Documents

Where documents include maps, the use of this data is subject to terms and conditions (https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/termsandconditions).

• Type

  Map

  Title

  Map for HMP Barlinnie, 81 Lee Avenue, Riddrie, Glasgow (LB52648)

  Download(https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/document/600041034)

Summary

Description

Purpose-built prison complex designed by the principal architect to the Scottish Prison Commission, Major General Thomas Bernard Collinson from 1880 and opened in 1882 with subsequent phases of early development up to 1908. The works dating from 1878 to 1888 were supervised by A. Macpherson, draughtsman and clerk of works to the Prison Commissioners for Scotland and the construction contractor was J. Meikle & Sons. The prison is located within the residential area of Riddrie to the northeast of Glasgow City centre.

The remainder of the prison site, the interior of the former infirmary and store, and all modern additions, are excluded from the listing (see Section 6. Legal exclusions).

There are five, four storey accommodation blocks, A, B, C, D and E halls, arranged in a parallel layout at the south of the prison site. They are built of light-coloured coursed sandstone with ashlar margins and quoins. Each hall features overhanging bracketed eaves and large round-arched windows to their gable ends. They each have small, rectangular plan projecting towers at the centre of their long side elevations which originally housed sanitary facilities. Each hall contains around 200 cells, with 50 cells to each floor.

A Hall, built in 1882 and B hall, built in 1883 both have pointed arched entrance porches at the north elevations with raised crown motif and 'A' and 'B' motifs above a round arched entrance with raised quoins and semi-circular fan lights. The elevations feature regularly-spaced, small rectangular window openings and string courses between floors. Their pitched roofs are slated with a central lightwell along the ridge and feature 13 pairs of evenly spaced stone ventilation chimneys.

C hall, built in 1887, and D hall, built in 1892, feature simple, shallow projecting entrance arches at the north elevation, features regularly-spaced, shallow-arched, window openings and string courses between floors. The roofs have later replacement sheet metal covering, six interspersed lightwells along the ridge and three pairs of large octagonal stone ventilation chimneys.

E hall was built in 1896 and has regularly-spaced, small rectangular window openings with flush semi-circular arch motifs above. It features a simple raised rectangular entrance with projecting cornice at north elevation. The roof has later replacement sheet metal covering, six interspersed apex rooflights and three pairs of square stone ventilation chimneys.

The interior of the halls, partially seen in 2024, comprise a corridor plan with floors of regularly spaced, shallow barrel vaulted cells opening off either side of the corridor. The floors are supported on curved iron brackets. The majority of cell doors have been replaced however a small number of 19^th century cell doors survive in A hall/ The interior of D hall has been altered with ceiling partitions between the floors and new stairs and railings.

A single storey, rectangular plan, former gatehouse, dating to 1887, is attached to the former northwestern boundary wall of the site. The external (western) elevation is built of ashlar sandstone and is designed in a Classical style featuring a large semi-circular arched opening with key stone, flanked by wide pilasters and topped by a projecting entablature section with an overhanging cornice. The opening has been filled in and is no longer in use. The internal (eastern) elevation is of coursed sandstone with ashlar margins and is of a simpler design, featuring a central shallow arched opening with rounded cope stones. Interior not seen in 2024.

A former infirmary and store dating to the 1890s are located immediately southeast of the former gatehouse. They are built of coursed sandstone with ashlar margins. The principal north elevation of the former infirmary is two storey, nine bay with an off centre, advanced pedimented bay with roundel to the pediment. Attached to the east is a two storey, five bay store with lower single bay addition at the east gable. It features round arch windows spanning two storeys interspersed with later small rectangular openings. The roofs are slated, with a central lightwell at the ridge of the former infirmary and full length lightwell across the ridge of the former store. The interior has been altered and is excluded from the listing (see Section 6, Legal exclusions).

