By Hugh Dougherty
THE historic southern aspect of Glasgow’s Queen Street station roof arch is on view again for the first time in over 50 years, as demolition of Consort House, once the headquarters of Strathclyde Passenger Transport, goes on as part of the station’s £100 million makeover.
The cast-iron roof was designed by the North British Railway’s civil engineer James Carsewell and was built in 1880 by P & W MacLellan, whose Glasgow-made ironwork, including station roofs, canopy columns and lattice footbridges, is still to be seen across the British and Irish railway networks, and worldwide, especially in former British colonies.
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Passers-by have been stopping to watch the tricky demolition and to admire the emerging, 138-year-old, glazed arch which sits alongside the former North British Railway Hotel, now the Millennium Hotel on George Square.
However, despite pressure from heritage and conservation groups,
the arch’s southern aspect will disappear again behind new buildings when the station renewal is complete in 2019.
The scale and grace of the Victorian engineering of Queen Street station roof can also be appreciated inside the station which recalls the opening of the original station on the site by the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway in 1842.
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