The Templeton Factory Disaster (1889)

On 1 November 1889, during construction of William Leiper’s ornate Venetian façade for Templeton’s carpet factory, a gale brought an unfinished section of the wall down onto the adjoining weaving shed. Twenty-nine women working at their looms were killed. The façade was rebuilt and completed in 1892, and the disaster is remembered by a memorial stone at the site on Glasgow Green.