The Doges Palace, Venice - ok, maybe it's Glasgow

Had a lovely day in Glasgow with Kryptomart. Thought the old Templeton's Carpet Factory was worth a blip.

The building was designed and built as a carpet factory for James Templeton and Sons.

After repeated design proposals had been rejected by Glasgow Corporation, James Templeton hired the architect William Leiper to produce a design that would be so grand it could not possibly be rejected, so Leiper modelled the building on the Doge's Palace in Venice.

It was said that the wealthy citizens living in nearby Monteith Row did not wish to overlook a factory and it was decided the building should be of appropriate design for such a prominent location in the city.

On 1 November 1889, during construction, the factory façade collapsed due to insecure fixings and 29 women were killed in adjacent weaving sheds. (The story of the disaster is carved in a section of stone beneath the base of Templeton Gate, installed during refurbishment work to the area in 2005.) The building was completed in 1892 for the manufacture of spool Axminster carpets, at a cost of £20,000 but restoration of the collapsed facade and weaving sheds added £3000 to the building costs. A fire in the factory in 1900 resulted in more deaths.

In 1983, James Templeton & Co merged with A F Stoddard and Henry Widnell & Stewart to form Stoddard Carpets. The building was converted by the Scottish Development Agency and became a business centre in 1984.

In 2005, the 1930s extension was demolished to make way for 143 new flats, part of a £22 million regeneration project which saw the owners, Scottish Enterprise, sell the Templeton Carpet Factory for £6.7 million.

In 2008, Glasgow band Desolation Yes! released a song about the building called "Templeton (Shine like a star)".