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Glasgow Central Station - Part 1

Paul Lyons explains some interesting facts about Glasgows Central Station building and construction in 1879.

19 January 2009 15:08 GMT

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Paul Lyons, a Historian and Control and Information Officer at Glasgow Central Station relates how the station was opened in 1879 and originally had eight platforms, before the 1906 extension.

It (and the hotel beside it) was designed by Robert Rowand Anderson, a well-known Scottish architect also noted for his design of the Scottish National Portrait Galley in Edinburgh and Mount Stuart House in Bute.

The station was built for £2 million (equivalent of £30-50 million in today’s money) and 14,000 men were employed in its construction. Many were ‘navigators’ (navvies) of Irish extraction, who, according to Mr Lyons, sustained themselves on beer and pies. It is Scotland's largest station, with 98,000 pasengers daily.

Glasgow Central Station is in the Guinness Book of Records as having the biggest glass roof in the world. Early in World War II, the glass was painted black to prevent it being so easily visible from the air. The glass was eventually replaced by RailTrack, which has made the station much lighter than formerly.

The roof structure itself is a piece of significant engineering, with no central supporting arms. Its box girder construction allows the weight to be taken by columns at either side. Also of interest are the cathedral-like windows on the west side. These are, it is said, homage by the Caledonian engineer Donald Mathieson to Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who set out to built the ‘cathedrals of the age’ that is, the first generation of huge railway stations such as Bristol Temple Meads.

Paul Lyons says that the huge girders were made at the Parkhead Forge in Glasgow and describes working conditions there in the 1870s as being so bad that the workers sustained themselves on beer, this in turn leading to ‘many fatalities on a weekly basis’. This was cured by the invention of Irn Bru and a contract agreed between the Forge and makers, the name being invented by a director of the Parkhead Forge. Irn Bru was invented in 1901, according to Irn Bru’s own website.