Located between B and C Hall is a rectangular plan chapel completed in 1893 with a small projecting rectangular plan, pitch gabled apse at the south. The east and west elevations are seven-bays, with tall lancet windows interspaced by pinnacle buttresses. It is designed in a simple Gothic style with pointed arched windows with stone tracery and stained glass. It has a pitched slate roof with small bellcote at the north gable. The main entrance door (now accessed by a later covered walkway) is timber panelled with large decorative iron hinges. The interior features a timber roof with decorative trusses supported on stone corbels. There is an encaustic tile floor with a monochrome chequered central panel. The pews have been removed.

At the southeast of the site, to the east of E Hall, there is a single storey former work sheds building, completed in 1908. The building comprises four adjoining rectangular plan ranges with pitched roof spans. It is built of brick and covered in white painted render. The principal (northwest) elevation features coped gables with roundel openings to the centre. Internally, the iron roof structure remains exposed in some of the ranges, with some areas having later lowered ceilings and internal partitions. The pitched roofs of the ranges are covered with sheet metal.

A tall, coursed sandstone boundary wall with rounded copes, dating from the late 19^th century surrounds much of the southern section of the prison site. At the western perimeter, the wall extends south from the later 20^th century reception building round to the southern perimeter where it spans the length of the site from D Hall to A Hall. A section of wall of the former northern perimeter of 19^th century wall extends from the reception building east to the former gateway. Another section of the former 19^th century wall survives to the north of A Hall, with a large rectangular opening.

Historical development

The Prison Act of 1877 nationalised the prison system bringing all prisons in the UK under the control of the authority of the Home Secretary, rather than County Boards.

Under the 1877 Act police cells were legalised as places of imprisonment for up to 14 days, rendering some smaller local prisons redundant. The closure of many small prisons, leading to increasing centralisation, meant pressure on accommodation in the larger prisons. In the period between 1839 and 1862, the city of Glasgow saw seven of its prisons close leaving just the North Prison on Duke Street.

Increased pressure on prisons in the western district of Scotland, led to the recommendation for a new prison to be built outside of the city of Glasgow (Cameron, p. 155). The purpose of the new prison was to relieve pressure elsewhere, allowing the closure of inadequate local prisons at Campbeltown, Rothesay, Airdrie, Hamilton and Lanark. In 1879 a 32-and-a-half-acre site to the northeast of the city, that had been part of the farm of Barlinnie, was purchased. The architect and engineer to the Scottish Prison Department at the time, Major General Thomas Bernard Collinson, then drew up plans for the new prison. The Glasgow Evening Citizen reported that the original plans included four accommodation blocks which were four-stories high and could house 200 prisoners each (15 August 1882).

Construction of the new prison at Barlinnie began in 1880 with the prison opened in 1882 on completion of the first accommodation block, A Hall. Barlinnie was designed to be a legal place of detention for all descriptions of criminal prisoners, and an Order in Council in 1882 declared the prison to be a General Prison for Scotland. Demand for accommodation meant that building continued with each new block coming into use on completion.

Building continued through the 1880s with the former gate house, infirmary and store were completed. A governor's house was built to the south of the site as well as accommodation for a chaplain and doctor outside of the gate, all of which have since been demolished. In 1890 a link corridor between halls A, B and C was built. The fourth hall, D Hall was commissioned in 1892 and the Chapel was completed in 1893. In 1894 a new cell block, E Hall, was built to meet the sudden rises in the number of short-term prisoners at certain times of year such as Christmas and New Year (Cameron, p 155).

The outline of HMP Barlinnie is first shown on the 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey map (Revised (1892-1893), Published 1896). At this time the prison is shown in semi-rural location with some accommodation for prison staff shown immediately south of the prison boundary wall and the industrial site of Barlinnie Fireclay works to the north.

