Egyptian Halls, Union St, Glasgow

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Egyptian Halls, 84-100 Union Street, Glasgow

New commercial premises with 4 shops below, for James Henderson Robertson, iron manufacturer, c.1871-72

Building News 19th May 1871; Architect 13th July 1872; George; Glasgow Herald 3rd April 1874; J. Moyr Smith in Building News xxxv 16th April 1875 (reprinted in his Ornamental Interiors, Ancient and Modern, London 1887); Amelia; Memorial; Gildard; APSD; Builder 31st December 1910*; Glasgow Herald 6th October 1923; James Cowan, From Glasgow's Treasure Chest, Glasgow 1951, p.192; Law* ; Walker; Crook*; McFadzean*; Architects' Journal 6th May 1964*; Worsdall; G&W*; McKean*; BofS; P.D. Bell, Macdiss 1992; S&McK*; ATSN no.12 January 1995*, no.14 December 1995; Glendinning, MacInnes & MacKechnie, A History of Scottish Architecture, Edinburgh 1996*; List

Thomson's finest and most elaborate surviving commercial building. Iron-framed behind facade; the glazing which runs behind and separate from the upper colonnade below the entablature was framed in timber. In a letter to his brother, Thomson quoted the opinion of the Architect which noted that "This is probably the architect's most successful effort, and we doubt if its equal, for originality, grandeur of treatment, or imposing effect, could be found in any city, not excepting the metropolis itself."

Moyr Smith considered that Thomson

"was acquainted more or less with all styles, and selected Greek as the basis of future work; he mastered the style; was thoroughly imbued with the Greek feeling, and, gathering riches of fancy from sources unknown to, or overlooked by, the later Greeks, the style advanced in both flexibleness and fulness of fancy under his hands. And to carry out this work consistently and persistently, he resolutely refused all work in which he had not full power to use his own style; but his steady progress must have amply repaid him for the sacrifices he made, and the consciousness of reviving and carrying out a style until it reached that splendid culmination in the Union-street Warehouse, was surely a reward greater than has been vouchsafed to any other architect of this century."

The name is puzzling, but as the building was not so much a warehouse as a bazaar or shopping-centre with an exhibition gallery, it was surely taken from the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly in London with its neo-Egyptian facade by P.F. Robinson which had opened in 1812 with a lecture room, bazaar and large central hall or ‘Waterloo Gallery’ in which a complete Egyptian tomb from Thebes was once exhibited as well as curiosities, antiques and paintings by B.R. Haydon; hence the prominent magnificence of the Union Street facade.

From the Glasgow Herald, 11 December 1873:

GRAND OPENING of the EGYPTIAN HALLS and FANCY BAZAAR, UNION STREET The Directors have now the pleasure to announce that the BAZAAR will be OPENED to the Public on SATURDAY FIRST, at 12 o’clock NOON. ADMISSION FREE THE CHILDREN’S PARADISE! To be OPENED on SATURDAY FIRST on the SECOND FLOOR of the EGYPTIAN HALLS. Will be the FINEST DISPLAY of TOYS and FANCY PRESENTS ever got up. The Admission will be Free. At the GRAND FANCY BAZAAR… will be found the SINGER SEWING MACHINES in Various Sizes, from £6 10s to £40. The Most Acceptable New Year’s Gift for any Lady is a Singer’s New Family Sewing Machine.

From the Glasgow Herald, Saturday 13 December 1873:

The Directors have now the pleasure to announce that the BAZAAR will be OPENED to the Public TODAY (Saturday) at 12 o’clock Noon. SEWING MACHINES R.E. SIMPSON & Co, 11 Bothwell Circus, respectfully beg to inform their Customers and the Public generally that they have arranged with the EGYPTIAN HALLS and FANCY BAZAAR Company to occupy a Stall in their CENTRAL PREMISES….

From the Glasgow Herald, Wednesday 25 December 1873:

The Egyptian Halls and Fancy Bazaar Company (Limited) The MANAGING DIRECTORS invite the PUBLIC of GLASGOW to VISIT their MAGNIFICENT PREMISES, of which a Long Lease has been secured, and which have been fitted up in a style commensurate with the Architectural Grandeur of the Building as a Permanent and Central Purchasing Emporium. Between 50 and 60 Stalls on the First Floor have been leased by first class and leading Merchants of the City for the Display and Sale of their various Useful and Ornamental Goods, and from the success which has attended the Opening, the Directors feel satisfied that their enterprise has supplied a want long felt by the citizens, and that the Bazaar will become one of the permanent institutions of Glasgow. TO ARTISTS The DIRECTORS of the EGYPTIAN HALLS and FANCY BAZAAR COMPANY (Limited) having resolved to set apart the WALLS of one of their extensive HALLS for the EXHIBITION of OIL and WATER-COLOUR PAINTINGS invite Artists with Works on hand to communicate with the Manager as early as possible.

In the photograph by Thomas Annan taken soon after the completion of the building (above), posters in the second floor windows advertise Fraser’s Panorama of the “principal cities “ and “attractive scenery” of England, Ireland and Scotland together with a “concert party” at the Egyptian Halls while an advertisement in the Glasgow Herald in 1874 mentions “Grand Musical Promenade Concerts (free) under the able leadership of Mr Allen (late musical conductor Hengler’s Circus) in the Egyptian Halls daily... The Egyptian Halls, 92 Union Street, are now recognised as the great purchasing emporium of the city for all kinds of useful, ornamental, and fancy articles and goods of the newest and most varied description, suitable for marriage or birthday presents...” There was a Parian figure stand “near centre of the hall” and “A ladies’ lavatory and retiring room in connection with elegantly fitted up refreshment bar. Bellamy’s Exhibition, on the top floor, is a sight itself. The Bazaar is open daily...” Another advertisement noted “On the River Wye - Tintern Abbey, one of the Finest Old Ruins in England - It has just been added to Bellamy’s Collection of Architectural Models in the Egyptian Halls. Go and see it. Admission 6d.”

James Cowan recalled in 1935 that the building “was known for many years as the 'Egyptian Halls,' and used for public gatherings.” Central doorcase now destroyed.

84-100 UNION STREET

†Six new cast-iron lamp standards, 1872?

Cast by the Saracen Foundry of Walter Macfarlane & Co., Glasgow

Since removed

Illustrated Catalogue of Macfarlane's Castings, Glasgow 1882 &c.*; Gildard; Malcolm Stark, 'The Work of Alexander Thomson' in the Builder 11th April 1924; McFadzean*; Gavin Stamp in ATSN no.8 October 1993*

Lamp-posts placed at the pavement edge in front of Egyptian Halls and later removed by order of the Corporation in the 1890s (?). Two examples of an identical casting from the Saracen Foundry survive in London, at the junction of New Cross Road and Queen's Road, the other in Clifton Rise near New Cross Road, q.v. In his bound collection of lectures, articles &c. now in the Mitchell Library, Thomas Gildard pasted in patterns from Macfarlane's catalogue and next to this design wrote "Street Lamp-post. Bears a tripod having branches and scrolls."