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GLASGOW
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
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| This month the current University of Glasgow Library building celebrates its fortieth birthday. In acknowledgement of this auspicious occasion, our Special Collections 'book of the month' features a series of photographs that document the construction of the building in the 1960s. There will also be a dedicated exhibition in the Library's new display area on level 3 from the beginning of October. |
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Discussion surrounding the need for a new building for the University's Library began at a Library Committee meeting on 6 December, 1946. Years of negotiation and debate followed. It was obvious that the original 19th century accommodation in the Gilbert Scott building was no longer adequate; having changed little since the University's move to Gilmorehill in 1870, it was overcrowded and outdated, with insufficient space for both books and readers. This situation would become even more critical with the publication of the Robbins report (1961-63), recommending a huge and rapid expansion in higher education. The building took several years to plan and was conceived by Robert Ogilvie MacKenna, who was University Librarian for 26 years from 1951 until 1978. He wanted flexible uninterrupted floor space with open access bookstacks and plenty of reading space. His brief included "simplicity of general plan, adaptability to changing needs and patterns of teaching and service, and capability of further extension after completion of the full original design." The designer was William Whitfield. He drew up initial sketches and models for the projected building in 1961. He wanted it to be a landmark to complement the tower of the main University building, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1865. The 1960s structure was only intended to be Phase I of an ambitious development project. Phase II was to extend the work to the south to create a new museum and art gallery that would be connected to the Library. Phase III would then enlarge the Library to the north, expanding the space in an extension that would be a mirror image of the first building. |
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Our sequence of photographs begins with views of Bute Gardens and Hillhead Street, before demolition began to clear the site for construction. The area earmarked for the new building was at the crest of Hillhead Street, the highest point of the university site and a central position on campus. It was a confined site, and the planned building was therefore forced to be high rise in nature. Built at a time when the sacrifice of Victorian architecture was not a matter for great concern, gardens and several houses had to be demolished to make way for the new edifice. |
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The photograph to the left shows the extent of University expansion
occurring simultaneously: it is February 1965, and although work on the
Library has yet to be started, the Adam Smith building (completed in 1967
and now behind the Library building) and refectory (which opened in 1966 and
is now in front of the Library and currently being redeveloped) are under
construction.
The University as a whole desperately needed new buildings at this time. After the war, the University Grants Committee (UGC) was permitted to fund capital projects for the first time; extensions to various buildings were approved and new buildings planned. A new library building had been originally incorporated into a radical development drawn up by Sir Frank Mears in 1951. His proposals for Hillhead also included an art gallery, student recreational building, additional teaching facilities and student residences - all to be arranged around open quadrangles connected by covered walkways. Mears' grand design was never realized. |
| The contractor began work on Phase I of Whitfield's version of the new
library on February 15th, 1965. The architect in charge was Philip Sayer.
Work would take some three and a half years. The demolition of the buildings of Bute Gardens was the first stage of the process. This included the loss of an overflow store for library books at 7 Bute Gardens. Since there was no room for any more stock in the old library, some books had to be temporarily transferred to the Mitchell Library for storage. Rapid progress was made. At this early stage, it was hoped that the new building would be ready for occupation before the end of 1967. The skeleton of the Adam Smith building can be seen in the background of this photograph, taken on 26th April 1965. |
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The foundations and external walls were to be the most costly elements of
the project. The average depth of excavation was 23 feet, 6 inches.
Meanwhile, the presence of underground mining works meant that a reinforced
concrete raft (measuring 4 feet and 6 inches in depth) had to be built as a base for
the building. |
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Although construction proceeded at an impressive rate,
there were inevitably some delays. There were, for instance, unexpected difficulties
with the foundations of closely
adjoining buildings in Hillhead Street, resulting in the need for costly piling.
