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Summary

Description

James Miller, 1903-06; additions and alterations Gillespie, Kidd and Coia, 1949. Scots Renaissance university department building. 2-, 3- and 4-storey; asymmetrical plan. Squared, snecked Giffnock sandstone, polished ashlar dressings.

MATERIA MEDICA: E block: entrance block; free-standing gateway to lower level (see below), balustraded parapet to steps, architraved, strapwork pedimented entrance. Giant Ionic pilasters rising through 2 floors above with crowning balustraded parapet with sculpted panel; irregular fenestration, coped gable with date panel (1906) to left. Plain 2 x 4-bay E block advanced with blank N wall framed by Ionic pilasters. 10-bay W extension with large 4-light ground floor windows, tripartite above, parapet with raised dies; plain westernmost bays framed by Ionic pilasters 5-bay return with segmental gables.

PHYSIOLOGY BUILDING: low level entrance with strapwork pediment; regular 12-pane glazing in 7 windows above surmounted by balustrade; recessed section with short open colonnade surmounted by balustrade; advanced, single storey section to W with windows framed by pilasters, upper floors set back with segmental crenellations; short low battlemented section with later roof. W elevation: crow-stepped gable flanked by pepper-pot turrets, gable geometric window lower W building surmounted by aediculed cupola; polygonal turret. Rear elevation to S: curving section at SW: giant aediculed window: 4-storey, 8-bay section with giant Ionic pilasters rising through 3rd and 4th floors, regular window arrangement recessed, plain 4-bay section; 2-bay advanced coped gable section with oriel at 4th floor.

2-, 4- and 6-light sash and case windows with stone mullions and transoms and glazing bars. Grey-blue Westmoreland slate roofs.

INTERIOR: (public spaces seen 2010). Panelled timber dado to corridors and stair hall; granolithic floor; cast and wrought iron balusters to stairs; brass handles to 2-leaf panelled and architraved laboratory doors; ceilings lowered in many areas; plain moulded plaster cornices where original ceilings visible.

ENTRANCE GATEWAY: Doric-columned pedestrian gateway with strapwork pediment and urn finials to N.

Statement of Special Interest

The West Medical Building is a fine example of purpose-built medical laboratories and departmental facilities by the noted Glasgow architect, James Miller. The design is well detailed in Scots Renaissance style with an asymmetrical plan form. The building is detailed in pale buff snecked Gifnock sandstone.

Miller won a number of important competitions, including those for the Glasgow International Exhibition and Glasgow Royal Infirmary in 1901, the Materia Medica & Physiology Building for the University of Glasgow in 1903, the Bombay Museum (unbuilt) in 1908 and the Gleneagles Hotel in 1913. As a result of these and other successful commissions, Miller built up a large architectural practice with offices in Glasgow and London specialising in railway, medical and bank buildings.

£75,000 was raised through the University's Ninth Jubilee Appeal for the construction of a new faculty building for Physiology, Materia Medica (pharmacology), Forensic Medicine and Public Health. The Prince and Princess of Wales opened the building on 23 April 1907.

Miller took advantage of the slope on this prominent site to break up the composition of the large building into smaller units of differing heights. The strapwork pediments are reminiscent of features of the mid 17th-century University of Glasgow buildings in the High Street, whilst the leaded dome at the west end of the building is more late 17th-century Baroque in character. The Wolfson Link (Holmes Partnership, 1996) and Davidson Building (Keppie, Henderson & Partners, 1963) adjoin to the east.

Formerly listed as '1H Gilmorehill, University Of Glasgow, Materia Medica And Physiology Building'.

List description updated as part of review of the University of Glasgow Hillhead Campus, 2011. The building number is derived from the University of Glasgow Main Campus Map (2007), as published on the University's website www.gla.ac.uk.

References

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