Plans provided of the site from around the 1930s (Scottish Prison Service) show the accommodation halls complete and linked by walkways, as well as the rectangular-plan work sheds built to the east of E Hall. By this time new facilities including a gymnasium and new office block adjacent to the gatehouse are also shown. The Ordnance Survey map NS6366SE (Revised 1967, Published 1968) shows additions made to the west and east of the work sheds.

A new female block was built in 1955 which later became the Special Unit accommodation from 1972 until 1994. The accommodation halls were modernised with concrete additions to the south of the halls to provide bathroom facilities in 1975. The perimeter of the site was extended to the north after the late 1960s, more than doubling the area of the prison site. A Segregation Unit was built between A Hall and E hall in 1983. Various alterations to modernise the facilities at the prison have taken place in the late 20th and early 21st century including the construction of a modern reception building at the northeast of the site including visiting areas and the fitting of the late 19th century prison cells with in-cell sanitation.

Statement of Special Interest

HMP Barlinnie meets the criteria of special architectural or historic interest for the following reasons:

• It is an outstanding example of a purpose-built prison complex in Scotland and is significant as the largest and most complete surviving example of its building type.
• The buildings reflect the latest developments in prison design following late 19^th century prison reform and are exceptionally important in the history of Scottish prison architecture.
• The majority of the various functional buildings of the late 19^th century prison design survive and retain their late 19^th to early 20^th century character.
• It is an early and very rare surviving example of a purpose-built prison in Scotland.
• In continual use since the 1880s, the buildings are of outstanding social historical interest for what they can tell us about changes in penal discipline and reform in Scotland from the late 19^th to 21^st century.
• For its place in the national consciousness as Scotland's largest and best-known prison.

In accordance with Section 1 (4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 the following are excluded from the listing: the interior of the former infirmary and store, all modern additions and all other structures at HMP Barlinnie, 81 Lee Avenue, Riddrie, Glasgow.

Architectural interest

Design

Barlinnie is the largest and most complete surviving example of a 19^th century prison in Scotland and is exceptionally important in the history of Scottish prison design.

The large parallel prison blocks constructed at HMP Barlinnie from 1880 display the influence of new prison design established in the UK from the 1870s. The prisons designed in Scotland after the 1877 Act do not have the overtly fortified and castellated architectural elements seen in earlier prisons. Barlinnie is designed in a simple and functional Classical style with the former gate house resembling a robust classical monument. The Gothic chapel with its delicate stone tracery within the pointed arched windows is the only building that deviates from this style, signifying its spiritual function. The late 19^th century prison buildings are built using sandstone with ashlar dressings and feature some distinctive detailing including the pedimented bay of the former infirmary and the entrance porches of A and B hall with their crown motifs. The overhanging bracketed eaves, large ventilation chimneys, small evenly spaced openings and large round-arched gable end windows of the accommodation halls are familiar architectural features used in mid to late 19^th prisons and unmistakably evidence their function.

Britain-wide reform movement in the late 18^th century saw the construction of the first purpose-built prisons with the design of buildings and their plan form considered key to facilitating a strict disciplinary system that sought to punish and reform the prisoner. The late 18^th to mid-19^th century had seen a preference for radial plan forms in purpose-built prisons in Scotland, with cells or halls arranged in a semi-circular plan around a viewing corridor or tower to allow for surveillance and separation of prisoners. A semi-circular plan-form was used at the former Edinburgh Bridewell on Calton Hill designed in 1791 by Robert Adam (demolished) and in the crescent shaped observation block at Perth Prison of 1839-42 by Thomas Brown (Listed Building Reference: LB39331).

The prisons built in Scotland in the last quarter of the 19^th century, following the 1877 Act, differed from the preceding prison buildings. Whilst some of the changes towards a preference for large, parallel accommodation blocks were the result of a simple need for greater accommodation, the designs can also be seen to follow the influential new prison of Wormwood Scrubs, London, 1874-1891.

