Blythswood Hill | |
---|---|
Location within Glasgow | |
OS grid reference | NS583656 |
Council area | |
Lieutenancy area |
|
Country | Scotland |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | GLASGOW |
Postcode district | G2 |
Dialling code | 0141 |
Police | Scotland |
Fire | Scottish |
Ambulance | Scottish |
UK Parliament | |
Scottish Parliament | |
Blythswood Hill, crowned by Blythswood Square, is an area of central Glasgow, Scotland. Its grid of streets extend from the length of the west side of Buchanan Street to Gordon Street and Bothwell Street, and to Charing Cross, Sauchiehall Street and Garnethill. Developed from 1800 onwards, its Georgian and Victorian architecture is a Conservation Area. It started as the "Magnificent New Town of Blythswood", becoming a part of the city-centre's business and social life. [1] [2]
After the Reformation the vast Lands of Blythswood, extending west and north to the River Kelvin and south to the River Clyde, were owned by the Glasgow merchant family Elphinstone; one descendant George Elphinstone became an MP of the Scots Parliament. Through his daughter it changed to the Douglas-Campbell family during the 17th century. Archibald Campbell, whose son became Lord Blythswood, setting about feuing the lands to developers. [3]
Sitting on the western side of Buchanan Street, and starting at West Nile Street, rising to Sauchiehall Street and Blythswood Square it proceeds to the Charing Cross area. To its north is Garnethill. Blythswood Hill contains the area from Renfrew Street, Sauchiehall Street and Bath Street south to Bothwell Street and Waterloo Street. [4]
The first new street to be opened up for housing was Sauchiehall Street, followed by Bath Street in 1802, by textile manufacturer and merchant William Harley (1767-1830). He also formed his indoor public baths, pioneered the first hygienic dairy in Europe, and a bakery at the eastern end of Bath Street. [5] [6] His planned Blythswood Square sits partly on his extensive pleasure grounds, viewing tower, orchards and bowling green which he opened for the public, next to his house of Willow Bank. [5] Harley also owned much of the hill to the north which he named Garnethill in honour of Professor Thomas Garnett. [1]
Blythswood developed thanks to the mercantile expansion of the city in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, housing the city's wealthy cotton merchants, chemical manufacturers and shipping magnates in Georgian townhouses and Victorian terraces. The whole area is on a grid-iron layout which started first around George Square in the 1790s, adopted by Glasgow Town Council, and continued for urban development west over Blythswood, and south over the Clyde to Tradeston, Laurieston and Hutchesontown. The grid-iron system was later adopted in 1830 by New York, followed later by Chicago, and other cities in America. [3]
Blythswood Square was the home of Madeleine Smith, a daughter of architect James Smith, who in 1857 was tried in the High Court for the murder by arsenic poisoning of her lover Pierre Emile L'Angelier. Although the case was not proven, to the delight of the public, the story scandalised Scottish society, and is recounted in Jack House's 1961 book Square Mile of Murder .[ citation needed ]
Residential use is returning to parts of Blythswood Hill, while remaining mainly offices, hotels, shops, restaurants and art organisations.[ citation needed ] The former Royal Scottish Automobile Club building at 8-13 Blythswood Square has been converted to form the Blythswood Square Hotel. [7] Glasgow Art Club continues in its duo of townhouses in Bath Street.[ citation needed ]
St. Vincent Street is the longest street and contains the largest number of buildings across the Hill, starting at the south west corner of George Square next to Buchanan Street. Rising westward it passes the summit and descends further west, crossing over the sunken M8 motorway to its junction with Argyle Street at Finnieston, where now stands the city's first statue to architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh.[ citation needed ]
Charles Rennie Mackintosh was a Scottish architect, designer, water colourist and artist. His artistic approach had much in common with European Symbolism. His work, alongside that of his wife Margaret Macdonald, was influential on European design movements such as Art Nouveau and Secessionism and praised by great modernists such as Josef Hoffmann. Mackintosh was born in Glasgow and died in London. He is among the most important figures of Modern Style.
Buchanan Street is one of the main shopping thoroughfares in Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland. It forms the central stretch of Glasgow's famous shopping district with a generally more upmarket range of shops than the neighbouring streets: Argyle Street, and Sauchiehall Street.
Cowcaddens is an area of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It sits directly north of the city centre and is bordered by the newer area of Garnethill to the south-west and Townhead to the east.
Garnethill is a predominantly residential area of the city of Glasgow, Scotland with a number of important public buildings.
James Gillespie Graham was a Scottish architect, prominent in the early 19th century.
