Old Photograph James Watt Dock Scotland

Old photograph of the James Watt Dock in Greenock by Glasgow, Scotland. The James Watt Dock was Greenock's answer to Queen's Dock in Glasgow. It was intended accommodate the largest vessels using the River Clyde. It was also to be the only true wet dock on the river. The scheme was approved by the Greenock Harbour Trust in June 1878; the foundation stone was laid in August 1881 and the dock was opened in August 1886. Its cost had risen from an estimated £208,000 to over £850,000 on completion. Trade to did not readily move to the dock, which remained consistently underused. It caused considerable embarrassment to the Greenock Harbour Trust, and was to be the last new work at Greenock for nearly 80 years.



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Old Photograph Roman Bridge Bothwell Haugh Scotland

Old photograph of the Roman Bridge which spans the South Calder river near Bothwell Haugh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is likely that this bridge was restored by James Hamilton in the late 17th century. While it may have originated as a medieval pack-horse bridge, a Roman bridge must have existed here or near here next to the Roman bathhouse, fort and road.



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Old Photograph Viaduct Glenluce Scotland

Old photograph of a steam train crossing the viaduct in Glenluce, Wigtownshire, Scotland. This bridge no longer used by trains spans the Water of Luce, while the main road passes below in a sweeping curve between its arches. This viaduct was built for the Portpatrick Railway and opened on 12th March 1861. It was built by James Falshaw and Company.



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Old Photograph Miss Cranston's Tea Rooms Glasgow Scotland

Old photograph of Miss Cranston's Tea Rooms in Glasgow, Scotland. In 1878 Miss Kate Cranston opened her first tearoom, the Crown Luncheon Room, on Argyle Street, Glasgow. She set high standards of service, food quality and cleanliness, and her innovation lay in seeing the social need for something more than a restaurant or a simple " tea shop ", and in putting equal attention into providing amenities designed in the latest style. Her first tearoom was decorated in a contemporary baronial style. On 16th September 1886 she opened her Ingram Street tearoom and in 1888 commissioned George Walton to decorate a new smoking room in the Arts and Crafts style in one of her tea rooms. In 1892 she became happily married to John Cochrane, but continued to trade under the name of Miss Cranston's Tearooms. She opened new tearooms in Buchanan Street in 1897, designed by George Washington Browne, expanded to take over the whole building in Argyle Street by 1898, then completed her chain of four establishments with the Willow Tearooms by Charles Rennie MacKintosh in Sauchiehall Street, opening in 1903. While other cities offered very expensive and very basic tea rooms by 1901, Kate Cranston set the standard in Glasgow for more welcoming establishments. Rooms were provided for ladies only and for gentlemen only, as well as luncheon rooms where they could dine together and smoking rooms and billiards rooms for the gentlemen. Miss Cranston's Tea Rooms became social centres for all, for business men and apprentices, for ladies and ladies' maids. The Ladies Rooms were a particular success, newly allowing respectable women to get out and meet together without male company. Unlike cafes or tearooms in other cities, there was no intrusive supervision and those having tea had an assortment of Scones and cakes to hand, with a discreet notice reminding newcomers to remember the amount consumed.



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Old Photograph Darnaway Castle Scotland

Old photograph of Darnaway Castle, also known as Tarnaway Castle located three miles from Forres, Moray, Scotland. This was Comyn land, given to Thomas Randolph along with the Earldom of Moray by King Robert I. The castle has remained the seat of the Earls of Moray ever since. Rebuilt in 1810, it retains the old banqueting hall, capable of accommodating 1,000 men.



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