Recording Your Heritage Online
Event ID 565557
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Recording Your Heritage Online
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/565557
British Linen Bank, 816-818 Govan Road, 1-3 Water Row, 1897, John Gaff Gillespie of James Salmon & Son
Simple composition with exuberant Glasgow Style external decoration, on a conventionally constructed tenement. Designed at the same time that Gillespie's colleague and future partner, James Salmon Jr (son of William Forrest Salmon and grandson of James Salmon Sr), devised the subtle Art Nouveau interior for the same bank at Main Street, Gorbals. The ground-floor classical stone façade features lively Art Nouveau capitals by the Dutch sculptor, John Keller. The corner entrance is embellished with a trireme's prow and two 'BLB' sails, flanked by two 'Winged Winds' by another friend of William Forrest Salmon, Francis Derwent Wood, the young English sculptor who had just been awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Academy Schools. The entrance is topped by a remarkable lead-covered open crown of thorns.
Taken from "Greater Glasgow: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Sam Small, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk
