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Glasgow, 142 Bell Street, Cleansing Department Depot

Depot (19th Century), Stable(S) (19th Century)

Site Name Glasgow, 142 Bell Street, Cleansing Department Depot

Classification Depot (19th Century), Stable(S) (19th Century)

Alternative Name(s) Watson Street; Glasgow Corporation Cleansing Department Depot; Bell Street Stables

Canmore ID 148308

Site Number NS56SE 294

NGR NS 59777 64914

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/148308

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Glasgow, City Of
  • Parish Glasgow (City Of Glasgow)
  • Former Region Strathclyde
  • Former District City Of Glasgow
  • Former County Lanarkshire

Activities

Photographic Survey (18 October 2016 - 19 October 2016)

Photographic survey of the complex was completed 18-19 October 2016, through the Threatened Building Survey programme, the site being subject to a proposal for conversion to form flatted dwellings.

Opened 30 May 1898 as a replacement facility for the Cleansing department staff and stud previously sited at Old Parliamentary Road. Closer proximity to the city centre would allow for street cleaning to be carried out “more efficiently and economically ... than was previously possible.” The complex also housed the department’s general store and granary - department farms supplied all the hay for the stud, straw and grain also being supplied with the shortfall bought under contract from local dealers – for distributing to depots across Glasgow.

The northern range contained general and grain stores, offices and a saddlery. A manager’s flat runs across the third floor, accessed through a separate Bell Street entrance, the fire-proofed stair well evident through the lower floors of the range. The eastern range, fronting Watson Street, contained stabling over three floors for the department’s Clydesdale horses. A series of grit (clinker?) covered ramps allow access between floors, timber struts at turns remain extant (which may have been utilised throughout the ramp system) and provide extra purchase. Two stables, each containing stalls for ten horses, are accessed along cast-iron covered gangways. Each gangway retains a water tap, hoist and winch for the movement of feed and bedding to upper floors and a shute system to remove manure. Separated from the stalls by the ramp, each floor also contained a stable of four loose boxes. The undercroft of the range housed the department’s carts and later vans. Further offices and staff washing facilities were located in the northern-most ground floor.

Each stall contains cast-iron horse troughs and Dickie-brand automatic water drinkers. Vents above each stall may draw additional ventilation through flues in the brick walls: a similar arrangement was recorded at the Railway Stables (to the adjacent College Goods Station, now demolished) at Bell Street, see: https://canmore.org.uk/site/259789.

The original plans detail the courtyard range as a series of loose boxes. Given their separate location, these may have been utilised in part as isolation bays: two particular infectious equine diseases being prevalent in the form of Glanders (eradicated in the UK 1920s) and Strangles.

Significant alterations were carried out in the 1950s as the department mechanised. Extensive dining and washing facilities were inserted into the 1st floor stables and northern range for cleansing staff. The third floor was adapted for use by the mounted police with a new ramped access, exiting the building via Watson Street, inserted. Facilities for female staff were created by the removal of stalls or loose boxes (loose boxes are indicated on the original plans but stalls are in situ) on the third floor. The granary appears to have adapted to stores, a spiral staircase being replaced by a new stairwell in the SE corner. The courtyard range has been adapted/replaced by plant machinery housing.

Original architectural plans for the complex and those for the 1955 alterations are held in Glasgow City Council archives. Reports on the work of the cleansing department can be found in the Corporation’s Municipal reports and feature in the 1949 Glasgow Corporation information film “Keeping our City Clean” available through the National Library of Scotland's Moving Image Archive.

The complex, following an extended period of limited use, has been acquired by the Wheatley Group for conversion to form mid-market rental flats through plans prepared by Collective Architecture.

Visited by HES Survey and Recording (IF & RA) 18-19 October, 2016.

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