Glasgow University was founded in 1451 and soon developed a College precinct on the east side of the High Street, to the north of Blackfriars Church. From about 1750 to 1790, land was gradually acquired facing the College on the west side of the High Street, extending as far back as Shuttle Street, for use by the College. In May 1792, the Faculty considered developing this land ‘for the advantage and ornament of the College’. It was decided to commission a plan from ‘some architect of character’ to design a street with its centre directly opposite the College Gate, fifty feet wide with houses on the south and north sides of varying depths. Two plans were drawn up in 1792 for creating a new street westwards from the High Street to Shuttle Street and the committee had initially approached the local architect and builder James Jaffrey. However, after viewing Jaffrey’s plans it was decided unanimously to appoint James Adam, ‘an Architect of the first Reputation’ before proceeding any further.

It is not entirely clear how James Adam came to be considered by the faculty. Hayne suggests that it is possible that it was through the Professor of Logic, George Jardine. Jardine was sitting on the committee for the land development for the college, but he was also the manager of the Glasgow Royal Infirmary which had been supervised by James Adam during its construction between 1792 and 1794, after the death of his brother Robert Adam in March 1792.

Adam proposed a pair of terraces lining a central street called College Street with fronts facing onto the High Street, and a Cornmarket at the terminus of College Street on the west side of Shuttle Street. The Faculty approved James’s schemes on 11 March 1793 and he was initially paid £125 on 13 May 1793. It would appear from Adam’s plans that part of the ambition of the scheme was to provide further accommodation for university teaching staff and to generate additional income through the lease of shops on the ground floor. The houses had communal passages and stairwells, as well as individual yards and privies to the rear.

Financial instability within the University caused a postponement of their development proposals for a year. The end blocks facing onto the High Street were built in 1794 to Adam’s designs by the builder Andrew Macfarlane. The University, however, lost its appetite for speculative development and sold off the remaining parcels of land on College Street for others to develop in the early-nineteenth century.

The buildings executed to Adam’s designs facing the High Street were subject to extensive alterations since their construction, and they were demolished piecemeal in the second half of the twentieth century.

Literature: A.T. Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, Volume II, Index, 1922, p. 14; D. King, The Complete Works of Robert & James Adam and Unbuilt Adam, Volume 1, 2001, pp. 77, 102-3, Volume 2, p. 56; A. Rowan, Vaulting Ambition: The Adam Brothers, Contractors to the Metropolis in the reign of George III, 2007, p. 73; N. Haynes, Building Knowledge: An architectural history of the University of Glasgow, 2013, pp. 33-5

Louisa Catt, 2023