Thread by @OssianLore

So, the People’s Palace on Glasgow Green is again being bandied about like a heritage bladder on the proverbial stick used to beat the SNP with.

The politics aside, lets take a look at the history and condition of the People’s Palace Winter Garden.

Thread 👇

The building has an interesting history (of course I’d say that :P ) which the old Glasgow Green Heritage Trail does a good job of covering, though I’ll probably visit it in another thread later as part of a larger history.

You can view the Trail here:

glasgow.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.a…

In brief, however, the People’s Palace opened on 22nd January 1898, designed by William Brown Whitie, architect of other such notables as the Mitchell Library and the, now lost, Springburn & Cowlairs District Halls (to give it its full name 🧐).

scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full…

As an aside, the bulk of his work was in the north of the city, including this wee temperance hall. The tenement is interesting in that it set back from the building line to exploit the topography & create a basement (and not just a solum), so it could all be his work. Cute innit

Back to the People’s Palace.

It was conceived in the 1860s and took 30 years to come to fruition. Funded through the sale of land, and tunnelling rights under Glasgow Green, rather than beneficence like with Tollcross, Springburn or the Kibble Palace.

https://twitter.com/OssianLore/status/1007927994692849664

In effect, the People’s Palace was not anyone’s gift to the city – it was a gift to ourselves, paid from our own assets, a palace to house the social history of Glasgow and all who sail in her.

Perhaps why the Winter Garden reminds me of an upturned paddle-steamer 🤔

Some have said it’s the same shape as HMS Victory, but I just don’t see it, taebaehaitch... 😌

The actual engineering of such a structure isn’t entirely unrelated to naval architecture, you can see how great iron arches are formed and braced together by horizontal beams much like the hull of a ship, with glass and putty replacing board and caulk, or plate and rivet.

Despite the reassuringly belt’n’braces kinda language used in describing that structure, it is something that’s inherently fragile. Like all materials, the iron, steel and glass components that make up the building continuously expand and contract in different weather conditions.

The huge expanses of plate glass are held in a steel lattice with a pleasingly slender profile to the astragals. The glass is laid like slates on a roof with a slight overlap on each pane & then fixed in place with about as much bedding compound as you have putty in a sash window

The compound/sealant provides both weather protection and a means of anchoring the glass plates, but the weight of the slightly overlapped layers of glass is, in effect, holding itself in place also. A few slipped panes here and there can be disastrous if left unchecked.

Where the gravity is just too much for friction to hold the glass in place, like on its beautiful curves where the glass is near vertical, hooks/clips are used in a similar way to some roof tiling/slating systems. Every pane of glass in the structure is, in effect, a moving part.

The sleek steel lattice of the glazing system is particularly vulnerable to extremes of temperature. All such structures are designed with some ability to flex in response to environmental conditions but over time, and extremes, the steel can fatigue and buckle.

This can allow water ingress and retention, this will cause corrosion of fixings, build up of dirt, this in turn causes plant growth that retains water and more dirt. This continuous accumulation can force the glass out of position, and eventually a component fails.

Water thats retained between the frame and glass, and in any accumulated plant growth and dirt patches, will freeze and thaw with the weather. The freezing water expands and can shift and buckle the glass and steel, and eventually a component fails.

Storms and high winds can be devastating for such structures, as we’ve seen with the history of Tollcross and Springburn. Strong winds can cause the structure to flex and bow, like the surface tension on a soapy bubble, and eventually a component fails.

One big storm can result in millions of pounds of damage, which can be devastating for facilities with limited budgets. It can – and does – result in the closure and dereliction of our winter gardens, again like with Tollcross and Springburn

https://twitter.com/OssianLore/status/1012314408343752708

A lot of these issues can be prevented by regular maintenance, which can be as simple as ensuring gutters etc are cleared of debris and build-up, and cleaning down the windows and frames to prevent the build up of dirt and organic matter that retains water.

