''I am the embodiment of all that has made for Glasgow a memorable achievement . . . I die tonight. May memories of me abide in your hearts.”
This was the farewell message which marked the closure of the 1938 Empire Exhibition, which, over its six-month run, attracted over 12.5 million people to the city’s Bellahouston Park - including over 360,000 on the final day alone.
Now, over eight decades on, a leading Scottish architect and a former Glasgow School of Art academic have backed a call for the lost architectural marvel that formed the centrepiece of the exhibition to be rebuilt.
The Tower of the Empire, known to Glaswegians as ‘Tait’s Tower’, stood over 300 feet (91 metres) tall and was said to be visible from over 100 miles away.
Designed by Scottish modernist architect Thomas Smith Tait and built by the Glasgow Roofing and Structural Steel Company in Possil, the art deco style tower boasted a restaurant at its base and three observation decks that could accommodate up to 600 people.
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Glasgow MSP Paul Sweeney has issued a call for the tower to be rebuilt in time for the exhibition’s centenary, adding that it “would be fairly straightforward to do with modern techniques”.
The call came after the Tower was voted the most favoured lost structure from the 'Art Deco Era’ in a poll conducted by Art Deco Society UK, a not-for-profit organisation which brings together lovers of Art Deco design from across the British Isles.
Speaking to The Herald, Mr Sweeney said a reconstructed Tait’s Tower, as both an observation tower and events space, would make for a “spectacular addition to Glasgow’s tourist trail”.
He said: “Tait's Tower is a deserved winner of the Art Deco Society UK’s poll of the most favoured lost structure from the 'Art Deco Era'. I would love to see it reconstructed in time for the centenary of the 1938 Empire Exhibition at Bellahouston Park. Constructed in just nine weeks, using a steel framework and corrugated sheet steel plating, it would be fairly straightforward to do with modern techniques, especially as all the concrete foundations are still in place.
“As we saw from the construction of the House for an Art Lover nearby between 1989 and 1996, based on a 1901 Art Nouveau house design by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife, Margaret MacDonald, it is possible to bring these lost designs back to life and to do so in a way which is commercially successful. Reconstructing Tait’s Tower as an observation tower and events space would be a spectacular addition to Glasgow’s tourist trail.
“The Glasgow School of Art has already undertaken highly accurate digital reconstructions, so the design is there are ready to be realised once again. Hopefully, we might also save another remnant of the 1938 Exhibition, the derelict and demolition-threatened South Africa Pavilion from the old ICI site at Ardeer and reassemble it at Bellahouston Park, too.”
The Tower, regarded as ‘Scotland’s first skyscraper’, was dismantled in July of 1939 after the Empire Exhibition closed. While the story persists that it was demolished as it might be a landmark for German bombers, it is believed that the Tower was always intended to be temporary.
Construction of the metal-clad Tower reportedly cost £60,000 - equivalent to around £5.1 million today - with half of that figure recouped at the turnstiles by the one and a quarter million people who ascended it to obtain unrivalled views both of Glasgow and the admire views of exhibition’s gleaming white showcase pavilions, lake and fountains below.
As the centrepiece of the exhibition, which showcased British industry and brought industries of Glasgow and Scotland to the forefront, the Tower’s image featured on many of the souvenirs that could be bought at the exhibition site.
A solid silver model of the Tait Tower was also created as a prize for The Empire Exhibition Trophy, a football competition held in conjunction with the exhibition that was competed for by the best clubs in both Scotland and England. The trophy, which was presented to tournament victors Celtic, remains on display in the trophy room of Celtic Park.
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To mark the 70th anniversary of the Empire Exhibition in 2008, contemporary Scottish artist and sculptor Doug Cocker was commissioned to make two related wooden sculptures paying ‘gentle homage’ to the Tower, both of which are situated in Bellahouston Park.
Professor Alan Dunlop, a Fellow of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, said he would support a move to see the lost structure rebuilt to once again tower over Glasgow from the park.
Prof Dunlop said: “I would absolutely like to see that being replicated and rebuilt. There’s absolutely no doubt about that. I would like to see that. I think it was a phenomenal piece of architecture - as good as anything that’s ever been built by Frank Lloyd Wright in the United States.
“I’m not usually a person that likes to see things from the past replicated and buildings rebuilt from the Victorian era but as far as Tait’s Tower is concerned I would make an exception to that. It was such a forward-looking structure, and quite a phenomenal structure. I’ve drawn it many times. I think I would support the idea that it gets rebuilt. And Bellahouston Park is absolutely the right place for it.”
In 2007, the Tower was included in a 3D graphic reconstruction of the Empire Exhibition by Glasgow School of Art’s Digital Design Studio, using sketches and drawings, photographs and film footage sourced from the archives of Glasgow’s Mitchell Library.
The work was commissioned by former Deputy Director of The School of Simulation and Visualisation Ian Johnston. He has also backed the call to see Tait’s Tower rebuilt ahead of the centenary of the Empire Exhibition.
He said: “I’m absolutely in favour of it being rebuilt. I think if it were to be rebuilt then it might have to be brought up-to-date in all sorts of ways. I think it would have to be built to current building standards and so on. It might not look identical but it could be very close to it.
“There have been previous calls for this, which I think were all widely supported by the people of Glasgow that this should be put back. It could be an amazing part of the Glasgow landscape to have something like this rebuilt. It resonates with everything that Glasgow was capable of at that time, its industrial prowess and so on.”
Mr Johnston also believes that, should the Tower ever be rebuilt, all references to Empire would need to be dropped from the new building.
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He added: “I think it would also need some sort of interpretation to go along with it because most people in Glasgow today won’t know about the Empire Exhibition.
“But it's a wonderful piece of our history and I think Glaswegians today should know that these things happened because of the huge economic clout that Glasgow wielded in those days because of its industrial importance.”
The ex-academic also pointed out that, should the call to rebuild the tower be successful, “half the job” is already done, given the fact that the foundations for the original tower remain in position.
He said: “One of the first things they had to do was to put in a 3,000-ton block of concrete on the top of hill at Bellahouston Park as the foundation for the Tower, and all the steelwork would be bolted to this concrete slab. It’s still up there. Theoretically that’s half the job done in a sense in terms putting the Tower back up.”
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