Hamiltonhill Basin Workshops, Applecross Street, Forth And Clyde Canal, Glasgow, Glasgow, Glasgow

Description

Late 18th century with later alterations. 2-storey, 19-bay white painted rubble workshop range with irregular fenestration pattern sited immediately adjacent to the Old Basin, the former terminus for the Forth and Clyde canal link to Glasgow. The 7-bay section to the west is taller with a narrower 12-bay section to the east end with projecting stone painted cills and margins, some of which are arched. Timber boarded former clock housing with a pediment and finial to the eaves of the south west corner. Random rubble and brick buttress wall to rear elevation with 3 slender brick eaves stacks to centre. Grey slates to east section with glazed and sheet material to the taller west end. Various glazing patterns including multi-pane timber and side hung metal casements, some security bars to rear windows.

INTERIOR: The ground floor was seen in 2013 (upper floor not seen). Simple interior with later changes including brick support columns and asbestos cladding to ceiling.

Statement of Interest

This later 18th Century range of workshops are sited to the north bank of the Old Canal Basin and make a key contribution to the canal setting of a site which was, until 1790, the north terminus of the Forth and Clyde Canal, the oldest and longest canal in Scotland. The east section of the warehouse range may have been constructed between 1782 and 86 as a base for a coach service from the canal basin to the centre of Glasgow before the canal link spur to Post Dundas was completed; the now-blocked segmented arched opening may be physical evidence that this part of the building was used by carriages. The site then became marginalised and the buildings were adapted to serve as a hub of maintenance workshops for the Canal Company as the 1858 map marks the buildings as the Canal Company's Works. The buildings have a long and important historic association with the canal and they remain in use as workshops (2013) and the survival of their canal context is an important part of their interest.

The buildings have had incremental changes over time which represent the buildings' and site's history. In the early 19th century the range extended as far again to the east with a secondary parallel range to the south (now demolished) forming a 'street' at the head of which lay the former canal keepers house (see separate listing for Rockvilla House). The 1828 Map shows the buildings as 'Messer's Bairds Foundry', the Baird family had a strong association to the canals and Hugh Baird was the designer of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Union Canal (1817-22). The 1894 map shows a former tollhouse to the canal side and a further building lying to the west end of the range forming an enclosed courtyard to the rear marked as the 'Old Basin Canal Works'. It shows a pend giving access to the rear, now infilled, and an external stair to the middle of the canal elevation as well as a crane on the dock side, all illustrating that these buildings were an important industrial hub for the canal in the 19th century.

The canal and a number of other associated structures are a Scheduled Monument. See Scheduled Monument No 6771 for full details.

The Forth and Clyde Canal is the oldest and the longest canal in Scotland completed in 1790. The idea to link the east and west coasts of Scotland by a waterway was to avoid the difficult sea trade route around the north coast and was first considered in the reign of Charles II (1660-85). Surveys were carried out in 1726, 1762 and then in 1763-4 by Yorkshire engineer John Smeaton (1724-1792) who proceeded to design and oversee its first stage of construction. First called the Great Canal it was an impressive feat of engineering at 38.75 miles long and rising to 156 feet above sea level near the centre through 20 locks to the east side and 19 to the west.

The building of the canal was authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1768 with an estimated cost of £150,000. Construction began under Smeaton at the east coast in June 1768 but financial difficulties by 1775 meant that it stalled at the east side of Glasgow. Robert Mackell took over as the principal on-site engineer in 1777 but work stalled again and was not resumed until 1785 when a government grant of £50,000 allowed work to continue under Robert Whitworth (1734-1799). Whitworth was an experienced canal engineer from England who managed the project until completion when it opened to trade in July 1790. In 1791 the 3 mile branch link into central Glasgow at Port Dundas was opened.

The water for the canal was provided to the highest point by the Townhead Reservoir near Kilsyth and later by the Monkland Canal. As the canal was designed to link the two coasts it had to carry seagoing vessels. As a result of this it was relatively large at 2.4 metres deep and 19.2 metres wide in most places, and all the bridges were designed to clear the waterway to allow boat's masts to pass through. The bridges were first built as timber 'drawbridge' designs but by the 19th century these had been replaced by timber and cast-iron 'bascule bridges' which worked like a drawbridge and were lifted by hand-operated gearing. The major engineering projects were the aqueducts; the single-arched Kirkintilloch example by Smeaton of 1772, and the four-arched Kelvin viaduct by Whitworth of 1787-9. The latter was the largest engineering work of its kind in Britain when built.

The canal became an integral element in the industrial landscape in Scotland however there was a significant drop in income for the canals from 1840 onwards with the introduction of the railways. The Canal had other subsidiary business interests which continued after its usage declined such as providing waste water to local industries and even to the railways who had become their main competitors in the later 19th century. A subsequent Act of Parliament in 1867 authorised the sale of the Forth and Clyde and the Monkland Canal to the Caledonian Railway, who ran both transport systems until the railway became more profitable and the canals less used.

The Forth and Clyde canal was closed in 1963 due to lack of use and lay unused until 2002 when it was reopened following the 'Millennium Link Project', a major refurbishment scheme costing £84 million which required re-dredging the canal and raising the height of later road bridges. The project also reconnected the Forth and Clyde and Union Canals by designing the 'Falkirk Wheel' a major engineering project and the world's first and only rotating boat lift. The wheel was built to replace the 11 locks at Camelon, which were dismantled in 1933, by rotating the boats in paired gondolas to raise or lower them 35 metres. The canal is now used primarily by the leisure and tourist industry.

Previously listed as 'Applecross Street, Forth and Clyde Canal, Workshops'. Listed building record updated as part of Scottish Canals Estate Review (2013-4).

External Links

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