Phoenix Assurance Building, 78 St Vincent Street, Glasgow is a Grade B listed building in the Glasgow City local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 15 December 1970. Commercial building. 13 related planning applications.
Phoenix Assurance Building, 78 St Vincent Street, Glasgow
- WRENN ID
- forgotten-entrance-candle
- Grade
- B
- Local Planning Authority
- Glasgow City
- Constituency
- Glasgow North MP: Martin Rhodes (Lab)
- Country
- Scotland
- Date first listed
- 15 December 1970
- Type
- Commercial building
- Address
- Phoenix Assurance Building, 78 St Vincent Street, Glasgow, G2 5TX
- OS grid reference
- NS 589 654
- Coordinates
- 55.86152, -4.25541
- Source
- Historic Environment Scotland listing
Description
The Phoenix Assurance Building, located at 78 St Vincent Street in Glasgow, was designed by Alex D Hislop of Campbell and Hislop and constructed between 1912 and 1913. This modern classical building, influenced by American styles, stands eight stories tall and features a three by five bay commercial layout. It is constructed of ashlar stone with granite columns.
The ground and first floors showcase a giant order of semi-engaged fluted Doric columns in antis, with metal infill panels. The entrance on St Vincent Street is framed by an architrave, with paneling above and a stylized cornice topped with a sculpted wreath. The frieze includes sculpted crests at the corners, and there are sculpted ornaments of a phoenix at the angles. The windows are architraved and feature geometric glazing bars.
On the second floor, the windows alternate between segmental and triangular pediments. The third floor has a cill band adorned with rosettes, while the fourth floor windows are framed with lugged architraves. The sixth floor windows are set within a frieze that includes continuous panels and guttae. The building is topped with a mutule cornice and a parapet that features attic windows breaking through.
Local climate
Phoenix Assurance Building, 78 St Vincent Street, 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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- Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 13 applications
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
Similar buildings
The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.
- 1 Bank Of Scotland, 110, 120 St Vincent Street, Glasgow
- 2 Royal Bank Building, 140, 142 St Vincent Street, Glasgow
- 3 Metropolitan Vickers Offices, 74 Waterloo Street, Glasgow
- 4 Savings Bank Of Scotland, 93 St Vincent Street, Glasgow
- 5 Liverpool And London And Globe Insurance Buildings, 125, 127 St Vincent Street, Glasgow
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- 60 West Nile Street, 58, Glasgow
- 102, 104 St Vincent Street, Glasgow