Clyde Street / Dixon Street:
This building was first noted when recording the adjacent Custom House. Then in early 2013, the first site visit here specifically to record this building was undertaken on the 18th February 2013 following a fire. The fire had started in the upper floor of the building and spread to the corner rooms (containing the Doghouse Music studio) burning out the roof joists and utterly compromising the roof structure. Scrolling down this page one can see pictures from street level and from above from an overlooking structure which shows the building was rendered roofless in part and left open to the elements. Months of inaction seem to confirm the rumour that the building is heading for demolition and thus creating yet another gap site along the city's somewhat toothless Clyde smile. Such demolitions are even more likely as the city approaches the Commonwealth Games of 2014 and the city father's seek to erase much of the reality of Glasgow from the streets the tourists will tread.

Building Details:
A mid-late 19th century blond sandstone three storey, five bayed building facing onto the Clyde this building turns the corner onto Dixon Street with another three bays. The site is then continued with a second building of almost matching design and of similar vintage moving further northwards up Dixon Street.
this site has housed numerous commercial premises from small businesses, to retailers and offices, no doubt originally its occupants would have been concerned with activities related to the adjacent Custom House and the regular arrival of boats along this stretch of the Clyde.
The building has a classical tenemental style design, with a pediment on a pair of columns with tuscan capitals over the main doorway which unusually is offset and not adhering to the usual symmetry such classicism invariably dictates. The ground floor is faced with banded ashlar forming a sense of greater weight and majesty than the smooth ashlar of the upper floors. The first floor windows all feature pediments, the top floor is more simple in its detailing in keeping with such classically driven tenemental design. The parapet at roof level gives the facade a rectangle elevation hiding the sloped slate roof behind and echoing the form of renaissance Italian palazzo
The exposed south facing facade has weathered excessively and the fine details have been eroded from years of neglect. This coupled with spalling of areas of the sandstone facade has left the building cosmetically in a very poor condition. it seems unlikely the building's future is anything but doomed following the fire of early 2013.


street address: Clyde Street/Dixon Street, Glasgow, G1 4JH
Latitude / Longitude: 55.856327,-4.256168 (sourced using Google Maps)
site visit date: 18 February 2013 & 01 March 2013 & 04 April 2013

south elevation, onto Clyde Street overlooking the River Clyde. The building can be seen in the photograph to the right, sited alongside the more imposing Custom House with its flagpole and heraldic crest (04/04/2013)

south elevation (04/04/2013)

south (front) elevation showing the five bays over three storeys and the poor state of the blond sandstone across much of the facade (04/04/2013)

pedimented first floor windows and spalled stonework of the south elevation (04/04/2013)

pedimented doorway with tuscan capitals atop the pair of columns flanking the main entrance. The doorway is offset occupying the second of the five bays, disrupting the usual symmetry one expects in such classicism (04/04/2013)

from an angle the erosion is even more pronounced (04/04/2013)

the south and east elevations (onto Dixon Street). The building at ground floor level has been painted white on the Dixon Street facade. A second building continues the elevation a further eight bays northwards up Dixon Street (04/04/2013)

the top south-east corner of the parapet at roof level screening the sloped slate covered roof from disrupting the elevation (04/04/2013)

the pedimented windows of the first floor. Note the excessively eroded pilasters flanking the window and the single glazed timber sash and case windows (04/04/2013)

a further example of the extreme erosion of the first floor window details (04/04/2013)

ground floor window detail with banded ashalr to either side (04/04/2013)

decorative carved corbels flank each ground floor window (04/04/2013)

a rusted old alarm box adds to the overall sense of decay and neglect (04/04/2013)

the erosion on the east elevation is just as pronounced as the south with large areas of crumbling sandstone exposed by the loss of the protective outer layer which has 'blown off' (04/04/2013)

the detail of the east elevation pilasters has all but been lost (04/04/2013)

spalled stonework with the surface 'blown off' as moisture has travelled through the stone and probably owing to the freeze/thaw cycle 'blown off' the outer skin of sandstone (04/04/2013)

west end of the south elevation (04/04/2013)

the south elevation has an even more corroded former alarm box than that to be found on the east elevation (04/04/2013)

view looking southwards down Dixon Street at the eight bayed extension to the building and the three storeys of the 266-68 Clyde Street building (04/04/2013)

through the top level windows of the east elevation can be seen daylight piercing the top floor and the jagged edges of heavily charred roof timbers (04/04/2013)

in close up, it can be seen the roof has been utterly compromised by the fire of early 2013 (04/04/2013)

charred timbers and general debris cleared from the building laying on Dixon Street (04/04/2013)

click here to view next featured derelict building


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