The Graham Hills Building is a major building on Strathclyde University's John Anderson Campus, located in Glasgow, Scotland. The structure, originally known as Marland House, was completed in 1959 by the General Post Office (GPO) and was acquired by the university from the GPO's successor - British Telecom (BT) in 1987.
The building is best known for the "Strathclyde Wonderwall", the largest wall mural in the city and was briefly the largest in the UK following its completion in 2014.
In 1991 it was renamed for the outgoing principal Sir Graham Hills who retired that year.
History of Graham Hills
Marland House was designed by the Edinburgh architectural firm Arthur Swift and Partners and was built at a cost of £1m. Originally designed as office complex primarily for the Telephones division of the GPO, it won a Civic Trust Design Award in 1960. The Owners (Capital & Counties Property Company) named it Marland House, derived from a pub known as Marland Bar, which stood adjacent to the site prior to the slum clearances of the 1950s. (The pub itself was later renamed "The Right Half" and was eventually closed and demolished in the 1990s) The building was mainly occupied and used by the clerical & engineering teams of the organization along with other Government Departments such as the DSS, Inland Revenue and Pneumoconiosis Board, with a front counter/sales office enabling Post Office Telecoms/BT customers to conduct business during daytime for many years.[1][bettersourceneeded]
By the early 1980s, Post Office Telecommunications was now British Telecom (BT) and the new company sought to leave many of its older buildings. However, the original 42-year lease on Marland House was signed in Scotland making it subject to Scots Law and as a result, omitting to contain a statement that it was executed under English Law meant that the initially quoted rental rates remained secured for the entire period of the lease with no option for increasing them. As the structure deteriorated over time, the owners' financial responsibilities compared to the rental they were receiving became a burden and it was eventually sold to BT in advance of the maturity of the lease. The University of Strathclyde had long expressed its desire to acquire the building to support its own campus expansion plans, and pressed forward and acquired the building from BT, which was bought for a nominal £1 on the condition that the University would take over the maintenance and repair of the structure, and that that BT was allowed to occupy parts of it for another five years until they could move out completely, whilst the university converted it into an academic building.[2]
The building was formally renamed after Sir Graham Hills in 1991, at the end of his tenure as Principal and Vice Chancellor. The conversion process lasted nearly ten years, with some BT staff still occupying parts of the East Wing (40 George Street) until 1992-93.
General Characteristics
The building itself is divided into four independent, unconnected wings which forces students to leave and re-enter the building from another side in order to access one of the other wings.[3] - this layout dated back to the Marland House era when non-GPO/BT tenants of the building needed to be segregated from the rest. There is a central circulation space in the heart of the building which joined all four wings together, which was taken out of use for many years. The primary use of the building is for use in tutorials due to the large number of small rooms which are ideal for small groups of students. The small rooms are able to seat around 10 - 15 students which encourages learning in group and allows for more individual attention from tutors. That being said, several lectures of moderate student sizes are being held in The Graham Hills building, most notably ones organized by the faculty of Business and Administration. The designated lecture halls in Graham Hills can hold up to three hundred students each. The building also contains several computer labs in which many online tests are held and provides facilities for students to complete assignments which require the use of computers. The labs are often used by the business school to hold its first year tests.
The building was originally constructed with eight lifts serving all nine levels, one for each of the Richmond Street and 50 George Street wings, two serving the east wing (40 George Street) and a group of four in the centre of the building which serve all wings. The building is not for any department in particular, instead it is used by a variety of academic service departments with labs for electrical engineers as well as computer labs for computer science students. Psychology students have their own floor as well for use in tutorials and lectures.
Originally upon its acquisition from BT, room numbers for the Graham Hills Building used the building code "P" on university timetables (the "P" standing for 'Post Office Building' - reflecting its original use), however following the campus refurbishment of the 2010s, the more logical "GH" code is used instead.
Strathclyde Wonderwall
Strath Wonderwall
On the exterior of the building are various murals spray-painted (in the form of graffiti) by the popular local artists Rogue One and Ejek. These contain an artwork of a lecture hall on the building by the corner of George street and North Portland Street. The mural has a mixture of colour and black and white imagery; as if to convey the combination of older class and modern studying.[4]
Along with the murals there is also the famous Strath wonder wall which sports its own hashtag #Strathwonderwall to encourage students and other people to post their photos on social media sites. The wall contains paintings of figures such as Scottish engineer - John Logie Baird, the T.A.R.D.I.S from the popular British television series Doctor Who and even an illustration Frankenstein's Monster. The wall serves as a pleasant reminder for Glasgow's colourful and artistic culture. In recent times a mural was painted depicting the land-ship which was once situated on the roof of what was at the time, The School of Navigation.[5] It is expected that this new mural was created to show of part of the universities history in time for the vast number of tourists that would be visiting Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games. On another side of the building is a mural of a Dansken equatorial telescope[6] which is a tribute to the nautical telescope that used to be on the top floor in what was the Royal Technical College [5].
Several plans have been made to expand the collection of artworks on the other sides of the building as well, since for the time being the only walls that are decorated are the ones facing the main area of George Street and the entrance to the building.
Facilities, services, offices
There are several facilities, services and offices occupying the halls of Graham Hills, concerning (among others) various fields of studies and research. A considerable number of Departments also host their Department Offices within the walls of this building. If one was to categorize this array of facilities, it can be said they're divided in groups of Study Centers (or Teaching Rooms), Service information offices and Department offices.
