a ground floor cornice. The first floor has a giant arcade with plate tracery and central Corinthian columns with Doric responds, a modillion cornice and balustraded parapet.

The interior retains much of the original Renaissance detailed work in the public rooms.

The station itself was first completed in 1879 and extended between 1899 and 1905 to provide thirteen platforms. James Miller and engineer Donald Mathieson oversaw the extensions. The steel work was by the Motherwell Bridge and Engineering Company. Entry is from the north-east through arches from the porte-cochere. The train shed glazed roof is carried partly on flat roof trusses (in the older part) and partly on elliptical arched steel girders supported by riveted steel columns and a masonry wall on the Hope Street front. The station concourse contains finely detailed timber offices and shops with pilastered or semi-engaged columned walls. A cast-iron viaduct screen to the south-west and south-east, spanning the crossing over Argyle Street, sits on corbels with a Roman Ionic pilastrade and arched glazing bars.

The bridge was designed by Arrol and Company between 1899 and 1905. It is of steel construction with straight spans on channelled granite piers, each with five steel caisson foundations. Four transverse granite arches between piers support the track. Side spans on the embankment are included in the listing. Steel latticework railings complete the structure.

Remains of the former bridge lie to the east of the present bridge. This earlier bridge was designed by engineers Blyth and Cunningham and built by Arrol and Company between 1876 and 1878. It comprised granite drumpiers and cast-iron arches but was largely demolished between 1966 and 1967.