National Piping Centre

 National Piping Centre, Glasgow, Scotland.

This evening, I am focusing on the National Piping Centre which sits proudly at the north end of Glasgow’s Hope Street although actually located at 3-5 Larbert Street.

National Piping Centre, Glasgow, Scotland.

This was formerly a Free Church of Scotland building dating from 1872 which could accommodate a congregation of 1000 persons. It is built of attractive cream sandstone and designed by architects, Douglas and Sellers to an Italianate design but with hints of Classical Greek.

Inside the main body of the building is stained glass the purpose of which is to give an indication of the formal yet poetic nature of classical bagpipe music and to illustrate the complexity and multi-layered quality of this music. The three stained glass windows were designed by John K Clark.

Stained Glass

The Centre is now dedicated to the playing of Scottish and Irish bagpipes: Great Highland, Scottish Small Pipes and Irish Uileann Pipes. Facilities include:

  • School
  • Rehearsal Rooms
  • Auditorium
  • Piping Tuition.

There is also a shop, museum and Piper’s Tryst Restaurant.

Museum exhibit

The Centre is easily accessible from central Glasgow and will be of interest to students of architecture and those who wish to connect with bagpipe instruments.

More information for the visitor

Information on architecture and cities can be found in the Visitors’ Guide to Scotland. This publication is available via hard copy and Kindle. The ISBN is 978-1-9161332-0-4.

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