M320 Tenement, Rutherglen Road and Thistle Street

This tenement, consisting of flats above ground-floor shops, was built as part of a municipal street-widening scheme in the crowded, industrial district of Hutchesontown. Old property on the S.W. side of Rutherglen Road was acquired by the Corporation of Glasgow, demolished, and replaced with new tenements set back from the former building line. As well as this block at the S.E. corner of Rutherglen Road and Thistle Street, Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh designed a neighbouring block at the corner of Hospital Street. With their domed corner turrets, the fronts of the new buildings followed the example of middle-class tenements in more affluent parts of Glasgow. At the back, some flats were accessed from open-air balconies (called 'gangways' on the drawings), a feature associated with improved working-class housing. Both blocks were demolished in 1981.

Authorship: The minutes of Glasgow Corporation's Statute Labour Committee show that John Keppie was in charge of this project: he met with the committee, presented the initial sketch proposals and submitted regular reports as work progressed. There is nothing to suggest that Mackintosh was involved, apart from a few pencilled notes in the job-book entry that may be in his hand.