A brief mapping of what is available in Graham Hills follows:
Level 1: Information Technology Services.
Level 2: Centre for Academic Practice, West of Scotland KTP Centre, 3Ls Student Common Room, Capella Nova, Centre for Lifelong Learning, Security Office, restrooms.
Level 3: Research and Innovation rooms, Senior Studies Institute, Learning in Later Life Students Association Office, restrooms.
Level 4: Policy Unit, Car Park, Disability Service, International and Graduate Office, Schools & Colleges Liaison Service, Student Counselling, restrooms.
Level 6: David Livingstone Centre for Sustainability, Computer Rooms for Central Teaching, Human Resources Teaching Room, Learning Services Teaching Room, Psychology (Department Office), several other teaching rooms, restrooms.
Level 7: Electronic and Electrical Engineering faculties, Law teaching rooms, restrooms, Center for Lifelong Learning (Department Office), Languages for Business Office, Scottish Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, restrooms.
Level 8: Faculty of S.B.S, Human Resource Management (Department Office), Internal Audit, Management Science, Safety Services, teaching rooms, Unison, restrooms.
Level 9: Strathclyde Science and Technology Forum, Human Resource Management, European Policies Research Centre.
The building of Graham Hills hosts the largest number of offices in terms of departmental variety throughout the entire campus.
Reception
Contrary to popular belief, and despite the university's plans to abandon the building, students of the University of Strathclyde find Graham Hills among the most favorable buildings to have in their curriculum and their daily schedules. However some have argued that the building is rather confusing to navigate and often quite dark. A big percentage of them agree that Graham Hills is a building worth keeping as part of the campus, and that its location and small classrooms offer a more personalized style of learning. Students have however, indicated that they would welcome refurbishment.
What is also worth mentioning is that due to Graham Hill's positioning in the campus, it is the students' route of convenience on rainy days, when walking uphill to the rest of the buildings can be a tedious process. Instead, a good number of students opt to use the general entrance of the building at 40 George Street, and then walk across the car park into the Richmond Street wing, and exit in front of the Student's Union within the new Learning and Teaching Hub.
The University of Glasgow is a public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in 1451 [O.S. 1450], it is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Along with the universities of St Andrews, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh, the university was part of the Scottish Enlightenment during the 18th century. Glasgow is the largest university in Scotland by total enrolment and with over 19,500 postgraduates the second-largest in the United Kingdom by postgraduate enrolment.
The University of Strathclyde is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal charter in 1964 as the first technological university in the United Kingdom. Taking its name from the historic Kingdom of Strathclyde, it is Scotland's third-largest university by number of students, with students and staff from over 100 countries.
Jordanhill College was a higher education college in Jordanhill, Glasgow, Scotland. It opened as a teacher training college in 1921. The college merged with the University of Strathclyde in 1993, becoming its Faculty of Education. In 2012 all educational activities were moved to the John Anderson Campus and the campus closed.
Strathclyde was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. The Strathclyde region had 19 districts. The region was named after the medieval Kingdom of Strathclyde but covered a broader geographic area than its namesake.
The Royal College of Science and Technology was a higher education college that existed in Glasgow, Scotland between 1887 and 1964, and is a predecessor institution of the University of Strathclyde along with Scottish College of Commerce. Its main building on George Street now serves as one of the major academic and administration buildings of the University.
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Sir Graham Hills was a physical chemist, principal of the University of Strathclyde, and a governor of the BBC. He was born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex and educated at Westcliff High School for Boys and Birkbeck College, London. He was knighted in 1988 for his services to education.
The James Weir Building is an academic building in Glasgow City Centre, Scotland, United Kingdom and is part of the University of Strathclyde’s John Anderson Campus, situated between the Townhead and Merchant City districts of the area. It was completed in two stages between 1956 and 1964 as an extension to the Royal College Building. It is the third largest building on the John Anderson Campus in terms of overall floor area after the Royal College and the Curran Building. In addition, the stair and lift tower on the south east corner of the building is the second highest structure on the campus after the Livingstone Tower, and is highly visible throughout the eastern side of the city centre.
The John Anderson Campus, the main campus of The University of Strathclyde, is located in Glasgow, Scotland. The campus is self-contained in its own area which straddles the Townhead and Merchant City districts on the north eastern side of the city centre, while being only minutes from the M8 Motorway, George Square and is located midway between Queen Street Railway Station and High Street station on the North Clyde Line.
Strathclyde Personal Interactive Development and Educational Resource (SPIDER) is a virtual learning environment used by the University of Strathclyde to provide an online platform for class material, support and more.
Birkbeck Court is the oldest and largest student residence at University of Strathclyde, and was constructed between 1972 and 1974. It is situated on Cathedral Street, which is at the very centre of Glasgow and the university campus. The halls are made of 16 blocks, each block containing 4 flats which is residence to 6 students. The students have a room to themselves which is also their study area. Unlike a few of the Halls of Residence, Birkbeck court does not have en-suite facilities. There is a shower room with two sinks and a separate toilet room which also contains a sink.
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The Strathclyde Telegraph is a student newspaper which was founded in 1960 and is edited, written and produced by students at the University of Strathclyde. It is the University of Strathclyde’s only printed student newspaper and is produced on campus by students from start to finish. It aims to report on the activities of Union groups and elected officers and in so doing inform Strathclyde students about their Union as well as a variety of features and content relating to culture and the arts.
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