Words: Stephen Kershaw

Pictures: German Aljabjev and Audrey Bizouerne

MOST visitors to Glasgow are impressed by Charing Cross Mansions, the French early renaissance-style development which literally put ''mansions up closes'' in the city centre when it was built in 1889-90. Luckily for us, it narrowly avoided the fate of so many fine buildings in that part of the city when the M8 tore through in the late 1960s.

Charing Cross Mansions is one of the most prestigious addresses in Glasgow. An imposing red sandstone curved building at Sauchiehall Street and St George’s Road, it was one of the first sandstone buildings to be erected in the city.

Built in 1891 and based on the design of Scottish Edwardian architect John James Burnet (who was unsuccessful with his entry to design Glasgow City Chambers in 1882) the eight figures surrounding the clock were sculpted by William Birnie Rhind.

Rhind would go on to create the seated figure of Science in the city's Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in 1898.

Indicating the passing of time and the seasons, the clock face at the Mansions is bordered with the signs of the zodiac, together with an enigmatic male mask probably representing Old Father Time himself (which looks remarkably like a portrait of Burnet), and is surrounded by four crouching and standing figures representing Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

The clock is surmounted by two reclining figures representing Commerce and Industry, in poses similar to those on Michelangelo's Tomb of Guiliano Medici in San Lorenzo Florence, of around 1534.

The other sculptural ornament includes splendid escutcheons bearing the Glasgow Arms and monograms carved with the entwined letters R and S.

Charing Cross itself takes its name originally from a block of tenements named Charing Cross Place built in the 1850s, which continue at the south-west corner with North Street. The junction of Sauchiehall Street was formed as part of the original development of Blythswood Hill including Blythswood Square.

Just round the corner from the Mansions, at the bottom of Renfrew Street, stands a later Burnet building. Built of red sandstone, Albany Mansions would stand out strongly in another part of the city but is overshadowed by its more famous neighbour. Nevertheless, it is a fine building and was designed by Burnet a few years after Charing Cross Mansions was completed.

In association with the City of Glasgow College