Description

John B Wingate (architect), Considere Constructions Ltd (consulting engineers), 1957-60. 4-storey, rectangular plan, 10-bay concrete framed industrial building. Red facing brick and blue-black engineering brick to principal elevation, with common brick on end elevations. Flat concrete roof with brick-faced housing for lift machinery on SW. Large linear metal framed multipane glazing separated by narrow pilasters and framed by concrete margins. Metal shutter doors. Loading bay with metal door at first floor.

INTERIOR: mainly open plan floor layout with some brick and plaster partitions and plasterboard and glazed partitions on upper floors. Concrete slab floors with Granolithic finish. Concrete stairs with metal balustrades and rails. Main walls of painted brick. Internal timber doors from the 1970s and 1980s. Heavy goods lift with metal shutters.

Statement of Interest

No.4 Rogart Street is an important example of a post-WWII industrial building constructed in an area of Glasgow closely associated with engineering. Designed by the architect, John B Wingate, it was completed before May 1960, and is notable for minimal architectural detail. An early Scottish example of the frank application of the concrete box frame, the design here is one of practicality and simplicity. Large expanses of glazing set within narrow raised concrete margins, with the glazed bands diminishing in depth through the storeys. Austere by comparison with pre-WWII examples of this type of building, such as the SCWS Store (1934), Dundee (see separate listing), embellished with classical and art deco motifs and ashlar cladding. Wingate's 1957 design consisted of a 4-storey office building in Broad Street, this 4-storey stores building in Rogart Street, and 3 ranges of single-storey assembly bays between. The elevations follow a straightforward pattern, consisting of panels of facing brick with large metal framed windows, which relied upon crisp detailing and proportion for architectural effect. Although the Broad Street and Rogart Street buildings were similar in construction, the stores building had larger columns and thicker floor slabs, as extremely heavy machinery and components were kept there.

John B Wingate (1908-95), had studied at Edinburgh and Glasgow School of Art and was articled to James Miller. In 1930, he was a draughtsman in the office of James M Monro, then a partner in James B Dunn & Partners, in 1931, before setting up in practice on his own account in 1932. By 1950 he was also a qualified engineer. In the 1930s he designed extensions for the City Bakeries, in Glasgow, and, during the 1950s, a number of other bakeries and industrial buildings, as well as the Lanarkshire Administrative Buildings, at Thorntonhill. During the 1960s, his company built several public houses for Waverley Taverns Ltd, and had major commissions for a number of swimming pools at Elgin, Kirkintilloch and Montrose. The consultant engineers, Considere Construction Ltd, was one of Britain's first, and foremost, specialists in reinforced concrete construction, best known in Glasgow for the George the Fifth Bridge (1928).

Mavor & Coulson Ltd (est. 1881), a company of international reputation, specialising in the manufacture of electrically operated mining machinery, including saws, coal cutters and conveyors, was a major contributor to the industrial and engineering heritage of Glasgow and an important local employer. During WWII, they steadily expanded their Bridgeton premises, including a small concrete framed building, with potential to be enlarged, was erected in 1944, at Brook Street, by the architect, George A Boswell (1879-1952), modernist designer of cinemas and factories, including Templeton's extensions ' see separate listing. Wingate's elevations to Rogart Street were intended to match the style of the Boswell's Brook Street building, presumably a template agreed upon for phased redevelopment of the entire Mile End thread works site, which was a consequence of massive investment in the National Coal Board boosting demand for mining machinery, in the 1950s. 4 Rogart Street, currently in use as a college of building trades by Glasgow Metropolitan College, retains its original metal-framed windows intact and the layout is flexible, mainly open-plan, with the structural elements exposed. (2010)

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77782042

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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