Baltic Chambers, 40-60 Wellington Street, Glasgow

Baltic Chambers, located at 40-60 Wellington Street in Glasgow, is a five-storey and attic commercial building designed by Duncan McNaughtan between 1897 and 1899. This Free Classical structure features a polished red ashlar façade and measures 10 bays by 13 bays, with facetted corner bays at the southeast and northeast.

The building has a splayed basement course and the ground floor showcases arched and flat-headed windows with Gibbs surrounds and sculpted keyblocks. There are two entrances with broken segmental pediments at Nos 40 and 60 Wellington Street, both featuring sculpted tympana. The main entrance at No 50 is marked by a richly carved arch and a modillion cornice, leading into a barrel-vaulted vestibule. Above the vestibule, a frieze displays relief lettering that reads "BALTIC CHAMBERS." The ground floor is capped with a cornice.

On the first floor, 2-light windows with Ionic column mullions are prominent in the main elevation. The canted angle bays are corbelled above the ground floor and rise to the fifth floor. The central section, which is three bays wide, is linked at the second floor by a continuous cill band supported by sculpted brackets. The first floor features both 2 and 1-light windows, while the canted outer windows extend from the second to the fourth floors. The extreme outer bays on the north and south are narrow with keyblocked, corniced windows. The third floor includes corniced windows of 1, 2, and 3 lights, with round-headed windows in the outer bays adorned with sculpted dripmoulds. A modillion cornice is interrupted by a solid parapet on consoles in the central bays, and square-headed, architraved corniced dormers in the central section are topped with barley-sugar columned aedicules.

The corner bays feature pilastered windows on the first floor and a bold cornice on sculpted consoles. The second floor has 2-light corniced windows, while the third floor includes 2-light stone transomed, keyblocked, corniced windows with balconies. A sculpted frieze is present on the fourth floor, and the building is topped with a polygonal roof featuring a bold cornice, an open fretwork roof lantern, and a spire.

The elevation facing Cadogan Street has similar detailing but is greatly simplified, featuring a segmentally-pedimented entrance with a Gibbs surround at 3 Cadogan Street. The elevation to Holm Street mirrors that of Cadogan Street, with an arched ground floor.