Lion Chambers View of figure on West front

Description Lion Chambers View of figure on West front

Date 13/8/1992

Catalogue Number B 74416

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 710133

Scope and Content Figure of a judge on west façade of Lion Chambers, Nos 170-2 Hope Street, Glasgow The Lion Chambers were built 1904-7 to designs by architects James Salmon (1873-1924) and John Gaff Gillespie (1870-1926) for their client, William G Black, a lawyer and member of Glasgow Art Club. They were designed to house a basement printing works, ground-floor shop, law chambers and artists' studios on the top floor. This shows the figure of a judge, leaning out over a lectern in his robes and wig. A similar figure mirrors his pose on the opposite corner of the bay. In the centre is a sculptured book and oil lamp with the inscription 'NOX SED CRUX LUX' ('although it is night the cross gives light') linked to the figures by moulded swags of drapery. The thin (100mm) concrete walls are divided by a variety of window forms. This building was one of the earliest in Glasgow to be built using concrete. The system used was that of the French pioneer of reinforced concrete architecture, François Hennebique (1843-1924). The small site (just 10.9m x 14m) was imaginatively used by building a towering, eight-storeyed structure, a design made possible by this new method of construction. This building has been selected as one of Scotland's key 20th-century Modern architectural monuments. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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