Description
The building is a purpose built drill hall, built around 1920 with some partial demolitions to the rear and later 20th century alterations to the west gable. The building is a largely symmetrical 2-storey, 5-bay rendered brick building in an Arts and Crafts style. The principal (south) elevation has a central 3-storey advanced entrance bay with a crowstepped pediment. This entrance bay is flanked by a single bays with red sandstone Dutch gable style dormers and rounded corner bays with conical lead roofs. The first floor overhangs slightly with a dentilled detail forming a string course. The side elevations are gabled with irregular window patterns and the rear elevation has first floor windows. There is a later 20th century stair tower addition on the west gable elevation.
The windows are multi-pane glazing patterns in timber sash and case frames and there are timber entrance doors. The slate roofs have overhanging eaves and cast iron rainwater goods and the conical roofs are made of lead with thistle finials.
There is a pair of rendered brick circular gatepiers with conical stone cappings. The railings are plain and later 20th century.
The interior of the building was seen in 2015, and the internal room plan layout appears largely unaltered with a hall space to the rear of the upper floor. A ground floor room has a panelled timber fireplace. The original stair was removed in the 1980s and replaced by a later external stair tower to the west elevation, and there is also a plain timber stair to the attic floor.
Statement of Special Interest
Built during or shortly after the end of the First World War, at a time when few new drill halls were constructed, the Auldhouse Road drill hall is a rare example of its building type for its date. Unusually it is designed in an Arts and Crafts style with distinctive detailing to the principal elevation, such as the paired conical roofed turrets, the dentilled string course and the shaped dormer windows. It is a prominent building in this residential area of Glasgow because it stands on its own on the edge of a public park.
The exact date of construction and the architect of this drill hall not known. The building first appears on the Ordnance Survey Map of 1934 but is not shown on the previous Ordnance Survey map that was surveyed in 1911. Osborne in his book, Always Ready, records a drill hall in Pollockshaws in 1914 as the base for "H" Company, 6th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
The 1934 Ordnance Survey map shows the building was twice its current size, suggesting that when it was built there was a large main hall area to the rear which has since been demolished. This would have followed the typical layout for a drill hall. There is a separate rifle range in the garden ground to the rear, which was built in the 1970s and it is likely that the former hall was demolished at this time. The building remains in military use, with shared usage between the Army Cadet Force to the ground floor and the Air Training Corps to the upper floor.
In the late 1850s there was concern in the British Government about the Army's ability to defend both the home nation as well as the Empire. Britain's military defences were stretched and resources to defend Britain needed to be found. One solution was to create 'Volunteer Forces', a reserve of men who volunteered for part-time military training similar to that of the regular army and who could therefore help to defend Britain if the need arose.
In 1859 the Rifle Volunteer Corps was formed and the Volunteer Act of 1863 provided more regulation on how the volunteer forces were run and it set out the standards for drills and a requirement for annual inspections. Most purpose-built drill halls constructed at this time were paid for by a major local landowner, the subscriptions of volunteers, local fundraising efforts or a combination of all three. The Regulations of the Forces Act 1871 (known as the Cardwell Reforms after the Secretary of State for War, Edward Cardwell) gave forces the legal right to acquire land to build a drill hall and more purpose-built drill halls began to be constructed after this date. The largest period of drill hall construction, aided by government grants, took place between 1880 and 1910. The Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907 (known as the Haldane Reforms after the Secretary of State for War, Richard Haldane) came into force in 1908 and the various Volunteer Units were consolidated to form the Territorial Force. The construction of drill halls largely ceased during the First World War and in 1920 the Territorial Force became the Territorial Army. Very few drill halls were constructed in the interwar period.
In the 20th century changes in warfare and weaponry made many of the earlier drill halls redundant and subject to demolition or change to a new use. Around 344 drill halls are believed to have been built in Scotland of which 182 are thought to survive today, although few remain in their original use. Drill halls are an important part of our social and military history. They tell us much about the development of warfare and the history of defending our country. They also, unusually for a nationwide building programme, were not standardised and were often designed by local architects in a variety of styles and they also have a part to play in the history of our communities.
The requirements for drill halls were basic – a large covered open space to train and drill as well as a place for the secure storage of weapons. The vast majority of drill halls were modest utilitarian structures. Most drill halls conformed to the pattern of an administrative block containing offices and the armoury to store weapons along with a caretaker or drill instructors accommodation, usually facing the street. To the rear would be the drill hall itself. Occasionally more extensive accommodation was required, such as for battalion headquarters where interior rifle ranges, libraries, billiards rooms, lecture theatres and bars could all be included.
Statutory address and listed building record revised in 2016 as part of the Drill Halls Listing Review 2015-16. Previously listed as '230 Auldhouse Road including gatepiers'.