1879 – City Of Glasgow Bank, Glasgow

Architect: Campbell Douglas & Sellars

The City of Glasgow Bank is now largely known for its spectacular collapse in October 1878, ruining all but 254 of its 1,200 shareholders, whose liability was not limited. The depositors got their money back but the shareholders suffered because the City of Glasgow Bank had unlimited liability. As such, 1,819 people were liable for the entire loss. Only 254 emerged solvent. Although one English bank went under two months later, others were able to survive the liquidity shortage by drawing on the Bank of England’s reserves. Back in Scotland, the Glasgow bank’s directors were put on trial for fraud. They received between eight and eighteen months in prison. Design published in 1879. The bank was not completed as such, but roofed in a simplified form by the liquidators and sold to Mann Byars as a warehouse. Mann Byars closed in 1938. Demolished in 1958.