The Hidden Glasgow Forums

The work of Matchbox Demolitions (Glasgow) Ltd again I suppose

Ah, that's a shame, but hardly surprising...

Very sad end to such a cool building

glasgowken wrote:The work of Matchbox Demolitions (Glasgow) Ltd again I suppose

No doubt!!

And it was only last Thursday I predicted there would be another fire

Nowt to do with me though - I can account for my movements this afternoon

The Firemaster himself turned out for this one.

glasgowken wrote:The Firemaster himself turned out for this one.

Mr Sweeney was never a man to miss a media opportunity

The Egg Man wrote:

glasgowken wrote:The Firemaster himself turned out for this one.

Mr Sweeney was never a man to miss a media opportunity

Trying to justify his position for when the Brigades are merged no doubt - shame he wasn't so willing to appear on the news last week when the Brigade was slated for the red tape that prevented the ordinary & decent fire fighters completing a successful rescue of Alison Hume from the collapsed mine shaft in Ayrshire

Correct Brian .. this is the same bloke who courts public acclaim whenever he thinks it's on offer but bans firemen from any mention whatsoever of the Brigade on Facebook, Twitter etc.

A shitehawk of the first order.

thelonerover wrote:

rabmania wrote:Better that than disuse/demolition/waiting for the inevitable fire, but I hate the alien roof thing too.

The inevitable is seems to have happened. Just passed on the bus and it's well ablaze

was it the building you see the roof of when crossing the kingston bridge or the building further along which went on fire?

BenCooper wrote:This was an impromptu visit, but it's a bit of a Glasgow landmark so I thought it might be of interest...



Built in 1876, the amusingly-named Gusset Building was built as a warehouse for the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society, the first purpose-built warehouse of it's type in Scotland. The SCWS quickly outgrew the space, though, so it was converted to offices for various Co-operative Society operations, including the in-house magazine and later the ground floor was used for funerals. The building is now empty, and is up for sale with plans to convert to 75 flats, but current economic climate, blah blah blah...

from what i can figure out its this building that was on fire the building i associate with funerals was to the left of this pic as that is where my grandparents funerals were held and the roof of which you could see from the kingston bridge
latest on ceefax scottish news is that the building has been declared unsafe no doubt it will be demolished before the weekend arrives

The building is one although when you see the photographs online there are two distinctly different styles of buildings. I can confirm that the building you see in the above post was used by CWS Funeral Services. The bottom floor was 'operational' where the funeral offices were; windows facing you belonged to the Funeral Service Managers for Areas within the Scottish Region (except for Glasgow, which was a seperate region due to volume).

If you look at the Morrison Street side, the windows on the right nearest the fork in the road belonged to the General Office and Arrangement rooms, the windows at the rear belonged to the Service Room. In the middle of the building, were the viewing rooms and the side where the entrance was (119 Paisley Road) this was the main entrance, with stairs leading up to the Accounting Division for CWS Funerals (UK) and the General Manager's Office of CWS Funeral Services.

At the very rear of the building was the 'in' and 'out' loading bay, this was where the hearses or vans would reverse into and load up for funerals. It was also the route to the Mortuary and Embalming room.

The top two floors of the building were never used for anything during my tenure with CWS and were in a pretty derelict state back in the '90's...

The attic had lots of lovely old plans - I only photographed a few. The two parts of the building were separated by a wall and fire doors, so it might be possible to save the front part, though I doubt they'll do that.

Got a phonecall from a friend telling me that something "pretty big" was on fire "west of Sauchiehall Street" because that's where the huge plume of smoke had reached. Dashed down to Charing Cross and was able to follow it from there. Another friend told me you could smell it in Ruchill.