Words: Stephen Kershaw
Pictures: Audrey Bizouerne & German Aljabjev
F or a very upright and sober organisation – one dedicated to the downfall of the demon drink – The Scottish Temperance League certainly choose an exuberant design for their offices.
The League was founded in Glasgow in 1844 and was based initially at 108 Hope Street, which became known as The Scottish Temperance League Offices. Later use has seen the building occupied by the Daily Record (converted in 1919 by Keppie & Henderson) and more recently, The Abbey National.
The offices on the upper floors remain occupied and a shop on the ground floor, a paean to Harry Potter, called The Root of Magic, sells film merchandise, snacks, drinks and potions.
The building is constructed from red Dumfriesshire sandstone and was designed and built by the architects James Salmon & Son in 1893-4, the design being attributed to James Gaff Gillespie, a joint recipient, incidentally, along with Charles Rennie Mackintosh, of the Glasgow Institute of Architects Prize in 1889.
Occupying a plot between St Vincent Lane and Renfield Lane, 108 Hope Street, is small in comparison to its neighbours but what it lacks in height, it more than makes up for in detail.
The building has been described as Flemish Renaissance or Franco-Flemish and its ornamentation has been remarked upon. It has been suggested that a building belonging to an organisation such as The Temperance League might have gone for a more sombre design. But when have anti-alcohol campaigners been accused of lacking a sense of fun?
The front elevation has many interesting details; on the ground floor, flanked by engaged Corinthian columns are two tall, arched windows with cherub masks in the keystones of each arch. Doors at either side of the ground floor windows are topped with corbels and cornices.
On the first floor, sculpted roundels, reminiscent of the Renaissance roundels of Andrea della Robbia, frame a large oriel window.
These are medallions with relief sculptures of draped, crouching female figures holding discs inscribed with the dates, between which, The League were active in their campaigns.
On the second floor behind a balustrade, there are two long rectangular, centre windows, with stone mullions and transoms.
Very stylised, very long, Corinthian pilasters stretch the full height of the second and third floors, drawing the eye upwards, from the rectangular windows of the second floor, to the arched windows of the third, both with stone mullions and transom windows.
Two rectangular relief panels with shields, both flanked by winged cherubs, fill the gap between the second and third floor windows. On the left panel there is a lion rampant and on the right the Glasgow Coat of Arms.
Between the arched windows of the 3rd floor is a roundel showing a protruding female head and below the rectangular windows of the second floor there is another high-relief sculptural element in the form of a cherub mask, more of which can also be seen on the pilasters.
The fourth floor is an attic, with a two-stage Flemish gable fronting onto Hope Street.
This gable end is an elaborate element, with curved stone buttresses which rise to the top of the building.
Within the gable end there is an exceptionally large, central arched window, with stone mullions, transomed as before.
There are three figures, one at the pinnacle, representing Temperance, one on the third floor on the left, representing Fortitude, and one on the right, representing, Faith.
Each holds a Temperance Shield for protection. The figures and all sculptural details were the work of Glasgow sculptor Richard Ferris.
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