1 The ‘Merchant City’ located west of the High Street was at first residential, containing some fine eighteenth-century mansions built by the ‘Tobacco Lords’. It subsequently housed a mixture of financial institutions, warehouses and some of Glasgow’s finest public buildings. After many years of neglect the district was revitalized in the 1980s with a mixture of residential and leisure developments.

2 See Gildard, Thomas, ‘An Old Glasgow Architect on Some Older Ones’, Proceedings of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow (1894), vol. XXVI, No. VIII, pp. 97–123 Google Scholar; MacKechnie, Aonghus (ed.), David Hamilton, Architect (Glasgow, 1993)Google Scholar; Colvin, H., A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840 (New Haven and London, 1995) pp. 449-52Google Scholar; ‘The David Hamilton Collection’, researched and compiled by Alexander Aiken and donated to the Mitchell Library, Glasgow; Gomme, Andor and Walker, David, Architecture of Glasgow (London, 1968)Google Scholar; Williamson, Elizabeth, Riches, Anne and Higgs, Malcolm, The Buildings of Scotland Glasgow (London, 1990)Google Scholar; and Glendinning, Miles, Maclnnes, Ranald and MacKechnie, Aonghus, A History of Scottish Architecture from the Renaissance to the Present Day (Edinburgh, 1997)Google Scholar.

3 See Walker, David M., ‘Salmon, Son, Grandson and Gillespie’, Scottish Art Review, vol. x, No. 3, pp. 17–21 & 28Google Scholar; Gomme and Walker, op. cit.; Glendinning, Maclnnes and McKechnie, op. cit.

4 For the history of the banks which occupied the site see Anon., Brief Historical Sketch of The Union Bank of Scotland Limited (Glasgow, 1910); Rait, Robert S., The History of the Union Bank of Scotland (Glasgow, 1930)Google Scholar; and ‘Senex’, ‘Banking in Glasgow During the Olden Time’, Section I, Glasgow Past and Present (Glasgow, 1874), vol. 1, pp. 463-86.

For the conversion of the building after the Union Bank’s departure see the Minutes, Reports etc. of the County Council of Lanark, 1929-30, COI/3/1/43-44, and Dean of Guild Court Plans, 1929/565, Mitchell Library, Glasgow: City Archives.

5 The building and its interior were revealed to the general public for the first time in many years in September 1998 through ‘Doors Open Day’. I am indebted to Stefan King, Managing Director of King City Leisure, for access to the property since then. It re-opened as ‘Corinthian’ in March 1999.

6 This photograph is one of two attributed to Annan that show the building before John Burnet’s redevelopment of the site in the 1870s. Both prints are in the Glasgow Collection, Mitchell Library. They are little-known and the view of the interior of the telling-room has helped in the planning of its refurbishment.

7 See ‘Senex’, op. cit., vol. 1, ‘The Old Virginia Mansion’, Glasgow Past and Present, vol. 1, pp. 516–22. The text was reproduced in Glasgow Ancient and Modem, vol. IV, pp. 1034-38, with an illustration of the house. Thomas Fairbairn’s watercolour view of the mansion was in the Old Glasgow Exhibition, 1894, no. 608, and reproduced in the catalogue, opp. p. 188.

8 For an account and illustration of the Shawfield mansion see Gomme and Walker, op. cit., pp. 50–51.

9 According to Rait, op. cit., p. 210, the Bank purchased the mansion in 1828. For the history of the development of Virginia Street, see ‘Senex’, ‘Virginia Street’, Glasgow Past and Present, vol. 11, pp. 396–405.

10 For an account of the banks see Rait, op. cit., Chapter X, pp. 202-11. Hamilton’s Ship Bank is discussed in Glasgow Delineated (Glasgow, 1836), pp. 83-84 and illustrated. The bank occupied the central portion of the building which had a frontage of 222 feet. Its principal entrance had a ‘Doric portico, with flank pilasters, intermediate columns, entablature, and pediment’.

11 The Clydesdale, Western and British Linen bank buildings have all been demolished, but there are illustrations, contemporary accounts and numerous photographs of the British Linen Bank. The three appear in Illustrated Letter Paper Comprising a Series of Views in Glasgow, published by Allan & Ferguson, 1843, of which there is a bound copy in the Special Collections Department of Glasgow University Library, Bh12-y14. The views were reproduced in Pagan, James, Sketch of the History of Glasgow (Glasgow, 1847)Google Scholar, along with some details of the individual buildings.

