Description
The Glasgow Academy Archive would like to invite you to the annual Ronnie Woods Memorial Lecture for 2024.
Guest lecturer: Niall Murphy
Title: ‘Hugh and David Barclay and the Golden Summer of Glasgow’s Architecture‘
Date: Thursday 25th April 2024
Time: 6:30pm tea & coffee | 7pm start
Location: Watson Auditorium, Saunders Centre, Kelvinbridge | G12 8HE
Tickets: £5
Niall Murphy will talk about the buildings of brother architects Hugh and David Barclay (1828-1892 and 1846 – 1917) both members of Alexander Thomson’s circle, who were best known for the many schools they designed often as Italian Palazzos. Amongst others, these include The Glasgow Academy at Kelvinbridge. In 1879 they won the commission for Greenock’s Municipal Buildings which, with its landmark tower, took them into the premier league of Glasgow practices. After his brother’s death David embraced a more flamboyant Northern European Renaissance style in a series of vast warehouses doted around Glasgow’s city centre. His crowning achievement was winning the 1901 competition for the enormous Glasgow and West of Scotland College of Science and Technology on George Street which rivals the City Chambers in scale. Glasgow, wouldn’t be Glasgow without the buildings of the Barclay brothers.
Speaker biography:
Niall Murphy is the Director of Glasgow City Heritage Trust and is a conservation architect, heavily involved in heritage, conservation and community issues in Glasgow. Niall is also Chair of Govanhill Baths Building Preservation Trust who are in charge of getting the finest surviving Edwardian Baths complex in Glasgow back into sustainable use as a Health and Wellbeing Centre. He helped setup and secure funding for the ‘Make Your Mark’ East Pollokshields and Port Eglinton Charrette in 2016 having previously been chair of Pollokshields Heritage, Planning Convener for Pollokshields Community Council and a member of the Glasgow Urban Design Panel. Between 2016 – 2018 he was invited by the Minister for Local Government and Housing to be a member of the Development Management Working Group for the Scottish Government’s Planning Review.
Niall regularly lectures or does walking tours on architecture, heritage, and urban design issues. Niall has won the Glasgow Doors Open Day Excellence Award for Outstanding Talk (2023) and for Inspiring City Tour (2017), the Glasgow Doors Open Day Above and Beyond Award (2014), the Sir Robert Lorimer Award for Sketching (1996) and, in addition to nominations for Saltire Awards and GIA Awards was nominated for the Scottish Civic Trust’s My Place Award for Civic Champion in 2015.
