Luma Building, 1930s Shieldhall Road Property, Scotland, Govan Tower Housing, Architect

Luma Glasgow : Shieldhall Road Building

Former Luma Lamp Factory, 20th Century Glasgow property design by Cornelius Armour Architect

post updated 6 March 2022

Luma Lamp Factory Glasgow

6 March 2022

The Luma Tower Building Photos

photos © Adrian Welch

Former Factory in south west Glasgow, north of the M8 motorway

Date built: 1938

Status: listed Grade B

Location: Shieldhall Rd, southwest Glasgow

The building is dominated by an 84ft conning tower clearly visible from the M8 skirting to the south. The clean white forms are redolent of Thirties Modernism which surfaced rarely in Scotland relative to Western Europe. The Luma factory was converted a few years ago to housing.

The building was built to manufacture of electric lamps; it was finished simultaneously with the Empire Exhibition in Bellahouston Park.

Luma was built by a joint venture of the Wholesale Societies of Scotland and Sweden, later the British Luma Cooperative Lamp Company.

Following the ending of light bulb manufacture at the plant the building was sold and, amongst other uses, was used as a caravan showroom before finally falling into dereliction in the 1980s.

In 1993, a local housing association acquired the decaying Luma Tower building amid fears it would be demolished, and began the process of it restoring it and converted it into affordable housing. Forty-three new apartments were created, with a further twelve in a creative reproduction of the original building’s style to the rear.

The tower element is now illuminated with blue neon lighting and is a noticeable landmark around Govan, and it can be clearly seen from the westbound carriageway of the M8 motorway between Junctions 24 and 25.