Another lost Thomsonian tenement?
With a passing role in a 1981 TV drama...
The website Old Glasgow Pubs, from which the picture above is taken, might seem of use principally to those with an interest in the alcoholic history of Glasgow, but since a surprising number of Thomson’s tenements seem to have included public houses, particularly at their corners, the website throws up opportunities to spot Thomsonesque tenements lurking in the background.
One such public house was the Ben Mhor, situated at the corner of Henderson Street and Maryhill Road (New City Road when built). If the New City Road was a relatively early construction, the offshoot streets and tenements came later, possibly because Maryhill Burgh had only been formed some 15 years before.
Maryhill burgh
In the 18th century, ownership of the Gairbraid estate had come down to Mary Hill, wife of Robert Graham, due to her descent from John Hutcheson, who owned it in the 1600s. Two of John’s grandsons, Thomas and George, founded Hutcheson’s Hospital (by then, the spelling of their surname had changed), while a granddaughter married Ninian Hill of Garioch and Lambhill (1583-1623). Although Ninian and his wife had 11 children, including five sons, the Lambhill and Gairbraid estates came down only via the fourth son (their tenth child), indicating the high mortality rate among even wealthier families at the time. Mary Hill inherited the Gairbraid estate from her father (a great-grandson of Ninian Hill of Garioch and Lambhill) as his only child.
The Grahams built a new mansionhouse (above) and began exploring the possibilities of selling the mineral rights for coal, for which their land proved too damp. Luckily, they benefited from Parliamentary approval of the Forth and Clyde Canal in 1768, whose route ran through the estate and for which they were compensated. Once the canal was completed, around 1790, their land alongside became much more valuable. Robert Graham and his wife therefore feued much of the estate on condition that any future development be named ‘Maryhill’. Iron foundries, boatyards, textile, paper and timber mills were established, and by 1850, the population in Maryhill had risen to around 3,000. In 1856, Maryhill became a police burgh, with a police office and magistrates’ chambers built on Maryhill Road in 1857 (Maryhill Barracks were begun in 1869 but only completed after some years, and the Burgh Halls would not follow until 1878)1.
One of Robert and Mary’s two daughters married into the Dunlop family of Keppoch (the other died unmarried), and the Dunlops continued the feuing process. By the 1840s, Gairbraid house was unoccupied and to let unfurnished, and more land was being released for building on. In 1844, ‘several acres of ground lying on both sides of the high road from Glasgow to Garscube [New City Road], near the Maryhill Church with the Holm adjoining the Kelvin, and also on the south side of the Forth and Clyde Canal, near Kelvindock’ were feued ‘for Villas, Tradesmen’s Houses and Public Works’2.
The Henderson Street tenement
Developing Henderson Street came later (and not to be confused with the existing Henderson Street in Kinning Park, south of the river). Only in the mid-1875 Glasgow Post Office Directory does the name appear in connection with the New City Road, at which point the tenements at the eastern (New City Road) end of the street were being completed. Only one tenant is listed, Mrs Adams, a ‘ladies’ nurse’ at No. 8 (soon renumbered as No. 10, the close entrance seen on the left of the photograph at the head of this article). Miller & Doig, masons and builders, were at No. 10, which presumably was then the ground floor shop in the image.
Work on the tenement must have commenced by late 1874 and progressed quickly, since by March 1875, George Weston, Secretary of the Glasgow Tramway Company’s employees’ association, was writing from Henderson Street threatening strike action over pay and conditions3; the following month John Torrance, of 51 Raglan Street, was applying for a public house licence for Nos 2-4, with J & W Wilson of neighbouring Raeberry Street as proprietors. The first application was refused but allowed on appeal in June 18754. Later that year, upstairs at No. 10, an advertisement appeared for a
Parlour with concealed bed, 10 Henderson Street, off New City Road, up one stair; suitable for two Young Men in an office or warehouse5.
By late 1875, further along Henderson Street, John Duncan was permitted to ‘erect two tenements of shops and dwelling-houses, corner of Henderson Street and Dick Street’6. By mid-1876, Nos 10-22 were part-occupied, possibly by those involved in constructing them: Miller & Doig were now at No. 22, James Wilson, wright and builder, was at No. 14, and builders Lyall & Leckie were at No. 18, as was house factor Robert Kelly, while Alexander Christie, a buildings inspector, was at No. 10, presumably overseeing the work.
Mr Warren’s public houses
John Torrance’s licence was soon taken over by Timothy Warren. According to the Old Glasgow Pubs website,
Mr Timothy Warren was a well known and respected Glasgow publican in the trade. He had a good reputation and his pubs had some of the best managers in the city. Good clean premises and good quality wines, spirits and beers were always served especially Warren’s own proprietary blend of ‘Heathery Knowe Old Highland Whisky’.
Whether down to his reputation, the quality of his premises or that of his alcohol, over the next twenty years, Warren acquired five further licensed premises, with his son, another Timothy, managing three more. After the Great War, all but the Henderson Street public house and two others were sold off. The Ben Mhor continued to trade into the 1970s and featured in the 1981 television adaptation of Jimmy Boyle’s autobiography A Sense of Freedom.
Thomson, or ‘office of’?
Based on the image above, that part of the tenement cornering the New City Road appears to show more Thomsonian elements than its western neighbour, particularly in the form of the third-floor indentation and pilasters and what appears to be an anthemion below the chimney stack. The layout of the whole tenement block from the Ordnance Survey map of 1894 (below) does not show any obvious differences in tenement layout (such as their depths) to indicate work by a different architect, althoughb that may be the case. If Alexander Thomson or staff in his office were responsible, it may be that, for much of the rest of the tenement, the (possibly various) builders followed a general architectural plan but cut back on the proposed external decoration to save money, especially after Thomson’s death in 1875.
Another image, from the Mitchell Library (C3699, below), suggests that a more Thomsonion frontage continued along New City Road. The continuation of the Henderson Street tenement is in the middle distance on the left of the picture. It appears to show, at the third-floor level, the indented elements seen in the Hutcheson Street image.
Offline images held by Historic Environment Scotland of the Raeberry Street tenement (the street immediately north of Henderson Street) might show more detail. A 1960s picture from the Past Glasgow site on X shows (below) what could be a continuation on the left of the Thomsonian frontage into Raeberry Street (the photograph was taken from what is now Maryhill Road), but the image is not particularly clear.
In all, another tenement to add to the list of Thomson possibles.
By the late 1870s, Gairbraid House was surrounded by industrial and commercial buildings. The house survived to the 1920s; today, Gairbraid Avenue follows the route of the tree-lined carriageway to the house. Maryhill was incorporated into Glasgow in 1891.
Glasgow Herald, 20 Sep 1844
North British Daily Mail, 29 Mar 1875
North British Daily Mail, 2 Apr 1875; 26 Jun 1875
Glasgow Herald, 1 Sep 1875
North British Daily Mail, 10 Dec 1875