Designed by Edmund du Cane, chairman of the newly established National Prison Commission, Wormwood Scrubs prison was arranged in parallel blocks linked by covered passages on what is called a 'telegraph-pole' plan. This layout, which dispensed with the radial model favoured in the 1830s and 40s is said to be based on that of European hospitals built after the Crimean War which were designed for effective air circulation and were oriented north-south to allow sunlight into each room. HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs was the first prison to use the Telegraph Pole layout, which was influential in prison management and prisoner welfare. It also provided a range of support for prisoners, including workshops, a hospital, and recreational and spiritual facilities. The large parallel prison blocks constructed at HMP Barlinnie from 1880 clearly display the influence of this new prison design with linking corridors added in 1890. Barlinnie also incorporated a hospital, chapel and workshops.

While other examples of prisons designed in the 1880s in Scotland including the former Calton Prison, Edinburgh (demolished) used parallel, freestanding accommodation blocks oriented north-south, the design of HMP Barlinnie most closely aligned to the 'telegraph-pole' plan. It is of outstanding significance as the largest and most complete surviving example of this new style of prison in Scotland built following the reforms of the 1877 Act.

HMP Barlinnie was designed by Major General Thomas Bernard Collinson (1821-1902) who began his career as a naval surveyor. Following his retirement from the navy in 1873 he accepted the post of architect to the Scottish Prison Commission around 1880. HMP Barlinnie was the first of three prisons he designed, followed by additions to Calton Prison in Edinburgh (now demolished) in 1881 and HMP Dumfries (Listed Building reference: LB26346) in 1883.

In continuous use since the late 19^th century, Barlinnie prison has expanded in the 20^th and 21^st centuries and alterations and modernisations have taken place. It is significant however that the majority of the early prison buildings including the halls, chapel, hospital, workshops, gate house and sections of boundary wall, survive and retain their historic character as imposing, late 19^th and early 20^th century institutional structures.

Small sections of the linking corridors between A, B, and E halls survive although there has been infill of buildings such as the addition of the segregation until between A hall and E Hall in the early 1980s. The 19^th century boundary walls of the prison have also been extended and rebuilt in some areas however the sections that survive allow us to understand the original boundary of the prison and the layout of the core group of late 19^th to early 20^th century prison buildings within this.

The interiors of the accommodation halls were designed with a full height central atrium, with the cells accessed by walkways supported on brackets. These walkways were accessed by stairs at the end of the hall. The gallery arrangement survives in the interiors of 'A', 'B', 'C' and 'E' halls. The central atrium of D hall has been covered over to each floor, creating a corridor plan, however, as will the other four halls, the cells survive with their 19^th century dimensions. The majority of cell doors have been replaced in all of the halls with a small number of late 19^th century cell doors surviving in A Hall.

Setting

When HMP Barlinnie was built in the later 19^th century, the site was located at the northeastern fringes of the city of Glasgow surrounded mainly by farmland and some industrial sites. A report of the opening of the prison in the Glasgow Evening Citizen, of August 1882 described the prison as standing on an a 'green acclivity' and having a 'massive, imposing aspect, and can be seen, in all directions, from a considerable distance'. The semi-rural setting of the 19^th century has been altered with the expansion of Glasgow, and the development of the surrounding area of Riddrie with housing from around the 1920s. The site is now surrounded by residential development to the south, east and west, with the M8 motorway to the immediate north. The prison however remains distinctive as a feature in the skyline of the area of Riddrie and in views from M8 motorway to the north where the row of five halls with their paired ventilation chimneys are visible.

In the immediate setting, while the site has been expanded to the north in the later 20^th century, a substantial amount of the original late 19^th century boundary wall survives.

The group of surviving late 19^th to early 20^th century prison buildings within this boundary form a coherent related group and remain clearly readable as institutional buildings contributing to the significance of the site.

Historic interest

Age and rarity

HMP Barlinnie is of outstanding historic interest as an early and rare surviving example of a purpose-built prison in Scotland. It is the largest prison in Scotland and the best surviving example of a prison built following the reforms of the Prison Act 1877.

