Langside Halls: from Queen Street to Queen’s Park.
From commerce to community.
Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival 2021 has just kicked off, with a diverse programme of talks, tours, events and activities taking place throughout the week. The theme for the festival this year is Sustainable Communities, aptly tying in with COP26 which takes place in Glasgow in November.
For this year's The trail will highlight the journey that buildings go on though time to adapt to new social environments, highlighting the necessity to balance careful adaptation with conservation and embedding the principles of the sustainable re-use of buildings in seeking to address the climate emergency and attain net zero.
Langside Halls has a unique history. Beginning life on Queen Street in 1847 as the first National Bank of Scotland, it was then dismantled, moved and re-built stone-by-stone in 1902 to become a new public building at its current location on Langside Avenue, at the corner of Queen’s Park.
Langside Halls Trust was formed in 2013 and its aims are to develop and secure funding to fully refurbish Langside Halls and bring it up to modern standards. The Trust’s vision for the Halls is as a “community space for hire” and a locally programmed venue for cultural, social and wellbeing activities to enrich, entertain and attract the wider Southside community.
Working with Hoskins Architects, the Trust has created this tour to guide you on a journey from the Halls’ original site to their current location. Along the way is a series of stops, that demonstrate how buildings have been adapted over the years to suit the changing needs of the communities around them.
Walk or cycle this virtually guided tour in one go, or in parts; or simply enjoy it from the comfort of your armchair and look at each of the buildings in a new light the next time you encounter them.
Langside Halls began life on Queen Street in 1847 as the first National Bank of Scotland, and was then dismantled, moved and re-built, stone-by-stone, in 1902 to become a new public building at its current location on Langside Avenue, at the corner of Queen’s Park.
Between these two locations, we take a look the fascinating history of some of the re-used buildings that have played a part in shaping the industrial and social landscape of Glasgow's Southside.
Langside Halls Trust was formed in 2013 and its aims are to develop and secure funding to fully refurbish Langside Halls and bring it up to modern standards. The Trust’s vision for the Halls is as a “community space for hire” and a locally programmed venue for cultural, social and wellbeing activities to enrich, entertain and attract the wider Southside community.
There are plenty of Nextbikes to rent along our route and at each end of our trail, so whether you walk or cycle this virtually guided tour; or simply enjoy it from the comfort of your armchair, you can look at each of the buildings in a new light the next time you encounter them. This digital trail is available for free on the GuidiGo app or online here.
Image Key:
Etching of Langside Halls at its original Queen Street location
Visuals from our feasibility study for Langside Halls
Caffe Nero/former Subway ticket office, Al Khalil College/former Abbotsford School, former Royal Samaritan Hospital for Women, Langside Halls