Blackfriars Parish Church in Westercraigs in Dennistoun, looking south towards Bellgrove Street, 1955.
The church was designed by Campbell, Douglas & Sellars in a German Romanesque style and built 1876-1877. It replaced the old Blackfriars Church which stood next to the University of Glasgow on High Street and which was demolished in the 1870s to make way for the City of Glasgow Union Railway's College Station. The first minister of the new church was Thomas Sommerville who was also the last minister appointed to Blackfriars by Glasgow Corporation, which lost its right of patronage three years later. The church was closed in 1983, when the congregation merged with a neighbour to form Dennistoun Blackfriars.
In 1955 Partick Camera Club set out to create a photographic survey of Glasgow. As the project progressed, other camera clubs joined and each was allocated a district of the city to photograph. Glasgow Museums exhibited the photographs at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and at the People's Place, and in 1956 the exhibition was shown at the Palace of Art in Bellahouston Park. The photographs are now part of Glasgow Museums' collections.
Reference: 1005.97.166 / OG.1955.121.[141]
Reproduced with the permission of the Partick Camera Club
Keywords:
Blackfriars Parish Church, Campbell, Douglas & Sellars, Church of Scotland, churches, Glasgow Photographic Survey 1955, streetscenes