1920s paint job:

But these are fragile structures, they are inherently costly to run and maintain, and they are highly specialised. It’s not cheap or easy to clean the windows, and its no simple matter to fix such a large and complex roof if it goes wrong. Which it absolutely will.

The building has been adapted over the years, the brick turrets were added to the rear of the museum (inside the glasshouse) to improve accessibility in 1988-90. These accommodate the lift & stairs, and forms part of the emergency routes out of the museum via the winter garden.

The roof of the winter garden was renewed in 1998 after being badly damaged by fire. There's not a lot of detail available on the works but we do know that the sealant used to cap the glazing had a specification of 20 years.

Concerns were raised about the condition of the roof in the run up to the 2014 Commonwealth Games. This image from 2010 if of east elevation, which is more sheltered from the prevailing wind, even then slipped panes are clearly visible along its length

This internal image from May 2012, again from the more sheltered east elevation, shows a couple of replacement panes clipped in place where formerly just sealed. The dirt and algae buildup indicative of water retention, also an area of moss-covered astragals in the top left

Another internal this time from 2013 & of the more exposed south west corner. You can see more of the same issues as in the previous image from 2012. The actual beams & columns of the hothouse structure is in good noticeably condition, particularly in comparison to the roof.

This image was taken on 28th December 2013, the gutters and downpipes slightly rusty, you can see how the profile of the gutter is slightly buckled though appears clear of major blockage. Where the panes of glass overlap there is a build up of dirt and organic matter.

The red arrows show inconsistent locations of the clip/hooks mentioned earlier. Circled in red is a gap where a pane has slipped out of position very near to where the downpipe from the upper roof is discharging on the lower apron.

The roof was inspected 2013/14 and the sealant used in the 1998 works found to be reaching the end of its working life a little earlier than the 20 years mooted. The winter garden roof was patched and repaired at a cost of £140k but deemed to be in need of complete renewal.

Handily, Google Streetview took a stroll around the perimeter of the building in Sep 2014 so we can have a look at how that job went. The slipped pane from the previous image is fixed & clipped along with those directly below it.

£140k doesn’t seem to buy you much more than a few clips and panes of glass. Unclear at this point whether the faulty gutter and downpipe has been remedied but there certainly didn’t appear to be any time spent addressing accumulating problems.

These images are of the more exposed west elevation, I won’t annotate it all as you know what you’re looking for now. You can see how this side has suffered more due to the prevailing wind, and sufficed to say that bad rusting on the south apse aint a good sign.

There are also a number of internal panoramas of the winter gardens available to explore on StreetView, they are from various years and its possible to observe the roofs gradual deterioration

goo.gl/maps/HGcWJ8Nt9…

Worth pointing out that despite the museum and, in particular, the winter garden looking rather tired in many respects the staff there keep the place immaculately in the face of what must be an ongoing battle. But I digress.

In July 2016 a pane of glass fell out of the roof into a public area of the winter garden, and the building closed to the public. A structural survey was commissioned at that time to determine the extent of works required to secure and renew both the museum and glasshouse.

The survey report outlined a number of structural issues which are of immediate concern. Surveyors & engineers aren’t clairvoyant (unfortch), but, in light of their findings and the deadly nature of failure, suggested it wouldnt be safe to open to the public beyond 1st Jan 2019

The report put the costs of its recommendations at £5m-7.5m. Vast swathes of netting were installed in the winter garden as a result, and at a cost of £270k, in order that both museum & glasshouse could reopen, which it did at the end of 2016

Recap

1998 Roof renewed after a fire. Life expectancy of 20 years, cost of…?
2013 Roof is effectively condemned & £140k spent on a patch job.
2016 Roof condemned again and £270k spent on netting.

£410k spent in 3 years, on a spent roof, with no plan on what to do next.

The current SNP administration took control of Glasgow City Council from Labour in May 2017. On 5th October 2018 it took receipt of a report commissioned, in light of the impending closure of the winter garden, on the feasibility of keeping the People’s Palace museum open.

You’ll remember that closure date of 01/01/19 for the winter garden is in the interests of people not being sliced like a bag of offal by a falling pane of glass, and was the recommendation of the structural survey report commissioned in 2016.

