8 University Gardens, Glasgow

This is a substantial, late 19th-century terrace of townhouses, built between 1882 and 1896 by John James Burnet of Burnet, Son and Campbell, with a later kitchen outhouse added at No. 7 in 1905 by Campbell Douglas & Paterson. The terrace comprises 26 bays and a further section of 8 bays at Nos. 9 and 10. The overall style is Renaissance.

The building is three storeys and has an attic. The prominent features include canted bays at the 1st, 15th, and 26th bays. Each entrance is accessed by a short flight of steps with corniced parapet walls. The ground floor is battered, and there is a continuous cill band. A balustraded balcony runs along the first floor, with projecting, balustraded canted bay windows in the 5th, 7th, 12th, and 13th bays. A corbelled turret rises the full height of the easternmost bay, featuring plain narrow windows and a glazed attic level with three- and four-light windows, each section separately roofed. First-floor windows are keyblocked, with pediments and broken pediments in the main canted bays. The second-floor windows are simpler, with aprons, and are arranged in tripartite groups above the first-floor bay windows. A modillion cornice tops the building. Balustrades are positioned over the central bays.

Nos. 9 and 10 have a similar design but with simplified decoration and consist of eight bays. A shallow turret rises into the attic of the south side, with a polygonal roof and simple glazing. Dentilled oriel windows are located at the first floor in the 2nd and 7th bays from the south. Architraved and corniced paired entrances are found at Nos. 8 and 9. The kitchen outhouse at No. 7 has a segmentally pedimented half dormer to the rear. Sandstone and brick scullery wings extend to the rear of the terrace.

The roofs are slate-covered with gabled dormers, and corniced chimney stacks are present.

Interior features, noted during inspection in 1988, are numerous and largely original. These include fretwork cast-iron balusters, carved pendants, columns, a curved timber entrance hall with a chimneypiece, a marble staircase, leaded side lights, and stained glass at No. 2. No. 3 has coupled column entrance hall chimneypieces. No. 4 features an arched stair landing with coupled columns. No. 6 contains a first-floor bathroom lined with marble and fitted with marble fixtures. No. 7 has a carved stone entrance chimneypiece. Various elaborate timber chimneypieces are found throughout the terrace, and a figurative tiled fireplace is in a second-floor rear room. No. 8 has an Edwardian Baroque entrance hall chimneypiece, with a similar example at No. 9. No. 10 features a timber columned staircase.

Original boundary walls and piers with cushion caps flanked the entrances. Cast-iron railings are now missing. A decorative drum pier, inscribed “UNIVERSITY GARDENS” and “OUT”, is located at the eastern junction of University Avenue and University Gardens. A stepped garden wall with replacement railings, enclosing the garden fronting University Avenue, returns at the western junction and is inscribed “UNIVERSITY GARDENS” and “IN.”