M246 Design for Students' Union hall for Queen Margaret College

In June 1904, Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh drew up plans and elevations for a two-storey Students' Union hall for Queen Margaret College. In the basement it had a dining room, kitchen, committee room, caretaker's accommodation, stores and services. On the ground floor there were an asssembly hall to seat 200, and meeting and reading rooms. No specific location for the building is indicated on the drawings. However, the arrangement of the building, with the entrance on the upper floor, and the naming of S. and E. elevations suggests that a site had been proposed, perhaps adjacent to existing College buildings. It is not clear how the drawings came to be commissioned; no mention is made of them in either the minutes of the Queen Margaret College Student Union or Glasgow University Court. 1

A Students' Union building and hall of residence were sought for the College from 1903 and a fund-raising bazaar was held in November 1906 in St Andrew's Halls. £7800 was raised towards the construction of a new building and to finance Student Union activities. The idea of a new building was ultimately abandoned: in 1908, a five-year lease was taken on 31 Buckingham Terrace, and alterations were made to suit the requirements of the Students' Union. 2

Authorship: The drawings are signed by John Keppie and the Italo-Scots Renaissance style of the elevations suggests his influence.