There was also
uncertainty over the planning permission needed to close Hillhead Street
once the building was completed; this delayed work beginning on the entrance porch and approach staircase. The hope for an
early start on the projected connecting art gallery foundered. By 1966
it was clear that the move to the new building would not now take place
until the long vacation of 1968 at the earliest. |
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The Library Committee report for the 1965-66 session remarks that this was a "difficult year that left behind it mixed impressions, amongst which feelings of frustration, uncertainty and strain were probably predominant. The new building, now beginning to cast an impressive physical shadow, also laid a heavy metaphorical shadow over all activity". Staff in the old library accommodation struggled to provide a service in a congested building that could no longer cope with increasing numbers of staff and students as the University outgrew itself in offering new courses. Meanwhile, MacKenna's time and energy was almost wholly taken up by the questions and problems of planning the new internal arrangement and staffing structure of his new library. |
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(click on these images to see larger versions of the
photographs) |
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| As the building grew, its imposing structure became obvious. It would soon dominate the skyline of Glasgow's West End. |
| The building was designed by Whitfield to have a
deliberately vertical emphasis. The original building consisted of 11 floors
(with an additional mezzanine floor in the closed stack sub-basement). The
main core working space was surrounded by six peripheral service towers that
housed "noisy" elements such as staff offices, study rooms, toilets, lift
shafts and staircases. The towers were structurally isolated at every level
to allow for differential movement. An earlier plan for the building would have produced a somewhat "dumpy" building mass "which would have been unacceptable as a contribution to the total architectural effect and to the distant skyline". Whitfield's incorporation of independent towers was praised by the Architectural Review for changing the outline of the building "from that of a lumpish cube to that of a cluster of vertical elements" thereby making a successful contribution to the skyline. Whitfield himself described it as "a kind of disruptive camouflage" and claimed to have been influenced by the geometrical form of Northumbrian border castles. |
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In its original configuration, the building provided some 925
reading places and held 750,000 books. It had to serve 8000 students, staff,
graduates and visiting scholars. In the long term, with the projected
extension, the building would have held 1.5 million books and had seating
for 2000 readers. The issue desk, central catalogue and reference service were located on the ground floor, along with the Hunterian Library and exhibition area. The basement and sub basement contained newspaper and microform stores, cloakrooms, a bindery, machine room/plant areas and photographic department, as well as a closed stack and Special Collections areas. |
| The eight upper floors each housed a subject or group of allied subjects, with a dedicated enquiry desk staffed by a subject specialist team. In his brief to the architects of 1962, MacKenna had written "The Library is to be thought of not as a storehouse for books but as a workshop for readers using books. The emphasis must be on bringing books and readers together, with the Library staff acting as intermediaries in the process and this should make itself evident as the keynote of the design from the moment one sets foot in the building". The move to a new building had provided the opportunity to reconfigure the library services as a whole and reorganise staff into dedicated subject areas. MacKenna was one of the earliest advocates of the importance of developing reader services, and was keen to make closer contacts between the library and University departments. Many of his staff entered the new library in new roles. |
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Huge tower blocks of concrete and glass have now gone out of fashion, but
at the time the architectural press were enthusiastic about this modern
addition to the University. The Architectural Review stated that this
dramatic structure was "important to Glasgow as well
as to the university because of its dominating site ... it adds a new major
climax to the city skyline". The Architect's Journal was more muted
in its praise. It agreed that this was "unquestionably a building of great
significance" which "contributes powerfully to the architecture of the
city".
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Other items of interest:Records of Glasgow University Library: this is a restricted collection and is currently being catalogued (MS Lib): enquire at Special Collections for further advice. See also the book of the months on University of Glasgow Old and New (July 2008) and Glasgow in Panorama (June 2004) which documents the West End landscape of 1907 before the University's further redevelopment of the area. The following have been useful in creating this article:A. L. Brown and Michael Moss The University of Glasgow: 1451-1996 Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996 James Ireland Lib Education S271 1996-B Return to main Special Collections
Exhibition Page Julie Gardham September 2008 |
