11 Nelson Mandela Place, Glasgow

The Stock Exchange, located at 155-159 Buchanan Street in Glasgow, is an impressive commercial building designed by John Burnet between 1875 and 1877, with a western addition by Sir J J Burnet completed between 1894 and 1904. This Venetian Gothic structure features three and four stories, with modern shops occupying the ground floor. The original block consists of four by five bays, while the western addition is arranged in a three-one configuration, all constructed from polished ashlar stone and adorned with a deep geometric frieze on the first floor.

The eastern block, which is four by five bays, is organized with a one-three and four-one arrangement. It boasts a boldly arcaded ground and first floor supported by stylized columns and corner pilasters. The spandrels are decorated with sculpted roundels, and the tympana feature bipartite windows. The second floor has continuous fenestration behind the arcade, enhanced by sculpted colonnettes and panels in a blank frieze above. Notable figure sculptures are located at the northeast corner. The building has advanced entrance bays on the west and south sides, with a corbel arched balcony featuring sculpted figure stops at the southeast entrance and a single column supporting a corbelled table at the northwest.

The building is topped with a continuous elaborately bracketted cornice and a parapet that is pierced before the windows. It features three bipartite arched dormers with finials facing Buchanan Street, one dormer on Nelson Mandela Place, and larger dormers with balconies over the entrance bays. The gable is coped and topped with a finial, and there are two bipartite windows with a circular window above in the northeast bay. The slate roofs vary in height and pitch.

On the northern side facing Nelson Mandela Place, the three eastern bays feature a tall arcade on the first floor with slim colonnettes extending through the first and second floors, complemented by a geometric frieze and a bracketted cornice. The outer western bay has a single window, with an arcaded first floor supported by coupled colonnettes and slim colonnettes. The segmental heads rise through the second and third floors, and there is a corbelled balcony before aedicule windows with tracery similar to the northeast block. An additional narrow western bay has similar detailing, including a corbelled balcony at the first floor window.