Kibble Palace

1873 · Wrought Iron Dome Ribs · Work 65 of 1,871

Kibble Palace, 1873, Wrought Iron Dome Ribs

The Kibble Palace at the Glasgow Botanic Gardens, a low circular glass dome on slender iron ribs joined to a smaller entrance dome, marble figures standing among tree ferns.

What it was used for
John Kibble built the glasshouse in the 1860s as a private conservatory at Coulport on Loch Long, then had it dismantled and taken to Glasgow by barge. It opened in the Botanic Gardens in 1873 - not as a glasshouse but, under a 21-year agreement with the Royal Botanic Institution, as a concert hall and meeting place: the stage stood over the pond beneath the main dome, with a sunken orchestra pit, and 600 gas lamps lit it in the evenings. Concerts were held there between 1873 and 1881; Disraeli gave his rectorial address on 19 November 1873, Gladstone his in December 1879. Only in 1881 was the building turned into a winter garden, and the tree ferns were planted in the 1880s.
What was new
What this house could do and Kew could not: move. It was taken down, shipped and re-erected larger in Glasgow, a shallow dome over a keyhole-shaped plan; the diameters given differ, Canmore says 146 feet, the Scottish listing about 150. It was built not by a bridge builder but by the glasshouse firm James Boyd & Co. of Paisley. Mobility had its price: after eight of the 21 contract years the Institution bought out Kibble's interest for 10,000 pounds, borrowed from the city - for a building he had put up at Coulport for 15,000. In 2003 it was dismantled again and taken to Yorkshire; in 2006 it stood again, over a rearranged floor plan, with 3,491,000 pounds of lottery money.

Further reading