The Prison Act of 1877 brought prisons under the authority of the Home Secretary, rather than County Boards, and this arrangement lasted until the Criminal Justice Act of 1948. HMP Barlinnie was the first new prison built in Scotland following the Prison Act in 1877. It was built to relieve pressure on prison accommodation in Glasgow and the west of Scotland following the closure of a number of local prisons. Ambitious in scale, the new prison was designed to have over 800 cells, increasing to 1000 when E hall was completed in 1896, and it was reported that, when complete, could house a third of all the prison population in Scotland (Edinburgh Evening Dispatch, 21 February 1888).

Prisons as purpose-built structures did not come into being in the United Kingdom until the 1770s. Until this time, imprisonment as a punishment was not the norm. Prisoners were usually incarcerated for short periods of time before corporal or capital punishment was carried out or they were transported to America or Australia or, in the case of debtors, they paid their debts. In Scotland the local tolbooth often served as the place of temporary detainment and such prisons were run by the burgh.

John Howard (1726-90), one of the most well-known of the prison reformers, visited Scotland and Ireland as part of his tours of prisons throughout the United Kingdom in the 1770s and 1780s. Howard was key in instigating nationwide reform efforts with the publication of his book 'The State of the Prisons in England and Wales' (1777).

Generally, prisons of the 18^th century followed a congregate system where prisoners were kept together unsegregated throughout the day and night. Howard and other reformers condemned this practice as producing moral contamination and corruption. Howard advised that alongside implementing healthier practices of ventilation and the employment of paid gaolers that prisoners should be divided by classes and housed in separate yards. It was increasingly believed that different kinds of prisoners corrupted each other and hence that prisoners of different age, sex and type of crime should be kept apart. Howard and early investigators played a significant role in instigating reform by bringing to public attention the state of prisons throughout the country. Their recommendations regarding health, classification and inspection formed the basis for the reforms and legislation of the 19^th century and encouraged architectural design towards providing cellularly divided spaces to fight against the spread of physical and moral contamination within the prison environment.

HMP Barlinnie followed the pattern begun by the Howard Reforms with different types of prisoners kept in separate wings with individual cells for the inmates. The building however also reflected later 19^th century concerns for health and the most recent prison design by following the model of the recently completed Wormwood Scrubs prison with parallel accommodation blocks designed to minimise the spread of infection allowing maximum circulation of fresh air.

The period following the 1877 Act saw a group of new, larger prison complexes built or remodelled in Scotland to account for the closures of a number of smaller prisons. This included the reconstruction of Edinburgh Calton Prison in 1881 (demolished) and the building of, HMP Dumfries in 1883, Peterhead in 1888, Aberdeen Craiginches in 1891 (demolished) and HMP Inverness, opened in 1902.

As attitudes towards corporal punishment and penal discipline changed towards a more humane system that focussed on reform in the later 20^th century, the stark accommodation of nineteenth century prison architecture was considered outdated. Purpose built prisons of the 19^th century are now a rare building type. There are only a small number of purpose-built prisons remaining in Scotland dating from the 19^th century and only three remain in use as such in Scotland: HMP Perth dating from 1810 (category A and B listed, LB39331, LB39330, LB39328, LB39326); HMP Dumfries, built 1883 (category B listed, LB26346); andHMP Barlinnie. Peterhead Prison, built as a convict prison and opened in 1888, also survives and is now a museum.

Social historical interest

Since its construction in the 1880s, HMP Barlinnie has been in continual use and has remained Scotland's largest prison. After HMP Perth, with cell blocks in use today built in 1839-42, the halls at Barlinnie are amongst the oldest surviving and functioning prison accommodation in Scotland. The buildings at Barlinnie prison are therefore of significant social historical interest for what they can tell us about changing attitudes to penal discipline and reform in Scotland from the 1880s to the 21^st century.

