March 27 2020

Glasgow City Heritage Trust has announced the completion of a full refurbishment of the exterior to The Grant Arms, a B-listed Dickensianesque survivor on Argyle Street in the heart of the city centre.

The charitable body provided £100k of grant funding to Scottish Transport Credit Union for repairs to a rare survivor from the historic village of Grahamston, remodelled in 1908 by architect James Hoey Craigie into a Glasgow Style public house with commercial space above.

This led to the appointment of Pollok Hammond and Laing Traditional Masonry to replace failing harl on upper floors, as well as making good poor quality repairs following a mid-nineties fire.

In a statement, the trust wrote: “In many ways what James Hoey Craigie was doing here was similar to what Charles Rennie Mackintosh did with the Willow Tea Rooms whereby an existing tenement was radically remodelled to achieve a very different harled aesthetic. As such, a similar series of issues emerged where the failed harl resulted in water ingress and rot to the timberwork. Therefore, it is good to see the building being returned to its original condition as one of the key Glasgow Style buildings on Argyle Street.”

Framing the entrance to Hielanman’s Umbrella the Grant Arms is still to receive eight decorative lamps which remain in storage awaiting assembly amid the coronavirus lockdown. It is hoped that the ground floor frontage and entrance will be refurbished at a later date to complement public realm improvements associated with the Avenues project.

1 Comment

#1 Posted by Nairn's Bairn on 27 Mar 2020 at 15:10 PM

One of the last Grahamston buildings - well done GCHT.

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