CO-OP STORE, Chalmers Street / Alexander Street, Clydebank.
ACCESS : Commercial premises.
https://w3w.co/looks.admire.dice
The Co-Op still plays a major role in the lives of many of us, but that is now more as supermarkets. Past are the days when it was known for its good quality department stores. This grand sandstone building was fairly typical at one time of the company's premises. There is still a shop in it, but the bulk of it is now sublet.
It stands on the corner of Sylvania Way and Chalmers Street. Looking up from ground level at its 4 storeys you may miss some of the details and the grand central stairway is somewhat isolated. Robert Stewart of Stewart & Patterson of Glasgow, Architects, designed it in 1916. Framed construction with Edwardian baroque detailing; cleaned red ashlar (partly granite at ground) with original shop fronts, giant order carried through 1st and 2nd storeys with Ionic columns at angle (block over wall-head with figurative sculpture), bays with pilaster strips, top storey treated as attic; entablatures, with iron window balconies. [Listing text].
Sylvania Way, which is almost all pedestrianised, passes between shops up across the Forth and Clyde Canal and up into the shopping centre.
Views of the Co-Op while still a department store.
Some great detailing.
The corner entrance.
There is a popular cafe on the ground floor.
Two views of the main atrium space.
Impressive. 2024.
First floor fashion. 2024.
The secondary public stairs are less grand, but still interesting.
Furniture and flooring on the 1st floor. 2024.
Its great being the grandest building in the neighbourhood and impressing everyone around. But then you look down on them. You can see the Clydebank Town Hall in the distance, but most of what you look out onto is the lower, mainly flat roofs of the neighbours.
BRITISH LISTED BUILDINGS : https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/200358731-clydebank-co-operative-society-2-sylvania-way-south-clydebank-clydebank#.X9xoz3pxdPZ
WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE HERITAGE TRAIL BROCHURE : http:// https://www.west-dunbarton.gov.uk/media/2619058/clydebank.pdf
