October 1887: Panorama at Sauchiehall Street Estimated to Cost £5000 – Architect is Dr Rowan Anderson

An article on page three of the Saturday Falkirk Herald AND LINLITHGOW JOURNAL, (Falkirk

Herald, in The British Newspaper Archive), on Saturday the 1st of October, 1887, reads:

 

“PROPOSED PANORAMAS FOR GLASGOW

AND EDINBURGH.

It is stated that the city of Glasgow is about to have added to its other entertainments a panorama

designed on the model of those which are so popular in many Continental and American towns.

Visitors to Paris, for example, will readily recall the splendid panorama of the siege of the city by

the Germans, which is exhibited in the Champs Elysees. The subject of the first Scottish panorama

will appropriately be ‘The Battle of Bannockburn,’ for which, of course, abundant historical material

is at hand. The project has been taken up by a Limited Liability Company, and the whole of the capital

sought in the meantime has been privately subscribed. A central site has been secured in Sauchiehall

Street, and Dr Rowan Anderson, architect, has been entrusted with the preparation of plans for a suitable

building for the housing of the panorama. The artist engaged in the production of the exhibition is Mr

Ernest Philip Fleischer, an artist of considerable reputation, who has been located for some time past in

Edinburgh. Mr Fleischer, besides being a good portraitist, is the author of the large and striking picture

‘Pay Day at St Gothard,’ which was exhibited last Christmas in Edinburgh. It is stipulated that the painting

of ‘The Battle of Bannockburn is to be delivered in Glasgow by the 1st May next, so as to be in time for the

opening of the International Exhibition. The canvas will be upwards of 300 feet long by 30 feet in height,

and all the foreground figures will be life size. The backgrounds of the several battle scenes to be depicted

will be enlargements of sketches taken on the field of Bannockburn by Mr Fleischer. Should the project be a

success—and, judging by the figures obtained from the panoramas in Germany and elsewhere, the company

are sanguine on this point—a similar panorama will be established in Edinburgh.  The cost of the Glasgow

panorama is estimated at £5OOO.”

 

 

The Scottish architect referred to, is Robert Rowand Anderson (1834-1921), The misspelling of his

name occurs in a number of articles.

 

 

 

The British Newspaper Archive.

 

 

 

George Fairfull-Smith, June 2025.