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Summary

Description

Clarke and Bell, 1892. First floor flat consisting of four rooms with small internal hall, parlour and bedroom to front and kitchen and bathroom at rear, situated to east of common stair within 4-storey plain bay-windowed tenement block on Buccleuch Street with return into Garnet Street. Formerly domestic use, now National Trust for Scotland property.

Largely complete and little altered late 19th century interior scheme in place (seen 2014). Timber panelled doors throughout; foliate plasterwork in parlour; original marble and cast-iron chimneypieces with decorative tiled insets in place; original cast-iron range, timber coal bunker in low cupboard in kitchen; sink with wringer. Closet with original bed off parlour; bed recess with original bed in recess off kitchen. Bathroom with original sanitary fittings.

Statement of Special Interest

The first floor flat (Flat 1/2) at 145 Buccleuch Street is part of a tenement block designed by the eminent Glasgow practice Clarke & Bell and built in 1892. While the exterior of the tenement itself is not of particular note, the interior of Flat 1/2 is an excellent example of a late 19th century scheme designed for lower middle class occupants. The layout is standard for a tenement of this period in Glasgow. However, its outstanding significance lies in the fact that its interior is almost completely unaltered. It retains its original layout and almost all its original fittings, including fitted beds in recesses off the kitchen and parlour, kitchen range, coal bunker and sink and the original sanitary ware in the bathroom.

During the 19th century Glasgow was in the throes of vigorous industrial and commercial expansion. The size of the city quadrupled between 1850 and 1925 when its population peaked at 1,396,000. The existing housing stock came under huge pressure and to meet this demand a large number of new tenements were built both by the City authorities (after the first City Improvement Act in 1866) and by speculative builders. The Tenement House falls into the latter category. Largely speaking the speculative building boom continued with 1000 annual completions until the 1911 'People's Budget' made speculative building unprofitable for builders and landlords alike.

The whole large block in which this flat is situated stretches to Garnet Street and was built speculatively by the wright and builder James Ferguson. Number 145 was the first section to be completed in September 1892. However Ferguson was unable to raise the finances to complete the project (he required £13,000 to pay for the building and was unable to raise more than £9,000) and number 145 was sold to the coal master, Dugald McCorkingdale for £2,200. The house was finally purchased from his trustees in the mid-20th century.

This tenement was designed by the architectural firm Clarke and Bell of Glasgow which was a long-running and distinguished practice which undertook a wide range of work. However, the practice did not undertake commissions for many tenement designs and so this block is unusual among their oeuvre. The practice, established in the 1840s, was involved with a number of large commercial buildings, schools and large city centre warehouses by the 1890s.

It is clear that this tenement was middle class, its early occupants being tradespeople, skilled manual workers and clerks. The costs of building were relatively high in comparison with similar blocks of the same period and this may be accounted for by the provision of good quality interior fittings such as the marble chimneypiece and good plasterwork. For this type of tenement bathrooms in each flat were clearly always intended as it was built before the 1892 Police Burgh Scotland Act, which made it mandatory for landlords to provide indoor toilets, came into force in 1893.

It is the interior of Flat 1/2 which is of particular interest. The other flats in the tenement were not considered of special interest at the time of listing.

References

Bibliography

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