Desmond Bank Academy, Glasgow

[Chudleigh]

Please could someone tell me where Desmond Bank Academy is or was?

[road_kill]

Desmond Bank was a house on the corner of Sauchiehall Street and Scott Street. It was listed at the time as being at 252 Sauchiehall Street. At some point the numbering of the street must have changed as 252 is now much closer to the city centre that this location.

The house was one of the leafy villas of Garnet Bank, then a suburb of the city.

Amazingly a large part of the property still exists today - A remaining portion of the house was "uncovered" during the refurbishment of the CCA in 2001 and is still there as part of the bar, I think. There used to be a thread about this on here somewhere bur damned if I can find it . It also served as the Cotton Club for a while in the 80s and 90s (and Maestros prior to that).

For at least a part of its existence, Desmond Bank appears to have functioned as some kind of private educational establishment - hence the "Academy", I guess. Although the whole building is still present on the 1893 OS, its frontage onto Sauchiehall Street had already been obscured. The beginning of the process which led to it it becoming lost amidst the more modern Grecian Buildings and its eventual rediscovery.

[road_kill]

A GEORGIAN villa is emerging after being entombed in a busy city centre street for more than 140 years.

Architects refurbishing the #10.7m Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow have revealed the house within the more familiar Grecian Buildings that were created by Alexander "Greek" Thomson in about 1860.

Probably owned by a wealthy merchant and built around 1820, the villa was one of several that once lined Sauchiehall Street.

The Grecian Building was built within the gardens of the villa, which has been rediscovered by architects Page and Park hidden behind decades of plasterwork and false ceilings.

Office staff at CCA, who say they had caught glimpses of the hidden villa in the past, have watched in amazement as the full scale of the house became clear.

The substantial two-tier sandstone villa, now covered by a glass roof, stands about 15ft high on iron stilts that were put in place at some time in the past to allow underground excavations.

Two handsome pillars frame the front door, which would have had a flight of steps leading to the garden and on to Sauchiehall Street.

Karen Pickering, project manager with Page and Park, based at the Italian Centre in Cochrane Street, Glasgow, said: "It really is quite exciting to see the villa being revealed after it was entombed within the Grecian Building for so long.

"It must have been a fairly wealthy merchant who owned such a property around the time of the industrial revolution. We don't know who they were and finding such records is very difficult.

"As the city continued to grow, this area became less residential and more commercial. Perhaps this family then moved out to a similar or larger property in the west end."

After two-and-a-half years of renovation work costing #10.7m, the CCA plans to reopen the arts venue in October.

The villa, transformed with the help of #7m lottery money from the Scottish Arts Council, will become the central performance area, and a courtyard cafe will allow visitors to relax in the former gardens. Two new gallery spaces are being created, with state-of-the-art technical facilities, as well as a shop and offices.

Morag Hendry, the CCA marketing manager, said: "The architects have brought together seven different buildings and established one unit under the same roof. By stripping away old walls and ceilings, the beauty and rawness of the original stonework has been revealed.

"The idea will be to come into the CCA, have a stroll around this wonderful old villa, use its garden space, go inside and take a walk overhead on specially built walkways."

In an image taken in the first half of the nineteenth century, an extension to the villa can be viewed "end on", on Scott Street, just up from Sauchiehall Street, near Glasgow School of Art.

[Guacho]

DSC_0125 by guachglw, on Flickr

This might have been what the thread 'lost villas of Sauchiehall St' was about- link in the index page doesn't work. Albany Villas, further out, behind the RHF museum.

[road_kill]

There's a t missing before the =359 at the end of the link in the index: Here's the thread about Sauchiehall Streets's Hidden Houses (which does mention the CCA thing, but wasn't the one I was thinking of)

Chudleigh, as ever, I'm interested to know what led you to ask

Perhaps a mod could fix the index link to Sauchiehall Streets's Hidden Houses (and perhaps move this thread back out of Random too...?)

[Chudleigh]

Many thanks for all the information, and I shall certainly go and visit the area. My query came from a burial in the Necropolis - poor John Burt (13/8/1821-14/4/1872) was a teacher at Desmond Bank Academy but ended his days in Gart Navel Royal as a 'lunatic' (teaching was tough even in those days!)

This in turn stems from a hobby of pottering round the Necropolis noting interesting monuments and then reseaching the 'history behind the headstones'. I'm presently looking into the background behind a white marble headstone, owned by the Battersby family, and engraved with a message from their daughter to her late husband 'See you later, glamour boy - Nancy' - how lovely is that! The headstone was designed by the Glasgow company of Wm Scott, and curiously carries an image of a speedway rider.

If anyone has come across any other interesting headstones in the Necropolis, I'd be very interested to hear from them.

Chudleigh

[road_kill]

Desmond Bank in 1867



(The 'white' house on the right)