The hidden secrets of the former Kelvingrove House

The spray-painted concrete bowls are well-known in the city, but it is not the riders doing gravity-defying tricks on bikes and boards that have her captivated.

In her mind's eye, Katinka is rewinding the years to a time when the area lay surrounded by miles of uninterrupted countryside.

It was on this very spot that the little known Kelvingrove House once stood – a predecessor to the famed red sandstone building of the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum that we know today.

As Kelvingrove prepares to mark the 10th anniversary of its £27.9million revamp, we examine a lesser known part of museum's rich history.

Katinka, a curator of archaeology for Glasgow Museums, has devoted hours of research to the subject of the city's first municipal gallery space.

What began as a quest to find out more about the early origins of the vast collection has grown into a labour of love as Katinka delved deeper into the fascinating back story – one intertwined with links to slavery, colonial trade and civic development.

"There is no physical structure of Kelvingrove House to refer to anymore," she says. "The existing museum has been such a success from day one that it largely overshadows this early history."

The name Kelvingrove was coined in 1782 when Glasgow merchant and Lord Provost Patrick Colquhoun bought 12 acres of land in an area then known as Nether Newton.

It became Colquhoun's estate and Kelvingrove House was built a year later.

Colquhoun was highly regarded and described as "one of the great Glaswegians of the 18th-century". In more recent times, however, researchers have begun to explore the wider connections between landed wealth, their country houses and the transatlantic slave economy.

The eminent Scottish historian Sir Tom Devine has suggested that Colquhoun's Kelvingrove House was similar to James Buchanan's "Virginia Mansion" and John McCall's "Black House" as an unmistakeable indication of 18th-century mercantile wealth.

Around 1790, Colquhoun left for London to pursue a political career and Kelvingrove House was bought by John Pattison, a merchant and cotton mill owner.

The property listing from the time revealed a handsome country mansion. "There is a description that details all the out buildings and what the estate comprised," says Katinka. "We know it had a walled garden, orchards and a cold bath with water pumped in from the River Kelvin."

Pattison is an elusive figure with surprisingly little written about him. Katinka believes, however, there is some evidence to suggest that on the issue of slavery, he held opposing views to Colquhoun.

According to the Glasgow Herald, Pattison was "sorely persecuted" for his political beliefs.

READ MORE: a numbers guide to Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

"There are references to him being a Whig supporter of Charles James Fox which suggests Pattison was of a liberal political persuasion and that he may have been an abolitionist," she says.

"His son later reminisced about growing up in Kelvingrove House and there are some very intriguing references to an incident where effigies were made of his father and the fact he appears to have fallen out with the mercantile establishment in Glasgow.

"It is interesting to think that there might have been this contrast between Colquhoun and Pattison."

Kelvingrove House would change hands again several times over the years. The last private owner was Colin McNaughton in the 1840s.

The estate was sold to the Glasgow Corporation as part of plans for the West End Park. The house became home to park keeper Duncan McLellan and his family who lived there until 1864.

After a short period of standing empty, proposals were accepted to turn it into a gallery space. The City Industrial Museum opened its doors to the public in March 1870.

As the collection grew, the former Kelvingrove House struggled to accommodate all the objects. New plans were drawn and a wing added to the existing house between 1874 and 1876.

When the museum's first curator, James Thomson, died in 1875 he was succeeded by James Paton, who was then assistant keeper at the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art.

Katinka believes an anonymous quote which appeared in the Glasgow Herald in 1884 – describing Kelvingrove House as "an old ramshackle of a bungalow" – could be attributed to Paton who complained of inadequate conditions and cluttered galleries.

"Paton thought it was unsuitable for museum accommodation and was very active in the campaign to fundraise and make Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum happen," she says. "I'm sure he was probably quite happy to see the back of Kelvingrove House."

In 1899, the house was demolished leaving only the museum wing – its days numbered by the opening of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in 1901.

"The organisers of the 1901 International Exhibition wanted rid of it because it was sitting where they needed space for a concert hall and various other pavilions," says Katinka. "They wanted visitors to alight and have a clear view across the exhibition grounds and the house was in the way."

The museum wing would be recycled twice before its own demise: as the Japanese pavilion in 1901 and a Palace of History at the 1911 Scottish Exhibition of National History, Art and Industry.

It is likely that it was then demolished along with the temporary structures of the latter exhibition.

Today, there are no visual monuments to Kelvingrove House.

Yet, Colquhoun's property was described as having had three cellars and it is also recorded that a time capsule was buried under the foundation stone of the museum extension in 1874.

Katinka hopes that it may be possible that something of the old buildings await to be discovered.

"That is wishful thinking and complete speculation on my part but I would love for that to happen," she says. "There is no real reason that there couldn't be something underground.

"It would be lovely to think there was a little bit of our old museum that still remained."

READ MORE: a numbers guide to Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum