They were built as grand nature palaces for wealthy Victorians to show off collections of towering palm trees, juicy pineapples and exotic orchids in year-round tropical warmth.
As the well-off splashed fortunes on increasingly lavish conservatories and glasshouses, one enterprising young Glaswegian was eyeing up the chance to capitalise on the booming craze for glass.
It was 1848; Queen Victoria was planning her first trip to Balmoral, Ireland was gripped by famine and in industrial Glasgow with its heaving population, desperate poverty and grime, Charles Summers hoped his new glazing business might have a future.
He could scarcely have dreamed that 175-years later and with his four times great grandson at the helm, his business would have its fingerprints on the rebirth of two of the city’s favourite glasshouses.
Most recent was the revival of Tollcross Winter Gardens, now back in all of its Victorian splendour with 1000 panels of shiny new safety glass in place of the long since shattered panes which had left the B listed structure looking toothless, sad and in danger of being lost forever.
Repaired then badly storm-damaged in 2011, attacked by vandals and with its fancy wrought iron showing signs of rust, a £2.3 million restoration project has seen its ironwork revived and – of most importance for a glasshouse – all of its glass replaced.
The immense task of reglazing the East End glasshouse was carried out by Charles’ firm, C&W Summers – one of Scotland’s longest surviving family businesses – and followed its work in 2006 when it replaced every inch of glass at Glasgow Botanic Gardens’ Kibble Palace in the city’s West End.
That job involved a mindboggling 13,200 panes of glass, of which more than 1,200 had to be heated in a 600˚ c kiln installed at the firm’s workshop and carefully moulded to fit the huge structure’s gently curving lines.
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The two glasshouses on opposing sides of the city were both bestowed on Glasgow by generous Victorian owners, around the same time as Charles Summers’ family business was finding its feet.
And although it’s not known whether he was directly involved in either, he would have been familiar with their remarkable arrival in the city.
The Kibble Palace, named after John Kibble who commissioned it for his home at Coulport on Loch Long in the 1860s, stood for just a few years there before being dismantled, placed on a barge and travelling up the River Clyde. It was rebuilt at the Botanic Gardens in 1873.
The Tollcross Winter Gardens glasshouse, meanwhile, was built in 1870 for the Ardrossan home of Bailie A. G. MacDonald, who had risen from the poverty of the East End – and may well have been known to the Summers family - to become convener of the city’s Parks Committee.
As the century drew to a close, he ordered the structure be dismantled and its entire collection of plants – including 300 orchids, palms, countless ferns and a collection of fuschias – taken to Tollcross Park “in memory of his boyhood days in the East End of Glasgow”.
Charles’ four times great grandson, Craig Summers, 35, who now runs the firm, says its long heritage and the skill of the Victorian builders was on his mind as his core staff of just three glaziers took on the two huge jobs.
“You can’t help but feel quite proud of the fact that our family business which has been around for so long, has been able to play a part in restoring both the Winter Gardens and the Kibble Palace,” he says.
The family business started in a workshop at 16 to 20 Kent Street in Calton – just two miles from Tollcross Winter Gardens - at a time when the area was a swollen mass of traders hawking their wares from handcarts and makeshift stalls.
It remained at its spot opposite the Barras until the 1970s when it relocated to its current site in Sydney Street, passing from father to son – each called Charles - picking up contracts for glazing work from the Admiralty during the war years, insurance firms, and the city council for repairs to homes and schools.
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Craig’s father, Colin, an accountant, took over in the 1980s, when business was so tough he had to sell his own car to buy vans needed to keep it going.
Craig says the two Victorian-made glasshouses posed a range of challenges for the modern fitters as they grappled with fitting thousands of panels of glass into wrought iron frames made using hand tools and without the benefits of precise modern technology.
The Tollcross glasshouse was particularly challenging, involving a switch from ordinary glass used in the previous restoration to tougher safety glass.
“Non-safety glass, such as used at the Kibble Palace, is much easier to cut to shape,” he explains. “But at Tollcross, we had to create a template for every single pane, return to the workshop, cut the glass and then return to fit it.
“Because the iron bars were not all entirely straight, every pane of glass was bespoke.
“It is easy to forget how difficult it would have been for the Victorians to build structures like those, they didn’t have the tools we have today,” he adds.
The pandemic, a shortage of extra staff to help with the work, and the Glasgow weather which meant the firm had to hope for dry weather before using silicon to seal the glass in place, added to the issues.
The curved lines of both glasshouses and their roof details also added to the complexities. In the case of the Kibble Palace, the firm made its own curved glass using its kiln – removing old glass panels by day and working overnight to create fresh moulded replacements.
But the safety glass used in the Tollcross renovation, which was funded through the Scottish Town Centre Regeneration Fund, the Scottish Government’s Place Fund and the Community Asset Fund, had to be created elsewhere.
The two high-profile jobs are among many undertaken by the family business, including replacing dozens of skylights at the Argyll Arcade.
A low point, however, came after its glaziers had fitted 1,300 panes of bespoke German-made glass, most handblown, at Glasgow School of Art. Their renovation work was almost complete when the Charles Rennie Mackintosh treasure went up in flames.
While having completed the Tollcross restoration, in May this year the family glaziers were summoned back after vandals smashed 12 panes of glass.
Craig, meanwhile, no shortage of potential tasks for the firm around the city’s many Victorian buildings – including Glasgow’s first purpose-built museum, the People’s Palace and its adjacent Winter Gardens, currently at the centre of hopes they might be transformed as part of a £36 million overhaul.
“Glasgow is full of beautiful buildings – unfortunately there are quite a few that have been neglected,” adds Craig.
“The People’s Palace is one that we would be proud to work on.”
Keeping it in the family
Scotland has a long list of family-run businesses that have stood the test of time – spanning wool to whisky to weights.
The oldest is John White & Son, of Auchtermuchty in Fife. It started producing weighing machines in 1715 – the year of the Jacobite rebellion.
Luxury knitwear specialists Johnstons of Elgin was founded in 1797 on the banks of the River Lossie, followed soon after by leather specialist J Hewit & Sons, based in Livingston, established in 1806.
The whisky sector is awash with old family ties: Springbank Distillery in Campbeltown is Scotland’s oldest family run and independent distillery with roots stretching to 1828.
In Balloch, Sweeney’s Cruise Co has been operating boats on Loch Lomond since the 1880s. From running a handful of rowing boats it now operates one of Scotland’s luxury passenger fleets.
While Gordon Timber, based in Nairn, was founded in the 1870s and is now run by siblings Rod and Scott Gordon.
Some food businesses have become Scottish icons: Walkers Shortbread dates to 1898, when Joseph Walker founded the company, and Moray-based Baxters – famous for its soup - was founded in 1868 by 25 year old gardener George Baxter using borrowed money to launch a grocery shop in Fochabers.
While death is far from a dying trade for the Queen’s undertaker, William Purves. It was founded during the reign of Queen Victoria, in 1888.
The pick of Scotland’s family businesses will be celebrated at The Herald Scottish Family Business Awards in association with Business Gateway.
Just announced, this year’s awards have 13 categories designed to celebrate a different aspect of the work of family businesses, including Commitment to the Community and Customer Service Excellence.
Full details of the awards, along with online entry forms and tickets can be found online at https://newsquestscotlandevents.com/events/familybusiness
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