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• Type

  Map

  Title

  Map for City Sawmills Former Office Building excluding later 20th century addition at north, 124 Craighall Road, Glasgow (LB52614)

  Download(https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/document/600033878)

Summary

Description

124 Craighall Road is a two-storey, eight-bay, rectangular-plan former sawmill office building in red brick, fronting a principal road through Port Dundas, a largely industrial area to the north of Glasgow city centre. The building was designed in 1893 by George Bell II of Clarke and Bell Architects.

The ground floor of the principal entrance (west) elevation has wide shallow-arched windows recessed within shallow brick pilasters and sandstone cills. There is a timber panelled entrance door to the second bay from the right and a bricked up former entrance to the far left bay. The first floor has paired windows with a continuous sandstone cill band course and shallow corbelled brick dentils to the broad eves band course. There are glazed bricks to the first floor window surrounds and some doorways. The rear (east) elevation has a door at the outer right bay of the ground floor but otherwise largely mirrors the design of the west elevation. The opening to the left of the door at the ground floor has been infilled with brick, as have two of the windows on the first floor. The two-bay south elevation has later 20^th century brick facing and a central doorway. A later 20^th century brick building adjoins the former office at the north elevation.

The building has a piended slate roof and large corniced brick chimney ridge stack to the north. The eastern pitch has rooflights, two of which are cut in to form windows. The ground floor windows have four-pane timber sashes with patterned margined glazing to the upper arches and the first floor paired brick mullioned windows are plate glass timber sash and case.

The interior retains a number of late 19^th century features including a turned open staircase with arched panelled frieze and coloured glazed section. The entrance lobby has a mosaic tiled floor and the public hallways have diamond pattern parquetry to dado height. Three of the first floor meeting rooms have panelling to dado height, parquetry edged floors and detailed art nouveau style fireplaces with coloured brick tiles. The timber architraves are stepped with fluted pilaster details, and the timber doors have a detailed panelled pattern design. The first floor corridor has panelled and opaque glass panels to the former office rooms.

Historical development

The Port Dundas area developed between 1786 and 1790 on high ground over Glasgow as the terminus of the Forth and Clyde Canal (Glasgow Branch - Scheduled Monument SM6771). Through the early 19^th century, the area evolved into a vibrant industrial area including engineering, sugar and distilling. There were several sawmills serviced by the large timber seasoning basin which was located opposite the former office building on the west side of Craighall Road.

The first edition Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1857, published 1860) shows Rockvilla Sawmills to the north of the basin and two large buildings that formed the City Sawmills between the basin and Craighall Road. The Ordnance Survey name book of 1858 describes the City Sawmills as "A large sawmill on the west side of Craighall Road".

The City Sawmills was founded by Mr James Brownlee in 1848 and the business grew rapidly such that in 1870 it expanded into the 14 acres of land on the east side of Craighall Road (see Glasgow West). The earlier Rockvilla Sawmill (Dunn and Co.) was taken into its ownership around this time. The City Sawmills was the largest firm of timber merchants in Scotland, and their shipments of timber formed a major part of the Forth & Clyde Canal trade. James Brownlee died in 1890 and the City Sawmills' reputation was so great that when it was set up as a public company the purchase of shares was heavily oversubscribed.

The Dictionary of Scottish Architects records that the former office building was designed in 1893 by architects Clarke and Bell presumably shortly after it was made a public company. It was built at a cost of £3000 (Hume) and first appears on the 2^nd edition Ordnance Survey Map (surveyed 1894, published 1896).

In 1914 "Brownlee and Co, timber merchants and sawmillers" owned two further sawmill sites at Kilmarnock Sawmills, and the Caledonian Sawmills in Grangemouth (Graces Guide). The firm had 500 employees and were importers of both American and Baltic timber as well as manufacturers of windows, doors, architraves, mouldings and other finishes.

The Brownlee company ceased trading in 1968 and the majority of the sawmill buildings on the site were cleared around 1990. It is likely the single storey entrance block attached to the south of the former office building at 124 Craighall Road was demolished around the same time as the wider site was cleared. The building was later taken over by a Glasgow jeweller and some internal partitions appear to date from this use in the late 1970s or 1980s.

A brick range was added to the north gable of the building in the late 20^th century.

Statement of Special Interest

124 Craighall Road, Glasgow meets the criteria of special architectural or historic interest for the following reasons:

• It is a good surviving example of a late 19^th century industrial office building.
• There is special design interest in the use of industrial brick with a high degree of detailing. The interior retains quality decorative timber finishes to walls, floors and fireplaces.
• The exceptional quality of the timber finishes reflects the building's association with the historic timber trade, one of the largest of its kind in the United Kingdom in the late 19^th century.
• It is the only surviving building of a once vast timber yard in North Glasgow, and its location near the canal and is of historic interest.
• It is an important reminder of the city's industrial past and in particular its historic association with the timber trade in Glasgow.

