Location: Glasgow Green, near the People's Palace, Glasgow
Manufacturer: Walter Macfarlane & Co (fl. 1849-1965)

Manufacturer: Walter Macfarlane & Co (fl. 1849-1965)
Designer: David Watson Stevenson (1842-1904)

This fountain was re-erected in Baldowie Street, close to the site of the old Saracen Foundry, in 1987 by Heritage Engineering, who now reproduce some of Macfarlane's designs.

Manufacturer: Walter Macfarlane & Co (fl. 1849-1965)

Manufacturer: Walter Macfarlane & Co (fl. 1849-1965)

Gifted by the 'Ladies of Partick' in 1887.
The gates were relocated in 1963
and restored in 1987.

Manufacturer: Walter Macfarlane & Co (fl. 1849-1965)

Andy Scott has been commissioned to create a memorial to Rangers' legendary hero Jim Baxter, who died on April 14, 2001, after a three-month battle against cancer. The memorial will be in the form of a one-and-a-half times life-size statue, to be sited in Baxter's home village of Hill O'Beath. Andy Scott also created the Ibrox Disaster Memorial.
(Source: Evening Times, 25 April, 2002)

The Merchant City Regeneration Project is now being charted in a new book and exhibition by photographer and artist Louise Crawford and architect Ian Alexander. The area is envisaged as a vibrant new 'arts quarter'. Glasgow Cross and the Trongate could become art spaces and be used for exhibitions, with the Railway bridges being lit up. There could also be a fountain in Wilson Street and a large conservatory and café for public concerts and festivals. (Visit the Merchant City website at http://www.glasgowmerchantcity.net/).
(Source: Evening Times, 08 April, 2002)

As reported last month, David Mach's new exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art is well under way. He has just finished a huge 50-ton sculpture made from four abandoned cars and 150,000 copies of The Herald. However, there are many more works in the exhibition spread over three floors, including more of his match-head sculptures, coat-hangar sculptures and a wonderful sculpture of a woman diving into a pool, seen from underwater. You can see more of David Mach's work on his own website at http://www.davidmach.com.
(Source: The Herald, 26 April, 2002)

Walter Macfarlane & Co.'s Saracen Foundry has fascinated many people for a long time. Especially those in far-off countries who find that they too have a little bit of Glasgow at the end of their street, or in their public squares or parks; usually in the form of a canopied commemorative drinking fountain, horse trough, lampposts, railings or decorative architectural castings.

Those who trace their origins inevitably find themselves following a trail which connects them with towns, villages and cities throughout the former British Empire and South America, and ultimately to Glasgow and its northern district of Possilpark, the home of Macfarlane's Saracen Foundry from 1872 until its demolition in 1967.

Possilpark is as much a product of the foundry as its castings, having been developed by Macfarlane's to house their vast work-force and the service industries which sustained it. Sadly, Possilpark has suffered greatly from the loss of the foundry and other major employers in the late 20th century (e.g., A & J Main's foundry which produced railings and park benches by the millions), and the effects of the social crises that replaced them.

The Saracen Foundry, however, looms large in the area's folk memory and is commemorated not only in the collection of blond sandstone tenements and the names of their streets, together with the handsome public library which was built on land gifted by the second Walter Macfarlane in 1909, but also by a splendid gable-end mural, in Saracen Street, and the canopy from one of the foundry's universally popular designs for drinking fountains near the junction of Saracen Cross and Baldowie Street.

There was also once a drinking trough, lamp and clock which had stood at Saracen Cross from 1878, when it was gifted to the community by Walter Macfarlane I, but this has long since been removed.

The mural, of 1990, by an unknown artist, illustrates the foundry's huge gates, glass dome and crested chimneys, examples of the firm's castings, including a bandstand, a foundry-man and the Saracen after whom the foundry was named, and who links the firm to Glasgow's historic Gallowgate and the old Saracen Head Inn. It was, of course, in Saracen Lane, adjacent to the Inn, where Walter Macfarlane senior established the first Saracen Foundry in 1849.

The mural is in a very poor state and deserves to be restored. Nearby, however, the Baldowie Street fountain is now a feature in a landscaped area and is in fairly good condition. This was restored in 2000 by Glasgow based Heritage Engineering, free of charge, as a monument to the foundry after they had been commissioned to replicate the fountain for a park in Cardiff. The colour scheme of the Baldowie Street fountain was chosen by the local community and is probably close to its original livery.

Heritage Engineering specialise in restoring and reproducing Macfarlane's castings and have resurrected the old firm's name in also trading as Walter Macfarlane & Co. They are based at 22-24 Carmyle Avenue, Glasgow, G32 8AJ.

In concentrating on Macfarlane's this month, we hope to have gathered together some of the strands which link Glasgow with the world, and in identifying many of the fountains and castings which we have in common, we hope to share these with you by illustrating their Glasgow originals and by providing links to websites which feature other examples.

We are also keen to hear from anyone who knows of other Macfarlane's castings throughout the world (and any other Glasgow foundry), so please get in touch. It would be particularly interesting to see if there are any European examples of Macfarlane's castings.

Author: Gary Nisbet
See more on our Walter Macfarlane & Co pages.

Glasgow
By Elizabeth Williamson, Malcolm Higgs, Anne Riches
In the series: The Buildings of Scotland

The most comprehensive survey of Glasgow's architecture yet published, it is arranged in the gazetteer form established by Pevsner's Buildings Of England series. Documenting the development of the city's architecture from pre-Roman times to 1990, it is a walk though Glasgow's history and up and down virtually every street in the city. In short, it is the Glasgow historian's Bible. Meticulously researched and astonishing in its wealth and variety of detail, Glasgow is a scholarly but highly accessible and enjoyable resource for the casual reader and the serious researcher. Illustrated with 123 b/w photographs of the city's most important buildings and monuments, it is essential reading for anyone interested in the city and the architects and craftsmen and women who enriched it.

Published by Penguin Books, London,
      in association with The National Trust For Scotland.
Hardcover - 720 pages, 123 b/w photographs.
Publication date: 1990
Published price: £35 ($65)