The Maryhill Panther, painted on the exposed gable end of a traditional sandstone tenement, peeking through between newly built flats on Maryhill Road in Glasgow.
@thisismyglasgow he looks very sad that his view up the canal has been spoiled, but then he looked sad before the flats went up so it can’t just be that!
@thisismyglasgow apparently these exposed gables are the result of a failed attempt at an increase in taxation, which would have made tenement building unviable. It brought all tenement building to a halt in Scotland, and with the First World War it never recovered.
The blank gables were required to permit the building of the next tenement, and in many locations the chimneys were already in place along with the presses,  so the next builder only had to build three walls.
Excellent planning!
@peterbrown I don't think that's actually true. Tenements were almost always built in complete blocks and not one close at a time.
The exposed gable ends like this one were mostly the result of individual tenements in a block being demolished due to being in a dangerous condition. I remember being driven round Glaagow in the 1970s and it seemed like a different building would have disappeared each time leaving exposed fireplaces, wallpaper and even staircases.
@thisismyglasgow perhaps in Glasgow.  But that’s not the case in Edinburgh.
It is usually easy to identify where a tenement has been demolished because the gable usually has an L shape to give a bit of structural support to the remaining building.
@peterbrown Interesting. I guess they may have used different construction techiques in Glasgow and Edinburgh, especially since the Glasgow ones tend to be a bit newer.
@thisismyglasgow here’s an example. I’m guessing from around 1860; you can see the ashlars ready to join on the next building and the blanks on the gable. And double the number of chimney pots to allow for the next building.
Tenements were generally feued out a block at a time in Edinburgh; I suspect in Glasgow many tenements were built by wealthy investors a street at a time.
@peterbrown The accompanying picture doesn't seem to have come true, but you're right, Glasgow was built a block of tenements at a time, rather than close by close, either by speculative investors or by the City Improvement Trust from the late 1850s onwards, with most tenements built around 1900. There are a few examples of tenements where the whole planned development was not finished, but once started individual blocks were almost always completed.
@wildlifeJackie it is. It's a bit hidden behind some mobile advertising hoardings parked in front of it and a rather large buddliea bush, but it's still there, as is the bumblebee next to him.
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