In accordance with Section 1 (4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 the following are excluded from the listing: later 20^th century addition at north.

Architectural interest:

Design

The Glasgow based architectural practice of Clarke and Bell (1841 to 1903) were renowned for high quality works in different building types from large public buildings to churches and business premises. George Bell II (1854-1915) became partner in 1880 and continued to design prominent buildings for the practice including the former warehouse at 42-50 (even nos) Gordon Street, Glasgow (listed category B, LB33032).

The elevations of the former office block at 124 Craighall Road incorporate various brick detailing including the use of polychromatic bricks, glazed bricks and recessed details. Classical style architectural features are created through the careful use of recessed brick details including the pilasters around the ground floor windows and corbelled brick dentils at the first floor. The quality of the detailing on these elevations reflects the function of the building as the principal office and entrance of a large a firm at the height of their business.

The interior floorplan remains legible as a late 19^th century office and has a detailed entrance stairway, public meeting rooms and a corridor of office rooms reflecting its business function. The interior decorative scheme retains variety of high-quality timber decorative details which advertised the building's status as the office block of a nationally recognised timber merchants. The features in the former public meeting rooms include multi-panel doors with ornate architraves, carved fireplaces and unusually decorative wood veneer parquetry on both dado panelling and office floors.

Apart from the removal of the single storey entrance section at the south, the building is substantially unaltered since the late 19^th century. It retains its form (both in plan and elevations), openings and significant amount of late 19^th century fabric including what appears to be its original windows and glazing pattern.

The former office block is a good surviving example of a late 19^th century industrial office building that retains good quality detailing to the exterior and interior and a high level of authenticity.

Setting

124 Craighall Road is prominently located fronting the main access road which forms the central route from the centre of Glasgow north through Port Dundas, in what was once an important centre of trade set around the canal.

The immediate late 19^th century industrial setting of the former sawmill office has been altered with the loss of the associated sawmill works buildings and the infill of the former timber basin to the southwest. In the building's wider setting, the listed former warehouses and Sugar Refinery at Spiers Wharf (Wheatsheaf Building, listed category C, LB44112; 40-50 Spiers Wharf, listed category B, LB33620), and scheduled Forth and Clyde Canal (SM6771) remain and contribute to the industrial character of the area.

Although the immediate setting of the former sawmill office has changed significantly, this building is the last remaining element of the once 14 acre City Sawmills site and retains a historic relationship with the canal which forms part of its wider setting.

Historic interest:

Age and rarity

Industrial office buildings were a common building type in Glasgow through the mid and later 19^th century however many have since been lost as industrial sites have been repurposed. Of those that survive a substantial number are significantly altered or lack distinguishing architectural detailing. The former office building at 124 Craighall Road is a good surviving example of a 19^th century industrial office building that retains high quality design details that reflect the sawmill industry for which it was built.

Sawmills typically filled a large area with both their buildings and timber storage yards. This former office building is the only remaining structure of the once large City Sawmills site and as such is an important survival, representing the former timber industry in the Port Dundas Forth and Clyde Canal area.

Social historical interest

Social historical interest is the way a building contributes to our understanding of how people lived in the past, and how our social and economic history is shown in a building and/or in its setting.

As described above in the 'Historical Background' section, The Port Dundas area in north Glasgow was an important industrial centre from the late 18^th to mid-20^th century. This area, adjacent to the Forth and Clyde canal, featured a concentration of sawmills that utilised the canal timber basin to the west of Craighall Road, now infilled.

The City Sawmills was the largest firm of timber merchants in Scotland in the late 19^th century and made a significant contribution to the trade on the Forth & Clyde Canal. While the majority of the sawmill works in the area have been lost, the office building at 124 Craighall Road is of social and economic interest through its association with Glasgow's sawmill industry and later 19^th to mid-20^th century Port Dundas. The design quality and finish of the customer facing office building continues to reflect the success of the company in the later 19^th century.

Association with people or events of national importance

James Brownlee (1813-1890) was born in Carluke and began work in a small millwright workshop. He travelled to Mississippi around 1840 with two brothers who together established a sawmill in New Orleans. James returned to Scotland in 1845. He investigated starting a mill in Ireland or France but favoured Glasgow where he felt developments in mechanisation were stronger.

Brownlee designed much of his own machinery and his innovations allowed the business to expand rapidly. He was an expert in heat and steam and in 1877 was awarded the Gold Medal of the Institute of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland for a paper on "The Action of Water When Flowing Through a Nozzle". He met weekly with other industrialists interested in science including James Thompson, professor of Engineering at Glasgow University, Robert Napier (ship designer), and the Bell Brothers (Shipping).

There is some interest in the association with this significant Glasgow industrialist of the later 19^th century however this is not of national importance.

References

Bibliography

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