Old Sugar House, 138 Gallowgate, a watercolour painted c 1846 by William Simpson (1823-1899).
This building was built as a sugar refinery in 1669, called the Easter Sugar House to distinguish it from Glasgow's first sugar works off Candleriggs. The building was erected in Sugar House Close at 138 Gallowgate, a close that lay between the Gallowgate and London Street (now London Road) "a little way nearer the Cross than Charlotte Street", and the painting shows the view looking north along the close towards Gallowgate. After Glasgow's sugar refining industry went into decline in the early 19th century, the building became a lodging house and part of it was used as workshops by a wright. It was demolished c 1850.
This watercolour is one of a series of fifty-five painted by Simpson between 1893 and 1898. Most are based on sketches he completed fifty years earlier and which originally appeared as black and white illustrations in Views and Notices of Glasgow in Former Times, published in 1848 by Allan & Ferguson.
Reference: 765.89.259
Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Museums
Keywords:
barrels, casks, closes, Easter Sugar House, lodging houses, Old Sugar House, paintings, sugar refineries, sugar refiners, tenements, watercolours, women
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