Why is there even a question over keeping the museum open? Because part of the emergency exit route is via the stair turrets built inside the winter garden in 1988 and out through the winter garden side entrances.

Whats the chances of a fire? About the same as in 1998.

The 2018 report concluded that with some relatively modest interventions it would be feasible to engineer safe emergency egress routes for the People’s Palace museum despite the winter garden’s forced closure until a long term solution is devised and decided upon.

The cost of these works is estimated at £350k, it was recommended to the City Administration Committee for approval on 01/11/18. It will come from the Community Asset Fund, £200k of which was also previously awarded for stabalisation works on the dome of Queens Park Glasshouse

If a lot of this is sounding familiar it’s because GCC publicised it 1st November

glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?art…

The winter garden was never a great botanical garden and was frequently used as an auditorium. However, that £350k figure also specifically covers the relocation of the plants in the winter garden, the cause of such recent hyperbolic consternation in some quarters of late.

Procurement takes time, as does obtaining the relevant consents for the work and as such, given the timescales outlined, its estimated the People’s Palace will remain closed for 8-12 weeks to allow the temporary works to proceed.

Difference between now and the 2016 closure is that Labour are no longer in control of GCC, and the SNP administration have actually commissioned a feasibility study into restoring and finding invigorated purpose for *all* of the city’s remaining winter gardens.

That’s a *major* leap forward, and, particularly for Springburn Winter Gardens, a *long time* overdue. It’s the sort of joined up thinking this city’s heritage has been awaiting for decades.

It is no secret that Glasgow City Council has historically had a shockingly poor record in respect to the maintenance of its historic building stock, and wider estate. The issues with the People’s Palace I’ve highlighted here are merely the tip of the iceberg.

I could give you 50 more examples of complete intransigence and utter neglect from the past 10/15 years alone. I could give you thousands from the last 50 years. Problems like that of the People’s Palace don’t occur overnight, nor for no reason.

Sure, the weather plays a major part in the life of a large glasshouse, particularly one as large as the People’s Palace. But that’s what regular maintenance is for, to take care of the small problems before they become huge, expensive problems.

Images: 2007, 2013, 2017

I think Ive covered everything I wanted to, Ill try my best with any questions anyone has but I dont have all the info or answers,I can only go on what I can see. I dont expect to be surprised by the contents of the structural survey tho, I can say that a fair degree of certainty

One last matter to address though, and with some reluctance as I enjoy the wee history/art/architecture/science/tech/future experience I have cultivated through the accounts I follow and threads I interact with on Twitter.

Nonetheless… 😒

Its wreckless, to say the fucking least, to drag employees of Land & Environmental Services (who operate the winter garden) into petty politicking. Imagine you were this ‘senior management’ in LES that supposedly told an MP something that was blatantly not true.

How many senior managers does the winter garden have, do you imagine? Even if it was a throwaway comment that was then innocently misconstrued, what impact might all that be having on that senior managers working environment? And all for what? Petty politicking. Fuckaw basically.

So the next time you hear something as ridiculous as this… whatever it was😐 Ask yourself, does this ring true, is there something else going on, is there information I dont have, or is someone just playing games with peoples lives & plucking liberties with their heart strings?

The next time that MP talks a lot of shite about nuance, complex factors and inabilities, ask them about that time they stuck some poor bastard at the People’s Palace right in the shit with the work colleagues just so he had something to tweet about.

To quote Billy Connolly – ‘it was a dirty trick played on us’.

In a couple of weeks the People’s Palace will have been open for 121 years. I actually feel quite hopeful for its future, and that of the remaining glasshouse, winter gardens and palaces for the people of this city.

It feels new.

It feels like progress.

That’s the personification ae’ Progress oan the tap ae the buildin there btw, haudin the torch. Jist sayin :P

Got to mull over this new-fangled holistic approach to the city’s glasshouses for abit, figure out the role of botanical collections, expect another thread on that soon