Electricity Substation, Flemington Road and Ringford Street

An early municipal electricity substation built in 1906 with a 1918 addition, located beside the former North British Locomotive Company administration building (now Flemington House) in Springburn.

The 1906 section is constructed from red engineering brick. Its principal north elevation features squared recesses with chamfered ashlar cills. At the roofline sits a moulded ashlar cornice and a capped parapet. A large round-arched entrance with timber doors is flanked by two tall and narrow window openings, currently blocked as of 2025. A brick pilaster divides a further similar recessed opening to the right. Brick panel recesses continue along the Ringford Street elevation. Metal flashings cover the parapet and grey slate roof. A pair of brick gatepiers adjoin at the northeast corner angle; the entrance here is currently blocked as of 2025.

The interior contains high-level iron beams supporting an integrated overhead fish-bellied travelling crane. The piended roof features a wrought iron tie-and-beam supporting structure.

The 1918 addition fronting Ringford Street is smaller in scale, constructed with a reinforced concrete frame and red brick infill. Its frontage also displays a moulded ashlar cornice and chamfered cills, with a brick parapet and recessed doorway. Interior sections feature white glazed brick walls with some polychromatic banding. The upper floor has a cut-out section near the entrance. Most electrical equipment has been removed from the 1918 addition, which is not currently in use as a distribution substation as of 2025.

Historical context:

Glasgow was among the first authorities in Scotland to provide public electricity supply following an Act of Parliament in 1890. A Corporation Electricity Department was established in 1896, and a full-scale electric power station was built at Port Dundas in 1898 to designs by Andrew Myles. The first turbo-alternators, installed in 1904, required outlying substations that housed rotary equipment converting high voltage alternating current to lower voltage direct current for distribution to consumers.

The earliest such substations, including this example at Flemington Street, were large buildings designed with a degree of ornament to reflect their prominent urban locations. The 1906 substation appears on the 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey Map (revised 1909) beside the former North British Locomotive Company offices (1907-09).

Distribution substations became much smaller and more utilitarian before the introduction of the National Grid in the late 1920s, due to rapid technological advances reducing equipment size and increasing output, the need for economy, and the growing number of substations required to meet expanding electricity demand.

Additions were made to the rear in 1918 to accommodate more powerful converter machinery. The two sections were originally detached by a narrow passage, likely an early fire precaution. They were linked by a single-storey extension in 1935.

The substation was photographed in 1966 by industrial historian Professor John R Hume, along with other similar examples in Glasgow that have since been demolished. The 1906 building remains in use as an electrical substation. The 1918 section is no longer operational and currently houses only a staff room on the upper floor as of 2025.