While the prison has been altered and extended in the 20^th and 21^st centuries the various structures of the late 19^th to early 20^th century prison complex remain. The survival of the accommodation buildings, chapel, former infirmary, and workshops help us to understand how the prison system functioned in Scotland in the late 19^th centuryfollowing the most recent penal reform of the Prisons Act of 1877.

In the late 19^th century prisoners at Barlinnie carried out hard labour, breaking rocks from a local quarry. Prisoners in the first A Hall were also used as labourers to build the next accommodation blocks and other prison structures. Barlinnie soon developed a reputation for being a tough prison with harsh punishments recorded in the 1880s with prisoners restrained in handcuffs and canvas jackets overnight (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk). In the mid-20^th century Barlinnie was also a place of capital punishment with 10 men executed by hanging at the site in the period between 1946 and 1960, before its abolition in 1965. The bodies of the executed men were buried in unmarked graves within the boundary walls of the prison.

In the later 20^th century, a pioneering experimental therapeutic facility was opened at the prison called the Barlinnie Special Unit which attracted international interest. The Special Unit, which operated from 1973 to 1994, took a new approach to attempt to reform of some of Barlinnie's most violent inmates. It allowed prisoners greater freedoms including increased access to families, prisoners allowed to wear their own clothes and encouraged shared decision-making between prisoners and staff. Prisoners were also encouraged to explore creative activities and the Unit achieved high-profile success stories, such as the prisoner Jimmy Boyle who became a sculptor and writer.

In the 21^st century, Barlinnie has also been the place of detention of some of Scotland's most high-profile prisoners including Abdel Baset al-Megrahi who was detained at the prison from 2002 to 2005 following his conviction for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie on 21 December 1988, which killed 270 people.

As Scotland's largest prison, in use since the 19^th century, the name Barlinnie is synonymous with crime and punishment in Scotland and the site has acquired various nicknames over the years including 'BarL', 'Bar Hell' and 'the Big Hoose'. The building has a place in the national consciousness and is of outstanding social historic interest.

Association with people or events of national importance

There is no association with a person or event of national importance.

References

Bibliography

About Listed Buildings

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Listing is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for buildings of special architectural or historic interest as set out in the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.

We list buildings which are found to be of special architectural or historic interest using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Listed building records provide an indication of the special architectural or historic interest of the listed building which has been identified by its statutory address. The description and additional information provided are supplementary and have no legal weight.

These records are not definitive historical accounts or a complete description of the building(s). If part of a building is not described it does not mean it is not listed. The format of the listed building record has changed over time. Earlier records may be brief and some information will not have been recorded.

The legal part of the listing is the address/name of site which is known as the statutory address. Other than the name or address of a listed building, further details are provided for information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland does not accept any liability for any loss or damage suffered as a consequence of inaccuracies in the information provided. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing. Even if a number or name is missing from a listing address it will still be listed. Listing covers both the exterior and the interior and any object or structure fixed to the building. Listing also applies to buildings or structures not physically attached but which are part of the curtilage (or land) of the listed building as long as they were erected before 1 July 1948.

While Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating listed buildings, the planning authority is responsible for determining what is covered by the listing, including what is listed through curtilage. However, for listed buildings designated or for listings amended from 1 October 2015, legal exclusions to the listing may apply.

If part of a building is not listed, it will say that it is excluded in the statutory address and in the statement of special interest in the listed building record. The statement will use the word 'excluding' and quote the relevant section of the 1997 Act. Some earlier listed building records may use the word 'excluding', but if the Act is not quoted, the record has not been revised to reflect subsequent legislation.

Listed building consent is required for changes to a listed building which affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. The relevant planning authority is the point of contact for applications for listed building consent.

Find out more about listing and our other designations at www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support. You can contact us on 0131 668 8914 or at designations@hes.scot.