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M072 Glasgow Herald buildings

Address: Buchanan Street, Glasgow G1 3NU
Date: 1892; 1893–9; 1902; 1905–7; 1909–10; 1911; 1913–16
Client: George Outram & Co.
Authorship:

(Mackintosh)

The major alterations and additions to the Buchanan Street offices of the Glasgow Herald newspaper were one of John Honeyman & Keppie's biggest jobs, and one of the outstanding commercial building projects of 1890s Glasgow. The main element (phase 3 in John Honeyman & Keppie's job book) was a large new building at the rear in Mitchell Street. The job books also record a number of smaller, self-contained schemes for fitting out individual offices, and for other alterations.

Authorship: Mackintosh himself claimed responsibility for the Mitchell Street building. His handwriting is on many of the surviving drawings, at least one contemporary architectural periodical ascribed the 'individuality' of the design to him, and the architect W. S. Moyes, who later worked in Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh's office, stated the Glasgow Herald was Mackintosh's design. 1 However, it is extremely unlikely that such an important commission would have been placed entirely in his hands while he was still a young assistant, and there must have been substantial input from John Keppie, and possibly John Honeyman.

Alternative addresses:: 7 Mitchell Lane; 60–76 Mitchell Street

Cost from office job book: Phase 1: £357 1s 10½d; Phase 2: £132 14s 0d; Phase 3: £64,210 13s 5d; Phase 4: £537 6s 5d; Phase 5: £5033 9s 2d; Phase 6: £3065 4s 5d; Phase 7: £107 17s 6d; Phase 8: £3971 16s 7d

Status: Partly demolished, partly converted to new uses

Current name: The Lighthouse

Current use: Shops, offices, bar, exhibition space(2014)

Listing category: A: 63–69 Buchanan Street; A: 60–76 Mitchell Street

Historic Scotland/HB Number: 32994 (63–69 Buchanan Street); 33087 (60–76 Mitchell Street)

RCAHMS Site Number: NS56NE 294 (63–69 Buchanan Street); NS56NE 419 (60–76 Mitchell Street); 419 NS56NE 718 (7 Mitchell Lane)

Grid Reference: NS 58960 65224 (63–69 Buchanan Street); NS 58924 65239 (60–76 Mitchell Street); NS 5894 6522 (7 Mitchell Lane)

GPS coordinates: lat = 55.859631, lng = -4.255559 (Map)

Notes:

1: University of Toronto, Roberts Library: letter from W. S. Moyes to Thomas Howarth, 29 April 1947, B96-0028/017(3)

'Mackintosh Architecture' led by The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council; with additional support from The Monument Trust, The Pilgrim Trust, and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art; and collaborative input from Historic Scotland and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.