12 The bank’s ledgers are in the Bank of Scodand’s Archives Department in Edinburgh. I am indebted to Seonaid McDonald, Assistant Archivist, for all her assistance.

13 The Scots Times, 5 May 1841, p. 4d. The notice continues: ‘The British Linen Company’s elegant range of buildings opposite the Exchange and the Western Club’s new premises in Buchanan Street, are now nearly completed, and will add much to the appearance of the west end of the city.’ Both were by David Hamilton.

14 See Freebairn, Charles F., ‘Virginia Street and its Environs: A Glasgow Banking Centre of the Past’, Scottish Bankers’ Magazine, vol. XVI, January 1925, no. 64, pp. 237-42Google Scholar.

15 See Aiken, Alexander, ‘The David Hamilton Collection’, vol. IV, pp. 719-20Google Scholar for biographical details. James probably joined his father as an apprentice in 1834 and Mr Aiken’s research has revealed new information on James’s work. Aonghus MacKechnie comments on James in his essay on David Hamilton’s architecture in David Hamilton, Architect, p. 12, that ‘… his individual contribution to the practise [sic] — likely to be significant — cannot at this stage be identified or characterised.’

16 Glasgow Herald, 9 December 1842, p. 4e.

17 The address of the new Glasgow and Ship Bank office was listed in the 1843 Glasgow Post Office Directory as 99 Ingram Street.

18 See Aonghus MacKechnie, op. cit., p. 10, who notes aspects of the building that influenced later architects: ‘… the idea of translating an area of wall into pilasters (a feature associated especially with Alexander Thomson) is seen on the flanks of the Union Bank in Ingram Street’; see Fig. 12. In his account of Hamilton’s ecclesiastical buildings, op. cit., p. 15, MacKechnie comments on Hamilton’s use of an unpedimented portico on buildings, including the bank, which was taken up by some later Glasgow architects including Hugh Barclay (1828-92) at Ewing Place Church (1858; dem).

19 Glasgow Herald, 27 November 1843, p. 4e.

20 Thomas Gildard, op. cit., pp. 102-03.

21 The engraving shows the Ingram Street façade from the north-west and looking down the side of the telling-room. It appears in several publications including Tweed’s Guide to Glasgow and the Clyde (Glasgow, 1872), p. 10. The photograph is in the Brief Historical Sketch of The Union Bank of Scotland Limited (Glasgow, 1910), opp. p. 16. There are contemporary accounts of the building in several guidebooks to the city including Willox, John, The Glasgow Tourist and Itinerary (Edinburgh, 1850), p. 44 Google Scholar and Black’s Picturesque Guide to Glasgow and the West Coast (Edinburgh, 1852), p. 29.

22 A copy of this print is in the Glasgow Collection, Mitchell Library.

23 Glasgow Constitutional, 24 June 1843, p. 2d.

24 During the restoration of the telling-room a fragment of the original plaster from Hamilton’s room was found behind the north wall.

25 The Glasgow Union Bank commissioned Robert Black to design a new building at the foot of Virginia Street. It was one of the banks included in Allan and Ferguson’s Illustrated Letter Paper Comprising a Series of Views in Glasgow, No. III (see note 11). Following the banks’ merger the building was sold to the City of Glasgow Bank, and it was under that name that the same illustration appears in James Pagan, op. cit., plate III, with description on p. 174. For the merger see Rait, op. cit.

26 Bank of Scotland Archives Department, Edinburgh, UBS 1/1/6, Minute Book of the Union Bank of Scodand Directors (Glasgow Committee): 21 November 1849; 16 January 1850; 23 March 1853; 6 April 1853 and 8 April 1853.

27 Ibid., p. 427.

28 Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Directors of the Union Bank of Scodand, Glasgow, 11 May 1854, typescript, p. 1 and Twenty-fifth Annual Report of the Directors of the Union Bank of Scodand, Glasgow, 10 May 1855, typescript, p. 1, Bank of Scotland Archives Department. The 1855 report included: ‘The Directors have pleasure in mentioning that the new office has now been opened to the public for several weeks …’

See Rait, op. cit., Chapter XIV, ‘Progress and Incorporation’, p. 288: ‘… in 1858 the Directors introduced the custom of carrying forward a substantial unexpended balance to the next year’s accounts. This was accomplished in spite of expenditure upon a reconstruction of the Head Office in 1854-5.’

