Kibble Palace, Botanic Gardens, 703 Great Western Road, Glasgow is a Grade A listed building in the Glasgow City local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 15 December 1970. Greenhouse.

Kibble Palace, Botanic Gardens, 703 Great Western Road, Glasgow

WRENN ID
shadowed-window-fog
Grade
A
Local Planning Authority
Glasgow City
Constituency
Glasgow North MP: Martin Rhodes (Lab)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
15 December 1970
Type
Greenhouse
OS grid reference
NS 569 674
Coordinates
55.87886, -4.28841
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

Kibble Palace is a significant winter garden located in the Botanic Gardens on Great Western Road in Glasgow. Originally built between 1863 and 1866 at Coulport, Loch Long, it was moved to its current location and enlarged in 1873. The structure features a low ashlar base course and is constructed from cast and wrought iron, with glass forming a parabolic and domed shape, resembling a keyhole in plan.

On the south elevation, there is a centrally placed entrance porch with two pedimented timber doors. A long gallery extends to the south at right angles to the main conservatory, which features a centrally placed drum topped with a hemispherical dome and cupola. This dome is supported internally by a ring girder and barley sugar cast-iron columns, which have foliate capitals and elaborate brackets. An arched passage leads into the main conservatory, which has a diameter of 150 feet and is spanned by a saucer-shaped dome with a cupola. This dome is also supported by two rings of columns similar to those found in the drum.

Inside the conservatory, there are nine marble statue groups, including "King Robert of Sicily" by G H Paulin, "Cain" by Roscoe Mullins, "Eve" by Scipione Tadolini, "Ruth" by Giovanni Ciniselli, "Nubian Slave" by A Rossetti, "The Elf" by Sir Goscombe John, "Stepping Stones" by W Thorneycroft, "The Sisters" by Bethany of Warrington Wood, and "Oriental Slave" by Scipione Tadolini.

Local climate

Kibble Palace, Botanic Gardens, 703 Great Western Road, Glasgow sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,290 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 94% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 83% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 56 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 95% of listed buildings. Of these, 32 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.2°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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