IN LATE October 1962, another building was ablaze in Glasgow - or Tinderbox City, as it had become known.
This time, it was a city landmark engulfed in flames. St Andrew’s Halls on Granville Street was a much-loved building with a long history.
In the early 1870s, Glasgow was growing and expanding westwards, yet none of its existing venues, such as the City Halls, Queen’s Rooms and the Trades’ Hall, could offer a capacity in the thousands.
In order to make public entertainment and improvement more accessible to those living in the west of the city, a group of private citizens banded together in 1875. The aim of The Glasgow Public Halls Company (Limited) was to provide a venue with a capacity of almost three thousand.
The company acquired a site at Kent Road, Granville Street and Berkeley Street. Upon it, they built a complex of halls comprising a large main venue with adjoining smaller halls available for hire.
The St Andrew’s Halls was designed by James Sellars and the foundation stone was laid on May 22, 1875. Work on the new building was completed in 1877 and it cost £101,000.
The finished building was skilfully adorned with sculptures by the Mossman family. On either side of the doors at Granville Street, appearing to support the building, were atlantes designed by William Mossman.
These were a pair of statues whose classical namesake in Greek mythology, Atlas, was doomed the carry the Earth on his shoulders. Another family member, John Mossman, sculpted figures for the four large plinths along the frontage at Granville Street.
In addition to the halls themselves were meeting rooms and a ballroom. Dancing, concerts, public lectures, church meetings – all took place there and it quickly became a popular venue to visit.
It had always been the intention of the company to transfer St Andrew’s Halls into public hands. This eventually happened in December 1890, when Glasgow Corporation acquired them for £37,500.
The Corporation invested more than £6000 into updating, improving and decorating the halls, transforming it into one of their flagship public venues.
Promotional material for the halls held in our collections illustrates how large they had grown by 1902.
The impressively-titled Grand Hall with Organ could accommodate 4500 people, Berkeley Hall almost 1000 and Kent Hall 400. The Ballroom Suite could accommodate 250 couples dancing the night away.
Our collections also illustrate the variety of events held there. In February 1894, the Glasgow Gaelic Club held a soiree at the halls for their members, evidently an exclusive affair based on the gilt-edged invitations held amongst the Club’s archives.
Amongst James Maxton’s papers is a copy of his speech in favour of a Scottish Parliament which he delivered at the Halls in 1924.
The halls also witnessed moments of national celebration. We hold a souvenir book publication of the Coronation Ball held at the Halls in honour of the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in May 1937.
The evening’s entertainment on the night of October 25, 1962 would be the last ever held there. Overnight, a fire took hold and raged for hours, destroying the interior and leaving only its still impressive shell behind.
There were no fatalities but its loss was devastating to the city both architecturally and financially. Within the Strathclyde Fire Brigade archives we hold is the 1962 Report of the Firemaster of the City of Glasgow. It recounts that a million pounds worth of damage had been caused by the fire.
It would be many years before the Corporation rebuilt on the site and when it did, it was not to restore the halls.
Instead, the Mitchell Library (which backed onto the site and had been saved from the flames by a fire wall installed during the Second World War) was extended in the 1970s.
The extension work created The Mitchell Theatre. By the 1980s, the magnificent Granville Street façade once more admitted those who pursued knowledge and entertainment.
Today, the extension also houses the library’s public departmental areas, the registrars’ genealogy centre and the search room of Glasgow City Archives.
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