9 September 2009: Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
The design of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum was decided by an architectural competition launched in 1891.
The competition brief set out as specific requirements that there be a central hall or music hall giving easy access to all parts of the building; a suite of top-lit art galleries; museum halls, some roof-lighted, some side-lighted saloons; a school of art with separate entrance (which was later dropped from the scheme) and fireproof construction throughout.
In 1892, the London architects John W Simpson and E J Milner Allen were declared the winners. They said of their design that it was ‘an astylar composition on severely Classic lines, but with free Renaissance treatment in detail’. Perhaps today the best description of the architecture is Spanish Baroque, and it has long been acknowledged that Kelvingrove’s two main towers were inspired by the pilgrimage church of Santiago de Compostela, in Santiago, Spain.
The foundation stone for Kelvingrove was laid on 10 September 1897 by the Duke of York (who was later crowned King George V), and the Art Gallery and Museum first opened its doors to the public on 2 May 1901.
