Mercantile Chambers

Category: Historic Building/Architectural Interest

35-69 Bothwell Street

This grand building was designed by James Salmon Jr and finished in 1897. It has a huge sandstone facade with dozens of windows, and it is quite different to Salmon's other famous Glasgow building, The Hat Rack. Salmon loved using sculpture on his buildings, and Francis Derwent Wood (1871-1926) created all of the rich carving on Mercantile Chambers. The four female figures represent Industry, Prudence, Prosperity (left) and Fortune (right).
This figure of Mercury sits over the doorway to Mercantile Chambers. He is sitting in a baldacchino, which is a small turreted chamber with spiralling columns. Mercury was the Roman God of skill, eloquence and trading, so he is an appropriate figure for a trading office. Francis Derwent Wood also made sculptures on the Glasgow Museum & Art Galleries at Kelvingrove.