38 Queen Square

The north side of Queen Square was built by Daniel McNicol to the same design as his terraces in Regent Park Square, and first occupied in 1866. Originally numbered 18, it was renumbered to 38 around 1929.

Matthew Waddell

Matthew Waddell was the first occupant in 1866. He was a hosier, glover and shirt maker at 122 Argyle Street, but also had several restaurants, such as at 126 Union Street. The 1861 census described one of his restaurants on Gordon Street as a “Temperance Dining Room and Coffee Shop, employing 8 girls”. He appears to have been present in Strathbungo for a year or less and later lived in Crosshill.

The Crarae Quarry Incident

On 25 September 1886 Matthew joined up to 1000 tourists on the paddle steamer Lord of the Isles to Inveraray. The trip was especially popular as the owners had promised to stop at Crarae Quarry on Loch Fyne to witness the last of the season’s big gunpowder blasts. The quarry was leased by Faill & Co to provide setts for Glasgow’s roads, and Faill’s had invited a party from the Glasgow Corporation on the trip too. With the steamer stationary off the quarry, it gave a blast on its whistle, and the quarrymen triggered the explosion, bringing down some 70,000 tons of rock in a tremendous display.

The steamer then docked at the pier and around 100-300 intrepid tourists entered the quarry some 20 minutes later to examine the effects of the blast. Inside there was a moment of panic and people started to turn to leave, but before they could all escape some 80 of them inexplicably fell motionless to the ground. Some were pulled from the site by rescuers acting at great risk to themselves, while others woke, and made their own way out in a dazed fashion. Some suffered fits. Six men were pulled out barely breathing and were dead within minutes, and a seventh died in hospital. The dead included a councillor and the son of a Glasgow Baillie. The terrible incident was attributed to “sulphorous gases” but almost certainly was asphixiation by “blackdamp”; a combination of carbon dioxide poisoning and oxygen depletion following the blast. This was a phenomenon normally only experienced in confined spaces such as mines and tunnels, but the bowl shape of the quarry, the lack of wind, and carbon dioxide being heavier than air probably all contributed to the extraordinary event. There are several full accounts of the events of the day .

Scenes of the disaster from “The Graphic” illustrated newspaper.

The former Crarae Quarry. Source: Streetview 2011

Another of those who succumbed at the quarry was our restauranteur, Matthew Waddell.

Waddell grave, Southern Necropolis. Source: FindAGrave/Member DSW

John Miller

In 1868 the occupant was one John Miller, a calenderer, hot presser, silk finisher and packer. His office was in Cochrane Street, near George Square with his works in Cadzow Street, now vanished under office blocks beside the M8. He employed 25 men, 10 girls and 10 boys. A farmer’s son from Bothwell, he lived in Strathbungo with his wife Janet, six children under seven years of age as well as his sister and brother, and his servant, Williamina Mackay from Stromness, Orkney. By 1873 he had moved to a house in India Street, adjacent to his works. The Queen Square house subsequently appears to have been empty for a period.

Location of John Miller’s factory on Cadzow Street. There’s nothing left of it. The M8 off ramp passes overhead. The Hilton Hotel is behind the camera. Source: Streetview

By 1881 his fortunes had dipped and he was listed as an unemployed calenderer living near Bellahouston. Some time later he decamped south to Bradford, where his luck was to be transformed.

No such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothing

Can’t think why, but the Scots had a talent when it came to wet weather clothing. The Dundee firm of Francis Webster established linen waterproofed with linseed oil in 1795, but it was mainly used for sailmaking, and was not very practical for clothing as it was stiff, heavy, smelly and discoloured yellow (the origin of traditional yellow fishermen’s gear). Then in 1823 Scot Charles Macintosh invented a rubberised coat, the eponymous Mac .

