Alternative Names Bae Systems; Upper Clyde Shipbuilding Yard; Kvaerner Govan Yard; 1030; 1048 Govan Road; Elder Park; Industrial Marine ; General Offices
Site type ENGINEERING WORKS, SHIPYARD
Canmore ID 44196
Site Number NS56NW 36.00
NGR NS 54688 66024
Council GLASGOW, CITY OF
Parish GOVAN (CITY OF GLASGOW)
Former Region STRATHCLYDE
Former District CITY OF GLASGOW
Former County LANARKSHIRE

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Fairfield General Offices, 1030-1048 Govan Road, 1889, Honeyman & Keppie
Long classical red sandstone office block; wide projecting central entrance bay with `Modern French¿ detail. Pilastered first-floor windows to open-plan drawing offices. Doric columned tower at west, brick rear. Built for Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co., the pedimented doorway supports mermaids in an arched panel. Flanking, on trireme podia, shipwright and mariner sculptures. Cornice above entrance supports balustraded balcony, in a Corinthian columned, pedimented temple, with large stained-glass windows. Mosaic-floored vestibule, ornate wrought-iron stair balustrade. Carved wooden fireplace and portrait of Sir William Pearce in panelled boardroom. [Small column 109]

Fairfield Engine Works, 1048 Govan Road, c.1868, Angus Kennedy
Giant classical brick façade, with twin pilasters and blocked arches, to Elder Street, fronting 91m (300ft) square, four-bay workshop. The two western erecting shop bays, 1906 and 1916, Sir William Arrol, were built to match the demolished boiler shop, 1889, Andrew Myles, further to the east. Cast-iron internal frame and double mezzanine galleries on box girders, part removed 1938, and travelling crane over. Glazed ridge on slate roof carried on king posts.


Taken from "Greater Glasgow: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Sam Small, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk

Archaeological Notes

NS56NW 36.00 548 660


NS56NW 36.01 54687 66164 Giant Cantilever Crane
NS56NW 36.02 547 661 New Fabrication Shed (Kvaerner Govan Shipyard)

Fairfield Shipbuilding Yard and Engine Works, 1048 Govan Road. Founded 1863 by Randolph & Elder, engineers and iron shipbuilders. Though the yard has been extensively reconstructed within the past ten years, the large rectangular engine works, a high single-storey brick building with cast iron columns in the interior and pairs of pilasters at intervals along the sides, is unaltered (completed c. 1874).
The main office block, a particularly fine French Renaissance two-storey, 39-bay structure with a tower at the rear, was built in 1889 (J Keppie of Honeyman & Keppie, architects). The main office entrance, round-headed, with low relief sculpture, is flanked by statues of a shipwright and a mariner, each standing on the prow of a ship. The three-storey offices in Elder St. were added in 1903.
J R Hume 1974.

The Fairfield yard of Govan Shipbuilders Ltd. faces Elder Park. A long red sandstone ashlar office block by John Keppie of Honeyman & Keppie (1888-91) screens the shipyard; the style is Italian Renaissance. On the first floor, two continuous strips of window light the drawing offices; between them, a staircase window within the central temple front. Statues of a shipwright and an engineer stand on stylised ships' prows flanking the doorway. Three-storey offices in Elder Street, 1903. Art Deco W block of 1940 by G Bestwick. NW of this, the fine engine works of 1874 with pilastered brick walls which conceal a magnificent interior of massive cast-iron stanchions and raking stays, deep wrought-iron crane girders and substantial pine roof trusses.
E Williamson, A Riches and M Higgs 1990.

Architectural Notes

NMRS REFERENCE:
Architect: John Honeyman& Keppie - 1889.

Notes and Activities

Hay and Stell, G D and G P (1986) Monuments of industry, Edinburgh
Page(s): 124-8 pls. pp. 124-8 Held at RCAHMS A.1.5.HAY

Hume, J R (1974) The industrial archaeology of Glasgow, Glasgow
Page(s): 78, 83, 84, 261, no. K1 pls. 55-6 Held at RCAHMS D.12.4.IND

Sir William Arrol and Company Limited (1909) Bridges, Structural Steel Work, and Mechanical Engineering Productions partly reprinted from 'Engineering' London
Page(s): 164, 166 p.165, 167

Small, S (2008) Greater Glasgow: an illustrated architectural guide
Held at RCAHMS Quick

Williamson, Riches and Higgs, E, A and M (1990) Glasgow, The buildings of Scotland series London
Page(s): 596 Held at RCAHMS quick