THE formal opening of the Library Hall at the Royal Faculty of Procurator Fiscals in Glasgow on June 11, 1857 was a grand affair.

This splendid facility was described in our sister title the Glasgow Herald the next day as “one of the most exquisite halls in the West of Scotland.”

The Faculty was incorporated in 1668 and has served the legal profession in Glasgow and the West of Scotland for more than 350 years.

Its library was founded in 1817 and had several homes before finally settling in Nelson Mandela Place (formerly St George’s Place).

It is still a striking façade in the city centre, designed in the Italian palazzo style by well-known architect Charles Wilson, who was inspired by the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice.

Glasgow Boys Paintings on view at The Royal Faculty of Procurators, Nelson Mandela Place Glasgow. Camillla Riva 27 from Milan holdind a Painting titled The Schoolmates by Edward Arthur Walton valued at £40-60,000. Pictures: Herald and Times

Glasgow Boys Paintings on view at The Royal Faculty of Procurators, Nelson Mandela Place Glasgow. Camillla Riva 27 from Milan holdind a Painting titled 'The Schoolmates by Edward Arthur Walton valued at £40-60,000. Pictures: Herald and Times

Finely sculpted masks of legal figures form keystones to the window arches outside, and the interior, ,complete with sweeping Genoese staircase, is richly decorated.

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The Glasgow Herald noted that after the official ‘opening’ in 1857 the guests walked ‘arm in arm and two by two’ down to the Queen’s Hall for a ‘public’ banquet, where wine was quaffed and the speeches seemed to last all night...