Templetons

Today H and I travelled into Glasgow Green and had a walk around, visiting the Winter Gardens and viewing the Doulton Fountain (extra photo). We met C there, and we headed to the German Brewery which is in Templetons Business Centre.  Templetons was built as a carpet factory, and both H and I were interested to see it as our mother worked there before her marriage.

It was a brilliant sunny day and after a lovely lunch at the Brewery, we walked along the river and visited the Cathedral on Clyde Street, before going up to the Buchanan Galleries where we had coffee and Custard Cakes, which were freshly made and devine.

Some information on Templetons below from the Internet:

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 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.