Move to save city church fails
A HISTORIC church in Glasgow’s West End will be demolished despite a previous proposal to keep parts of it.
The former Hillhead Baptist Church is subject to a successful planning application from 2021 to create 29 flats while retaining the B- listed facade.
As the Glasgow Times reported at the time, developer Wemyss Properties said the project would help to secure the future of the congregation in the community.
But now, the company has announced that despite this, the demolition of the entire building is “unavoidable”.
In an announcement, the firm said: “Recent condition surveys ( March 2022 and June 2023) show that the building facade is now deteriorating more quickly than anticipated.
“Future repair work will be extensive and increasingly costly, compounded by the significant rise in construction costs and inflationary pressures.
“The unavoidable implication is that the demolition of the facade represents the only economically reasonable way forward.
“Based on this, the intention is to progress new proposals which no longer retain the facade.”
The announcement was met with backlash from local politicians, groups and residents.
Paul Sweeney MSP said: “There will be a massive public opposition to their flimsy, profit- driven justification for full demolition of this church, especially when facades in far worse condition in poorer areas have been saved.”
Scotland’s Churches Trust encouraged people to share their opinions with the developer via https:// hillhead- cresswell. scot/
One local added: “It really is a tragedy to lose an old and listed building in favour of another set of generic flats.”
Another said: “What a pity - and to replace it with such a generic building.”
A third commented: “I’m torn between saving our architectural heritage while not losing sight of the quality of what is to replace it.”
This comes a month after we reported that the Partick Baptist Church building had been saved from demolition after an order was previously granted.