The Union Bank of Scotland, Lanarkshire House, and Two Photographs at the Mitchell Library

When I commenced my research at the Mitchell Library, in the late 1980s, I was granted permission to look through the collection

of prints, drawings, and photographs of Glasgow which were not on public view. Among the varied and fascinating items were two

nineteenth-century photographs, attributed to the firm established by Thomas Annan.

 

One is the south-facing, Virginia Street façade of the building on Ingram Street, known as Lanarkshire House when I first

saw the photographs. It was a courthouse.

 

 

 

 

Subsequent research revealed that the lower photograph showed the spectacular interior of a bank’s telling-room, and would

lead to even more exciting discoveries in the 1990s.

 

 

George Fairfull-Smith, August 2023.