October 15 2021

Barclays has unveiled its new Glasgow campus on the banks of the River Clyde in Tradeston, the first element of a larger mixed-use revitalisation of the area.

Home for up to 5,000 staff working across the bank's technology, operations and functions teams, the city centre hub seeks to bring staff closer together to improve innovation and collaboration by working with local technology start-ups.

Stretching to 500,000sq/ft across five buildings designed by Stallan-Brand and Halliday Fraser Munro the campus fronts a new landscaped active travel corridor incorporating space for community events as well as a curated space dubbed 'The Street', where social enterprises and entrepreneurs can showcase and sell their products to the public.

Paul Stallan told Urban Realm: "The Clyde Place project in Tradeston has realised the largest mixed-use redevelopment and regeneration initiative within the City Centre within one development cycle. This new urban quarter is already providing significant economic benefit, wider urban renewal and employment at a location that was in a derelict condition for over fifty years.

"Stallan-Brand working initially with Drum Property oversaw the locations development framework which informed all urban, townscape and architectural moves going forward. Key features like the removal of the five-lane road between the buildings and the river, the creation of a new public square and the incorporation of the two listed buildings were important strategies.

"Barclays Bank brought transformational thinking to the site with an inspired approach to placemaking and contributing to the life of the City. L&G also brought Glasgow’s first Build to Rent offer to Scotland to add a residential component to what is slowly becoming not just a place but a destination."

As part of the work, two historic structures at Clyde Place House and the BECO Building have been restored for public use, housing a community exhibition space telling the history of Clyde Place and a street food market for staff and visitors.

10 Comments

#1 Posted by Mick on 15 Oct 2021 at 12:02 PM

I’m not an architect but does this development make sense aesthetically and architecturally?

#2 Posted by GlazArch on 15 Oct 2021 at 12:30 PM

In terms of scale and massing I think it's a welcome addition to the riverfront. But more importantly, it opens up a dialogue between both sides of the river and the river itself which has been sadly lacking in the city for a very long time. Aesthetically I do take your point, it does read as quite a mismatch of ideas and styles which are perhaps quite alien to Glasgow but I'm actually willing in this case to overlook that aspect of the project because of the wealth of socioeconomic opportunities afforded through it and because of the way it's attempting to tie the long abandoned Southside back with the city centre...

#3 Posted by Roddy_ on 15 Oct 2021 at 19:07 PM

And so it starts… a little bit of Salford Quays / Spinningfields / Liverpool One / City of London arrives in Glasgow in the form of luminous vested security guards informing you that photography of the building and public spaces isn’t allowed. This was my experience about three weeks ago while the Heras fencing was still up. Perhaps worth a call from UR to Barclays PR to see if they’d like to comment or explain? Or perhaps they’re just exercising their dibs over what is now a privately – owned , publicly accessible space. The red line planning boundary of this project took in the site right up to the water’s edge including the existing waterfront walkway, so it’d be interesting to confirm if that part is now in private ownership.
A few weeks back, the City’s Planning Committee confirmed that the internal spaces in the Candleriggs project will not be adopted by Land and Environmental Services because they simply can’t afford it anymore (the joys of austerity). This means that a previously public street – Brunswick Lane will now be in private hands and likely to be patrolled by the same types of security telling you what’s what.
As an experiment, I suggest taking some pics along Clyde Place/ Tradeston St / Centre Street to see how far you get before being challenged.

#4 Posted by Finlay George McCallum on 15 Oct 2021 at 20:53 PM

#1 sums it up well

#5 Posted by Roddy_ on 16 Oct 2021 at 15:34 PM

@ Mick
As commercial fish tanks go it is a slight improvement to those on the other side of the river, though the one pre-existing waterfront building -hollowed out for corporate shindigs- and the residential block with its non-active frontage to Kingston Street will be a fitting legacy for this new emerging ‘quarter’. The new energy centre and ancillary external elements of the Beco Building look certain to sterilise this new private/public domain further.
The proposed exotic landscaping scheme of Gensler with its grassy knolls- in the style of Gross Max at the Riverside Museum - might have been a decent foil to the riverfront but seems to have evaporated without question in puff of value engineering.
Anyone that tells you this is great architecture or urbanism needs to watch some Adam Curtis documentaries...

#6 Posted by Mick on 17 Oct 2021 at 19:14 PM

Thanks for the replies. I have a further query. What makes a great building? Where are they in Scotland? For me it’s simple. I want to look at something bold, something that’s uplifting , something that makes me smile. But I want to be challenged too. Make me think about what’s going on. Upend my assumptions of what a great modern building should be and that includes anything from a garden shed upwards.

#7 Posted by David on 18 Oct 2021 at 14:10 PM

Mick,
I suspect given you've felt you've had to ask these questions means the answer is probably not this scheme.

#8 Posted by Neil C on 18 Oct 2021 at 14:32 PM

This site has so many desktop experts posting.

#9 Posted by Andre L on 20 Oct 2021 at 15:05 PM

An interesting point from Roddy. Do people realsie hw much space in Galsgow is actually private space publicly accessible, into which they are 'invited' eg shopping centres which may not be obvious. It would make an interesting phd study.

I wonder who is curating the curated exhibition space?

#10 Posted by UR on 25 Oct 2021 at 12:47 PM

Hi Roddy - Barclays confirmed to me that they cannot regulate people taking photos in the public realm, it's the same rules as anywhere else. They can't comment on this specific instance without more details on the precise circumstances.

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