29 Glasgow Herald, 2 February 1855, p. 5b; Glasgow Courier, 25 January, 1855, p. 2e; and Glasgow Examiner, 3 February 1855, p. 4.f.

30 Glasgow Courier, 25 January 1855, p. 2e.

31 Ibid.

32 See Ballantine, James, A Treatise on Painted Glass (Edinburgh, 1845)Google Scholar and Donnelly, Michael, Scotland’s Stained Glass (Edinburgh, 1997), pp. 18–22 Google Scholar.

33 I am indebted to Sally Rush for sharing her knowledge of the career of James Ballantine. She comments that ‘1855 is an interesting date for a secular project in Glasgow by Ballantine’ in that to the best of her knowledge Ballantine had made windows only for a small number of churches in the city. There is a link between Salmon and Ballantine through their involvement in the Scottish Exhibition of Arts and Manufactures Connected with Architecture, which opened in Glasgow in December 1854, and the Munich Windows controversy. Ballantine failed to win the commission to fill the windows of Glasgow Cathedral with stained glass and it was awarded to the Royal Bavarian Glassworks in Munich. The decision not to select British artists caused a great outcry and James Salmon was one of the most vociferous opponents of the decision. Extracts from his Letter to the Subscribers to the stained-glass windows for the Glasgow Cathedral … were published by The Building Chronicle in July 1857, pp. 222-23.

34 Thomas was employed on a number of projects in the city including architectural sculpture for John Gibson’s National Bank (1847), formerly in Queen Street and removed to the south side of the city and converted to the Langside Halls (1902-03); the Graeco-Egyptian Houldsworth Mausoleum (1854) at the Necropolis and interior design and furnishings of 1 Park Terrace for Houldsworth, John: see the author’s ‘John Thomas and 1 Park Terrace, Glasgow’, Furniture History, vol. XXXIV (1998), pp. 266-78Google Scholar.

The Courier commented: ‘In all coved ceilings, the angle line is known to artists to be disagreeable, and various methods have been adopted to get quit of that line by ornamentation. In the present case, Mr Salmon of this city has been enormously successful by the introduction of four figures …’ During the restoration of the telling-room an inscription was found on the column supporting the portrait-bust of Queen Victoria in the Arts and Sciences group. It reads ‘John Thomas Paddington’.

35 Glasgow Courier, 25 January 1855, p. 2e.

36 See Aldrich, Megan, The Craces: Royal Decorators 1768-1899 (Brighton, 1990), p. 128 Google Scholar and 168 and note 274.

37 James Steel, plasterer and modeller, 135 Dundas Street, Glasgow. Other examples of his work in Glasgow can be seen in the Reading Room of Charles Wilson’s Royal Faculty of Procurators’ Hall (1854–56) and J. T. Rochead’s former John Street Church (1858–60). Donald McCalman, plain and decorative house-painter and paperhanger, ornamental glass panelling for steam-ships; Robert McConnell & Co., ironfounders and smiths; Charles Johnston, plasterer, 40 Scott Street. The Glasgow Herald referred to Mr Bannerman as the wright. The Glasgow Post Office Directory for 1854–55 listed Miller and Bannerman, wrights, as well as a Walter Bannerman and it is not clear which of them worked on the room.

38 Glasgow Examiner, 3 February 1855, p. 4f.

39 The Building Chronicle, 1 June 1856, p. 67 and see note 34. The interior was described in John Willox, op. cit., p. 50, as ‘commodious and elegant; the telling-room being elaborately ornamented, and its polychromatic decorations [executed by H. Bogle & Co., Glasgow, house painters to the Queen] are tasteful and appropriate.’ However, in 1856 The Building Chronicle (1 June, p. 67) described the old interior as ‘so dark that its character was rather to be guessed than seen.’ Salmon introduced a cupola with glass by Ballantine, and Bennet of Gordon Street undertook the painting. Salmon’s interior may be the one referred to in Worsdall, Frank, Victorian City (Glasgow, 1982), p. 136 Google Scholar: ‘contemporary accounts enthuse over its unusual design and brilliant colours. The telling-room had a dome filled with stained-glass, the walls being decorated with columns and pilasters painted blood red with white bases and capitals. The ceiling was blue, crimson and gold …’ The interior was remodelled at a later date. For the moment little research appears to have been undertaken into the other interiors for which Salmon was responsible, and the Union Bank’s appears to the most complete survivor of the period.

