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Glasgow, 13 - 23 Tradeston Street, Randolph & Elder Engineering Works

Engineering Works (19th Century)

Site Name Glasgow, 13 - 23 Tradeston Street, Randolph & Elder Engineering Works

Classification Engineering Works (19th Century)

Alternative Name(s) 46 Centre Street; Kingston Street; Randolf & Elder Engine Works; Tradeston Street Engine Factory

Canmore ID 44341

Site Number NS56SE 76

NGR NS 5847 6468

NGR Description Centred NS 5847 6468

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/44341

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Copyright and database right 2024.

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Administrative Areas

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

Archaeology Notes

NS56SE 76 584 646

Engineering works, 13-23 Tradeston Street and 46 Centre Street, built 1858-60 for Randolph, Elder & Co, by W Spence, architect. An L-plan block with the Centre Street end four storeys high and 5 bays wide with windows in pairs. The wooden beams and floors were supported by cast-iron columns and wrought-iron suspension rods depending from the roof trusses. The Tradeston Street block, which had massive rockj-faced masonry Egyptian frontages to Tradeston Street and Kingston Street, was of one storey with two wide and high arched doorways. The block had heavy built-up wooden beams for the former travelling crane supported on brick piers and cast-iron columns. Between the four storey and tradeston Street portions was the extraordinary single storey part, where the built up beams supported side galleries and the roof as well as the crane. Demolished 1970.

J R Hume 1974.

Architecture Notes

NMRS REFERENCE:

ARCHITECT: William Spence 1858

ENGINEER: Angus Kennedy 1868

This Category B Listed building was demolished between 1965 and 1974. Information from NMRS Demolitions catalogue.

Activities

Publication Account (1986)

Built on a vast scale to the design of the industrial architect William Spence between 1858 and 1860, this building was commissioned by the engineers after whom it was named for the purpose of manufacturing their patent compound marine engines. Its construction probably demonstrates the rational limits to which timber could be exploited in association with iron for erecting specialised buildings of this type.

Basically, it consisted of two 50 ft-wide (15.24m) machine-halls, flanked by open galleries, extended at the E end into a multi-storeyed range. Within the machine-halls, which were open to the roof-structure, stability of the internal frame depended on four 8 ft-square (2.44m) corner-piers and intervening stanchions, plus the binding effect of the five-baulk gantry-beam traversing their upper stage. The stanchions, generously spaced at 38 ft (11.58m) centres in the w hall and rather less in the central hall, were of open boxed I-section with web-flange dimensions of 38 in (0.96m) by 18in (0.46m) at base, tapering to a flange-head of 12in (0.31m); they rose to an overall height of 44 ft 9in (13.64 m) and broke back at the upper stage to accommodate the gantry.

The latter, as well as carrying the travelling cranes, had the important function of providing a two-point intermediate support-system for the roof-structure and the suspended galleries. Details of the elaborate castings and binding straps for the secondary supports are shown on the drawing, as also are those for the strainer-truss at the main crossing. The roof-trusses, spaced at 10 ft (3.05m) centres, were designed in the manner of girders, with upper and lower booms, tensioned by 1 1/4 in (32mm) tie-rods and strengthened at all major joints by castings. The show-piece frontage encompassing the w machine-hall incorporated two massive dispatch doorways, each having a total access-area 32 ft (9.75m) high by 30 ft (9.14m) wide. Attributes of the pseudo-Egyptian style were the rusticated wall surfaces, the raked pilaster profiles and a bold gorge cornice beneath the parapet.

Information from ‘Monuments of Industry: An Illustrated Historical Record’, (1986).

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