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Glasgow Tolbooth

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15-481: The Glasgow Tolbooth was a municipal structure at Glasgow Cross , Glasgow , Scotland. The main block, which was the meeting place of the Royal Burgh of Glasgow, was demolished in 1921 leaving only the steeple standing. The steeple is a Category A listed building . The first tolbooth erected on the site at Glasgow Cross dated back at least to the mid-14th century. After it became ruinous, construction work on

30-469: A fire in 1793, only the tower surviving. The current church was built in 1794, separately from the tower. It was substantially redeveloped in the 1980s as the Tron Theatre . Trongate was used as a route for the trams of Glasgow Corporation Tramways until this system was abandoned in 1962. The tramlines were subsequently removed. Glasgow Cross railway station was situated at the eastern end of

45-457: A new tolbooth started in 1626. It was designed by the master of the works, John Boyd, in the Scottish baronial style , built in ashlar stone and was completed in 1634. The building was laid out in two parts: a five-storey main block and a seven-stage steeple at the east end. The design of the main block involved a symmetrical main frontage with six bays facing onto Trongate ; the ground floor

60-659: A night time light projection onto the steeple was installed, under the Climate Clock initiative. The projected deadline and lifeline statistics counted the time window before 1.5 °C warming becomes inevitable, and the percentage of global energy delivered through renewables, respectively. This initiative was implemented in anticipation of the COP-26 summit in Glasgow in November 2021. Glasgow Cross Glasgow Cross

75-536: A third of the town and left around 1,000 families homeless. The fire also affected the areas of Saltmarket and Gallowgate . The Tron church was founded as the Collegiate Church of Our Lady and St Anne in 1525 by James Houston. It became a Protestant church after the Reformation and the tower was added in the late 16th century. The steeple was added in 1628. Most of the building was destroyed by

90-706: Is at the hub of the ancient royal burgh and now city of Glasgow , Scotland, close to its first crossing over the River Clyde . It marks the notional boundary between the city centre and the East End As a major junction at the gateway into the city centre, its five streets run: north up the High Street to Glasgow Cathedral , Cathedral Square and the Royal Infirmary ; east along Gallowgate and London Road, close to St Andrew's Square ; south on

105-620: The Saltmarket to Glasgow Green and the Justiciary Buildings ; and west along Trongate continuing as Argyle Street towards St Enoch Square and Buchanan Street . Its most recognisable features are the Tolbooth Steeple, the surviving part of the 17th century Glasgow Tolbooth , and the mercat cross replica commissioned in 1929 by William George Black , and designed by architect Edith Hughes . Linked to

120-502: The city of Glasgow , Scotland . Trongate begins at Glasgow Cross , where the steeple of the old Glasgow Tolbooth is situated, being the original centre of medieval Glasgow, and goes westward changing its name to Argyle Street at Glassford Street. In modern times, it forms the notional southern boundary of the Merchant City area. Previously known as St Thenew's Gait (the way to the supposed site of St Thenew's burial) it

135-410: The 17th century included Donald Cargill and Robert Ker of Kersland . The tolbooth also incorporated the burgh chambers and a tavern and its steeple was 126 feet (38 m) high. The building continued in these uses until the authorities relocated to the new public offices in the Saltmarket in 1814. After being sold for commercial use, the tolbooth was renovated to a design by David Hamilton and

150-538: The Tolbooth stood the Tontine Hotel and its Assembly Rooms, designed from 1737 by architect Allan Dreghorn with adaptations in 1781 by architect William Hamilton of St Andrew's Square. The Tontine was the exchange centre of early mercantile business and the focal point of political and social gatherings. A number of artist paintings over the centuries depict Glasgow Cross, the Tolbooth and Tontine. In front of

165-516: The Tontine was placed the equestrian statue of King William III, erected in 1734; now sited at Cathedral Square . After the Tolbooth Steeple, the nearby Tron Theatre , formerly the Tron Kirk, built in 1794 is one of the oldest buildings in the city. The presently disused Glasgow Cross railway station sits beneath the junction. Trongate Trongate is one of the oldest streets in

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180-403: The seventh stage, all surmounted by a corbelled parapet , a prominent crown spire and a weather vane . The weather vane was gilded by the decorative painter, Valentine Jenkin . The building was used as a prison and courthouse in the 17th and 18th centuries: a total of 22 executions took place at the tolbooth over that period. Covenanters who were held in the tolbooth in poor conditions in

195-427: Was rusticated with a series of openings, the first, second and third floors were fenestrated with rectangular windows with architraves while the fourth floor was fenestrated with segmental headed windows. The end bays on the fourth floor were flanked by bartizans and the roof line was castellated . The design of the steeple involved small leaded glass windows for each of the second to sixth stages and clock faces in

210-482: Was around the start of the 1500s that the name Trongate first began to be used. The name comes by virtue of a weighbeam erected in the mid-16th century, used for all goods requiring to be weighed for duty reasons, including from early shipping on the Clyde. Tron is a Scots word of Norman origin for weighing scales. The Trongate was one of the areas which was affected by a large fire on 17 June 1652 which destroyed

225-409: Was used as a drapery warehouse from 1874, before becoming the offices of a firm of auctioneers, John A. Bowman. By the early 20th century the tolbooth was very dilapidated: after the main block had been demolished in 1921, essential repairs and modifications were made to the west face of the steeple, where the tolbooth had previously adjoined it, to a design by Keppie Henderson, in 1923. On 4 June 2021,

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