40 The Glasgow Herald, 2 February 1855, p. 5b, revealed that Mossman was responsible for the exterior sculpture.

41 Tweed’s Guide to the City of Glasgow and the Clyde (Glasgow, 1872), pp. 10-11.

42 Glasgow Herald, loc. cit.

43 The exhibition hall on Bath Street in the city centre was designed by Alexander Thomson (1817-75) and included individual rooms designed in different styles by several architects. No copy of the catalogue has been located as yet but the exhibition received wide coverage in a number of newspapers and journals. For example see the Glasgow Courier, 27 January 1855, p. 2c-d; The Building Chronicle and The Art Journal for 1855; and Stamp, Gavin and McKinstry, Sam (eds), Greek Thomson (Edinburgh, 1994), Chapter 2, pp. 17–20 Google Scholar, where Charles McKean provides an account of the exhibition.

44 The committees of management consisted of architects from Glasgow and Edinburgh. The Glasgow committee included John Burnet, John T. Rochead, James Salmon and Charles Heath Wilson, headmaster of the Glasgow School of Design and one of the exhibition’s secretaries.

45 Bank of Scotland Archives Department, Edinburgh, UBS 1/1/9, Minute Book of the Union Bank of Scodand Directors (Glasgow Committee): 15 October 1873, p. 40.

46 The proposed rebuilding of the east side of Virginia Place, and the objections are recorded in the Minute Book (see note 45) for meetings held in 1874–75. The subsequent Royal Assent given on 14 June 1875 to the ‘Glasgow (City) Street Improvement Bill under which the enlargement of the Bank Office in Ingram Street, Glasgow will be carried out’ was recorded in the minutes of 16 June 1875.

47 Minute Book (see note 45) 5 April 1876, p. 195. The breakdown is as follows: John Morrison, masons: £16,004 14s. 6d.; A. & G. Gray, Wrights: £5,929; James Stewart Senior, Slater: £138; John Younger, Plumber: £1,003; J. & G. Mossman, Carvers: £455 13s.; [name illegible] Founders and Fireproofing: £2,488; and Wm. Meikle & Son, Glaziers: £590.

48 See ‘Monday Gossip’, The Bailie, 4 September 1878, p. 4: ‘In the façade of the Gorbals Theatre Mr Douglas, the architect, has rather cleverly appropriated the old frontispiece of the Union Bank, and Mr Morrison, the proprietor, has very spiritedly resolved upon crowning it, as it was aforetime, with a gallery of statues’.

Thomas Gildard, op. cit., pp. 102-03, commented: ‘This frontispiece is now part of the Royal Princess’s Theatre, but the diameter of the columns being reduced to three-quarters, and they being veneered upon the walling, the effect, of course, is very different from what it was when they were entire, with a shadow-depth often feet behind them.’ The Royal Princess’s ultimately became the Citizens Theatre, and the Hamilton façade was destroyed in the 1970s.

See Cowan, James, ‘The Mystery of the Twelve Statues’, From Glasgow’s Treasure Chest (Glasgow, 1951), pp. 239-42Google Scholar. Cowan consulted Mossman’s records and found an entry dated 16 September 1876, referring to the removal of the statues from the old bank building and storage of them at their yard.

49 Glasgow Herald, 24 February 1879, p.6f. The new building was also reviewed in The Builder, 8 March 1879, p. 267.

50 See Cowan, op. cit., p. 242. Cowan also found a reference to the additional groups that ‘along with carvings on the building, were executed between May, 1877, and November, 1879, and the total sum paid by the Union Bank for the sculpturing of these works was £1,058 17s. 4d.’

51 John James Burnet included the Union Bank head office in Glasgow in his list of works. See Architect’s Journal, 4 May 1821; Walker, David, ‘Sir John James Burnet’, (ed. Service, Alastair) Edwardian Architecture and its Origins (1975), pp. 192–215 Google Scholar and ‘Scotland and Paris: 1874-1887’ (Frew, John and Jones, David, eds), Scotland and Europe (St Andrews, 1991), pp. 23–25 Google Scholar.

52 The present renovations revealed the room’s original external wall which had been built over.