Kelvingrove plans failed to inspire everyone initially ...
IT IS hard to imagine now, but when Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery was first proposed, its appeal was not universal.
Kelvingrove is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Scotland. It contains works by Salvador Dali, Van Gogh, Turner, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and many more, plus natural history collections and artefacts from Glasgow and around the world. It’s a favourite with locals and visitors alike.
The Corporation’s annual reports and committee minutes held at Glasgow City Archives carefully record visitor numbers, significant events and list new acquisitions to the collections, giving a wonderful insight to the vision behind the city’s museums and galleries.
The city’s first municipal museum opened in 1872 at Kelvingrove House, a mansion house built for merchant and Lord Provost of Glasgow, Patrick Colquhoun in 1783 by Robert Adam, which stood a little to the east of the present-day gallery.
The mansion quickly became too small to accommodate the growing collections, despite being extended in 1876. The array of artworks, and ethological and historical objects owned by the city were very much seen as a proud reflection of Glasgow’s vast international trade and industrial heritage worthy of being displayed in a purpose-built gallery.
The massively successful 1888 International Exhibition of Industry, Science and Art, based in a temporary building in the grounds of Kelvingrove House, attracted more than five million visitors, and achieved its twin aims of enhancing Glasgow’s prestige and raising funds
‘The mansion quickly became to small’
for a larger municipal museum building.
Plans for the 1901 Glasgow International Exhibition were viewed as the perfect opportunity to erect a new building. Somewhat controversially, however, this would mean demolishing the old mansion.
Glasgow Corporation’s Museums and Art Galleries annual report of 1899 reports how the decision to ‘reluctantly’ demolish the old Kelvingrove House was taken as the ‘exigencies of the coming 1901 International Exhibition demanded that sacrifice ….’.
There was vocal opposition – Glasgow Art Club petitioned against it – and it took two attempts for the demolition to be fully agreed to by Glasgow Corporation.
It’s interesting now to reflect on what would have happened to the old Kelvingrove House mansion if another site had been proposed.
Today’s building, designed by J W Simpson and E J Milner Allen, was opened to display the 1901 exhibition’s fine art section, then opened more formally in 1902 to house the varied collections it is still known for, and which continue to attract visitors worldwide.