The Lion Chambers is situated at 172 Hope Street, City Centre in Glasgow, Scotland. This building in the heart of Glasgow began construction in 1904 and was completed in 1907. It is an 8-storey commercial building in Glasgow style Art Nouveau. It is an early example of reinforced concrete construction and the building was commissioned by William G. Black, lawyer and member of the Glasgow Arts Club, with the lower floors intended as lawyers’ offices and the upper floor as artists’ studios. The building is the second reinforced concrete structure in Glasgow and amongst the first few in Britain. It was designated as a Category A listed building in 1966.

As early as 1995, the co-owners discussed options for demolition due to structural decay. Repairs were estimated at £1-1.5 million at the time. The main challenges to the restoration that have been identified are spalling to the brickwork and water ingress.

As a city, Glasgow has an important choice to make in relation to its architectural heritage.

Protected buildings left to fade away are tombstones to lost opportunity.

This Elevation shows a brief overarching view of what function each floor has within Last Hope.

Every floor from the basement to the seventh is accessible to both staff and the public and the only inaccessible space is the rooftop which can only be accessed by maintenance workers. Although every floor is accessible to the public there are staff rooms only accessible to staff on each of the floors in exception to the basement and the ground floor as well.

Every floor has toilets including disabled access toilets.

The numbered floors consist of a reading space with the relevant topics for that floor, seating and study desks with public access computers that can be used to access the internal network which stores more data that are not in the bookshelves.

These floors also contain a small exhibition area as well as a consultation room and staff room.

The children’s zone floor consists of a reception, play space, dining space, TV room, reading space and a nap room.