Luma Tower (Luma Lightbulb Factory):
Built to coincide with the 1938 Empire exhibition, and originally known as the Luma Lightbulb Factory, the building is an example of art deco, and sited to the west of the city centre, south of the River Clyde. Designed by architect Cornelius Armour, the steel framed building with precast concrete floors is dominated by its glazed 84 foot high tower which splits the south elevation and is a dramatic curved feature dominating the local skyline. Following its use as a lightbulb factory the building latterly was used by Caravanland and then entered a period of dereliction. When I first visited the site in 1990 the building was in a poor state of repair, leaking, with shattered windows and repeatedly broken into (unfortunately I have no photographs from that visit).
The building was extensively remodelled when converted to 43 flats following said period of dereliction from the 1980s to the mid 1990s. The building footprint is fundamentally the same and the remodelling is sympathetic and in keeping with the original design, maintaining its art deco style. Included in the remodelling was the addition of porthole windows on the west elevation, four floors of windows on the east of the front elevation, new larger windows on the west portion of the front elevation and a remodelled entrance at the foot of the tower. The east elevation was extended out to form a rectangle rather than stepping down as in the original factory design. The rear of the building was extended out so the form overrall was a large rectangular block, and there was the addition of a variety of forms to the west end of the building at the rear with a void within these. Finally three seperate small housing blocks were added running along the rear seperated from the building as a whole by an access road (Nithbank Avenue). The building is category B listed.


street address: beside 470-510 Shieldhall Road, Shieldhall, Glasgow, G51 4HE
Latitude / Longitude: 55.859918,-4.347281 (sourced using Google Maps)


south-west corner, with the long elevation onto Shieldhall Road


west elevation. The window positions are the same as the original building, except the top storey has been widened and the three circular windows are a new feature


adjusted fisheye view looking east down the south front elevation. The building is in effect two blocks, the first short block in the foreground ends with the curvature of the tower (stairwell) footprint, then the second longer portion of the building is stepped back and stretches further to the east.


top of the tower with plant equipment sited on top


view of the tower from across Shieldhall Road


looking straight up the tower


the new entranceway at the foot of the tower


view up the tower with the entrance hall signage and canopy in the foreground


between the lower portion and the glazed upper portion the balcony area reveals the beam grid layout of the floor above


view east along the front elevation


one of the four entrance ways along the second portion of the building's front facade



view west back along the front elevation


south elevation and the shorter east elevation at the right of the photograph


east elevation form the rear corner of the building


view back down the rear elevation


the variety of new masses at the west end of the rear facade


the variety of new masses at the west end of the rear facade


rear elevation and west shorter elevation onto Hardgate Road


elevation onto Hardgate Road with the new build blocks to the left of the photograph


the second of the three new build blocks at the rear




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