John Miller, his son and some associates set about going one better and established the Millerain Syndicate in 1890 to develop a new waterproof fabric (Miller-rain, geddit?). Miller developed and patented machines that could impregnate cotton with paraffin wax, and thus invented waxed-cotton waterproof clothing. It is said that he raised the initial funds by selling pies at a local market. In 1894 he established the British Millerain Company to promote his patents, machines and fabrics around the world, based at the Croft Mill in Halifax. Although he died in 1900, one hundred and thirty five years later British Millerain are still in business, still run by the Miller family, and still the world’s leaders in waxed cotton clothing, supplying the likes of Barbour with fabric for their jackets .

The pioneers of waxed cotton clothing, presumably including the two John Millers. Source: British Millerain

Illustration for the patent application for cotton proofing machinery. Source: British Millerain

The Hays

William Hay and Euphemia Young were from the Edinburgh area and married in Inveresk in 1845. William was an arable farmer in Inveresk, and later at Dirleton near North Berwick. The couple had five children, though they lost a daughter Williamina at 15. Then tragedy struck again in 1873 when William’s hat, plaid and walking stick were found beside the North Berwick Reservoir. The local fishermen dredged the water and retrieved his body. It was assumed he had stopped for a drink and fallen in . In the following years Euphemia moved her family to Glasgow and by 1877 had settled at 18 (now 38) Queen Square.

In 1881, the eldest daughter Alison Moffat Hay married a Glasgow-based engineer, James Howden. She was his second wife, and married just as he was reaching the height of his considerable success, having devised the “Forced Draught System”, a system of forcing hot waste gases from ships’ boilers back into the combustion chamber, dramatically increasing the efficiency of the engines. Ships that used the system included the liners Lusitania and Mauretania, at the time the fastest steamships in the world. The couple lived in the West End. The Howden factory still stands on Scotland Street, though derelict and awaiting redevelopment, or the inevitable Glasgow fire. It is said to be one of the last Victorian heavy engineering works in Glasgow. Its last products included two Channel Tunnel boring machines .

The remains of the Howdens works on Scotland Street in 2017. There has been no development and the buildings continue to deteriorate. Source: Streetview

Isabella Hay moved to Edinburgh, then to Devon, where she remained, working as housekeeper to a GP. Son Thomas Hay is a little more obscure but worked as a house factor. Emily Burgess Hay was the only child still living at Queen Square in the 1881 census, but had just married a fellow Strathbungoian, Julian James Vérel, a partner in Vérel Brothers, merchants and commission agents in Glasgow. Julian was a member of a remarkable family, whose story will have to wait for another house history. Soon after, the Vérels moved to Peel Park, Carmunnock and took Euphemia with them, where she died on Hogmanay 1889.

The Lairds

The next recorded owners were the Lairds from 1885. James was the son of a spirit dealer and grocer in Port Glasgow. The couple married in Bonhill, Dunbarton in 1865 and had five children. James got his master mariner certificate in 1864 and was master of the transatlantic steamer Macedonia around 1875. The couple moved to Strathbungo around 1885 and remained there for 10 years before moving to Millbrae Crescent.

The ship that wrecked twice. The SS Iowa beached on the French Coast in 1864. Salvaged six months later, she was sold to Glasgow’s Anchor Line, re-engined and named SS Macedonia. She was wrecked and lost on the Mull of Kintyre returning from New York in 1881. Capt Laird was uninvolved. Source: Scottish Shipwrecks

Gilfillan

Agnes Gilfillan was resident around 1900-01. She was the widow of Robert Zuill Gilfillan, the minister of Lochwinnoch parish, and had moved to Glasgow after his untimely death in 1892. She hailed from Kirkcaldy, the daughter of Brodie Smith, a draper. Five of her eight children were living with her in 1891. Her daughter Agnes became a nurse and midwife. Her son Brodie also became a minister, as did his brother George.

Isabella Logan Auld Thomson

Isabella was the owner in the 1905 valuation roll, though the property was empty. She was the daughter of a Greenock blacksmith and started out as a domestic servant there. It isn’t clear how she subsequently became a property owner, but in 1905 she lived in Lambton Road, Hornsey Rise, London.

Marion Harris

Marion was the owner and occupier in the 1920s and 30s. She was unmarried and a domestic teacher for the Glasgow School Board.

Additions and corrections are welcome.

References