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Parkhead Savings Bank

M272 Parkhead Savings Bank

Address: 1448–1456, Gallowgate, Glasgow G31 4ST
Date: 1906–8
Client: Savings Bank of Glasgow
Authorship: Authorship category 4 (Office) (Office)

Colour photograph of Parkhead Savings Bank from E.

This is one of several suburban branches of the Savings Bank of Glasgow, built on important corner sites and endowed with landmark towers. 1 It achieves the scale necessary for its prominent site by combining the single-storey domed banking hall with a block of tenement flats above shops. The baroque design draws heavily on John Honeyman & Keppie's unsuccessful competition entry of 1894–5 for the Royal Insurance Company offices in Buchanan Street, on which Mackintosh worked. The tower in particular is very close to the earlier design.

Authorship: John Keppie was personally appointed architect for the Parkhead branch by the Committee of Management of the Savings Bank of Glasgow. 2 He submitted reports and attended meetings, the bank corresponded directly with him, and there is no doubt that he was responsible for the building. 3 The drawings approved by the Dean of Guild Court are naturally signed with the practice's name rather than Keppie's, but surprisingly the signature is in Mackintosh's hand. 4 However, there is no evidence that Mackintosh contributed to the design.

Alternative addresses:
Burgher Street
Great Eastern Road
Tollcross Road

Cost from office job book: £14,003 1s 6½d

Status: Standing building

Current use: Offices and residential (2014)

Listing category: B

Historic Scotland/HB Number: 33634

RCAHMS Site Number: NS66SW 302

Grid Reference: NS 62521 64152

GPS coordinates: lat = 55.851072, lng = -4.197284   (Map)

Notes:

1: Fiona Sinclair, 'North, South, East and West: A Process of Banking Patronage', Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society Newsletter, 44, Autumn 1986, pp. 5–8.

2: University of Glasgow Archive Services: Savings Bank of Glasgow records, Minute Book 8, GB0248 TSB 63 1/1/8.

3: University of Glasgow Archive Services: Savings Bank of Glasgow records, letters books, GB0248 TSB 63 1/11/28, GB0248 TSB 63 1/11/29, GB0248 TSB 63 1/11/30.

4: At least one other drawing signed by Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh was in the possession of the then owner of the building in 2004: The Hunterian, University of Glasgow: unidentified press cutting.