Sauchiehall Street became one of the main shopping streets in the city centre of Glasgow, Scotland, along with Buchanan Street and Argyle Street.
The Willow Tearooms are tearooms at 217 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, Scotland, designed by internationally renowned architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, which opened for business in October 1903. They quickly gained enormous popularity, and are the most famous of the many Glasgow tearooms that opened in the late 19th and early 20th century. The building was fully restored, largely to Mackintosh's original designs, between 2014 and 2018. It was re-opened as working tearooms in July 2018 and trades under the name "Mackintosh at The Willow". This follows a trademark dispute with the former operator of The Willow Tearooms which was resolved in 2017. That name is now used at tearoom premises in Buchanan Street and was additionally used at the Watt Brothers Department Store in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow between 2016 and its closure in 2019.
Catherine Cranston, widely known as Kate Cranston or Miss Cranston, was a leading figure in the development of tea rooms. She is nowadays chiefly remembered as a major patron of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret MacDonald, in Glasgow, Scotland. The name of Miss Cranston's Tea Rooms lives on in reminiscences of Glasgow in its heyday.
Sir John James Burnet was a Scottish Edwardian architect who was noted for a number of prominent buildings in Glasgow and London. He was the son of the architect John Burnet, and later went into partnership with his father, joining an architectural firm which would become an influential force in British Modern architecture in the 20th century.
Charing Cross is a major road junction and area within the centre of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated north of the River Clyde at the intersection of Sauchiehall Street, St George's Road, Woodlands Road, North Street and Newton Street, as well as being at a major interchange of the M8 motorway. Charing Cross marks the notional boundary between the City Centre and the West End of the city.
The city of Glasgow, Scotland is particularly noted for its 19th-century Victorian architecture, and the early-20th-century "Glasgow Style", as developed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
William Harley (1767–1830) was a Scottish textile manufacturer and entrepreneur who is known for his early contributions to the city of Glasgow, including the development of the New Town of Blythswood, covering Blythswood Hill, and pioneering hygienic dairy farming.
William Leiper FRIBA RSA (1839–1916) was a Scottish architect known particularly for his domestic architecture in and around the town of Helensburgh. In addition, he produced a small amount of fine ecclesiastical and commercial architecture in Glasgow and the Scottish Lowlands. He was also an accomplished watercolour artist, and from the late 1870s spent much spare time painting in oils and watercolours.
Glasgow Art Club is a club for artists and non-artists interested in the creation and enjoyment of art - all illustrative arts, sculptures, poetry, prose, plays, music, song, choreography and dance. To advance, promote and encourage the arts in all forms. Each year it has a range of exhibitions, events and concerts, open to the public for their enjoyment; and, subject to club events, a number of its rooms are available as venues for social occasions.
St. Vincent Street, is one of the major streets in the city centre of Glasgow, Scotland. It was formed in the early 1800s as part of the residential New Town of Blythswood developed by William Harley of Blythswood Square. St. Vincent Street was named to commemorate the victory of Sir John Jervis, on 15 February 1797, off Cape Saint Vincent, Portugal. when the Royal Navy defeated the Spanish fleet which was on its way to join Napoleon's French fleet. The first part of the street, from George Square to Buchanan St, containing numbers up to 41, is named St Vincent Place.
Blythswood Square is the Georgian square on Blythswood Hill in the heart of the City of Glasgow, Scotland. The square is part of the 'Magnificent New Town of Blythswood' built in the 1800s on the rising empty ground west of a very new Buchanan Street. These open grounds were part of the vast Lands of Blythswood stretching to the River Kelvin acquired by the Douglas-Campbell family in the 17th century. The Blythswood district, and its grid of streets, became a Conservation Area in 1970, because of its important architectural and historic buildings.
Archibald Campbell Douglas was a Scottish architect based primarily in Glasgow. He designed many churches in Glasgow and Edinburgh, especially those for the Free Church of Scotland.
John Keppie was a Glasgow architect and artist. From an early age he was a close friend of Edward Atkinson Hornel and would often bring in New Year with him in Kirkcudbright. Within the architectural profession, he was closest to John Archibald Campbell, and is credited with training Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
James Smith (1808–1863) was a 19th-century Scottish architect who specialised in very large country mansions.
St Silas Church is an evangelical Anglican church in the Woodlands area of Glasgow, Scotland, adjacent to Kelvingrove Park and the University of Glasgow. The congregation was founded in 1864 and holds to the theology of the Thirty-nine Articles in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. The church is a category B listed building