11 great Glasgow buildings we could be about to lose

MARK SMITH TALKS TO FIVE LEADING FIGURES IN ARCHITECTURE AND HERITAGE ABOUT THEIR CONCERNS

2024-04-20 -

TAKE a look because it could be the last time you see them. Schools. Police stations. Cinemas. Tenements. Buildings that tell the story of Glasgow and Glaswegians, but buildings too that are in serious danger of disappearing. They may still be standing now – damaged, decaying, and neglected examples of a great city’s history – but how much longer before we lose them?

To highlight the issue, we asked five leading figures in architecture and heritage to talk about buildings in Glasgow which they’re particularly concerned about and their choices underline the scale of the crisis; indeed, demolition work began on one of their nominations while the article was being put together. Taking part are MSP Paul

Sweeney, Liz Fuller of heritage group SAVE, architects Alan Dunlop and Hunter Reid, and writer Ian R Mitchell and these are the buildings they’re worried about; buildings we could be about to lose forever.

272 SARACEN STREET

Is there a better place to start than the Glasgow tenement? Many have been lost, most famously in the Gorbals, as well as fine examples such as the corner tenement at Maryhill Locks on Cowal Street. But thousands survive, not always in the best condition.

One of them is 272 Saracen Street in Possil, which is the choice of MSP Paul Sweeney. The tenement is structurally sound but is in a bad way; the shop on the ground floor is still operating but the three stories above have been boarded up.

One of the finest features of the building is the mural on the side of the building, which depicts the heritage and history of Possil. At the top of the mural is the gatehouse of the famous Saracen Foundry, which once stood at the northern end of the street.

The mural features many other nods to local history, much of it disappeared. The Astoria Cinema, one of the local picturehouses. A tramcar, like the ones that would have come and gone from Possilpark Tram Depot. And in the centre a worker at the foundry, which supported local jobs.

Mr Sweeney believes the tenement is exactly the kind of building that should be protected in Glasgow. “I’ve been trying to get the council to do a compulsory ownership on it,” he says. “The windows are all smashed and it’s in private ownership but it’s exactly the sort of thing that could be quickly renovated. I don’t think Glasgow values its tenements as it should.”

WASHINGTON STREET PRIMARY

There are so many neglected Victorian schools in Glasgow – some going, some gone – but the one highlighted by architect Hunter Reid is Washington Street primary, by the Kingston Bridge, right in the centre of the city.

Mr Reid, who led the successful renovation of Maryhill Burgh Halls, knows the Washington Street school well: when it became an arts centre in the 1970s, he worked as a volunteer there alongside the head of art: none other than Alasdair Gray.

“That type of building, old schools with internal atriums, they’re fantastic and you can do so much with them,” says Mr Reid. “It’s easy to adapt into

different uses, you could add on it easily because they’ve all got playgrounds. The galleries and balconies, you would see other people within the building when you were moving around it. The atriums were a good communal part of the building, so it’s got great light.”

The sad thing is schools such as Washington Street are either unlisted or C-listed which means they don’t have a great deal of protection. Mr Reid also believes the reason Glasgow has so many buildings at risk is because of inaction by the council.

“We haven’t got the good people in place in Glasgow,” he says.

“The city used to have a director of planning but it was abolished about 30 years ago. There used to be strategic local plans for all the areas of Glasgow done by the planning department. And what I always found was if they really wanted to find the money for a project, they could find it.”

POSSIL RAILWAY STATION

One of Glasgow’s many lost railway stations, Possil was opened in 1897 by the Lanarkshire and Dumbarton Railway and closed in 1964. The C Listed building, with its decorative timberwork and terracotta tiling, was used as a bookmakers for some years but is now in a deteriorating condition.

Writer Ian R Mitchell, author of Walking Through Glasgow’s Industrial Past,

nominated the building and says he’s sad to see it in its current state.

“It’s a palimpsest to the past,” he says “and shows that once upon a time this was a prosperous community with a lot of industry. But it’s also just a nice wee building – nice woodwork, fretwork, it shows the care that was taken into buildings of this kind in those days. They weren’t just functional and utilitarian, they were meant to say something, to say we’re proud of this area and this makes us feel good.”

Mr Mitchell says part of the problem is that Glasgow’s leaders and some Glaswegians have not always valued its architectural heritage.

“What an incredible architectural heritage we had but never valued,” he says. “A lot in Glasgow’s story was about the collapse of industry. When I came to the city in the 1970s from Aberdeen, you’d have thought it was dying.

“I remember walking from Bridgton Cross to Parkhead to see the Dons play and there wasn’t a building standing – it was like Berlin after the war.”

Mr Mitchell says another issue is there are some people who do not know their city. “Springburn, Govan, other places,” he says, “you meet middle class Glaswegians who’ve never been there in their lives. I honestly think most of them blotted it out and were unaware of the dereliction.”

Mr Mitchell does believe areas such as Possil can still be regenerated.

“Look at Dalmarnock; 20 years ago, it was a wasteland, now there’s the Commonwealth Village which is a great success; the Gorbals too,” he says. “There have been major planning successes and major reversals, but it’s very slow and very painful and not fast enough.”

VOGUE CINEMA

Perhaps more than any other building on the list, the former Vogue cinema on the corner of Balmore Road in Possilpark emphasises the precarious nature of some of the heritage buildings in Glasgow. Just a couple of days after speaking to the architect Alan Dunlop, who nominated the building, demolition work started on it before the council issued a building preservation order.

Mr Dunlop, who has produced drawings of how the cinema might look if its 1930s art deco frontage was sensitively renovated, says it would be a very sad day if the building was lost.

“The cinema is the most significant building in that whole area which has been devastated over the last 40 or 50 years,” he says. “If you lost it, there would be nothing left in that part of Springburn that has any architectural significance whatsoever.

“The building is dilapidated but it has a really fine art deco stone frontage and it’s a building of real character and a marker for the area and could be converted into residential accommodation. There has to be a will to do it and it has to go beyond ‘och this is too much trouble, we’ll just demolish it and do something else’.

“It’s to do with civic pride and people’s appreciation of the environment in which they’re living. The retention of the city’s fabric is an important part of how we appreciate Glasgow and how we live.”

WHITEINCH CRANE

Less famous than its brother down the road at Finnieston, the Whiteinch Crane is also worthy of attention, says Paul Sweeney. Built in 1920 to serve the North British Engine Works, it transferred engines from the yard onto ships moored on the Clyde but by the late 70s, the works was closed and the crane out of use.

Mr Sweeney says he’s concerned about the current state of the crane – which was given A-listed status in 1989 – and thinks there’s a danger of losing it.

“There’s only four of these cranes left on the Clyde and these are world heritage assets, they really are,” he says. “My worry is that they are so badly corroded they have to be dismantled. As far as I can tell, there’s very little active maintenance and the crane in Whiteinch is in a bad way.

“Glasgow has lost so much of its industrial heritage without a thought and we’re risking losing more of it if we’re not careful.”

Look at Dalmarnock; 20 years ago, it was a wasteland, now there’s the Commonwealth Village which is a great success; the Gorbals too. There have been major planning successes and major reversals, but it is slow

Ian R Mitchell

CALTON POLICE STATION

Nominated by Liz Fuller, buildings at risk officer at the campaign group SAVE Britain’s Heritage, the old police building in Calton was in use right up until the 1980s but is now in a poor way: empty, boarded up, and in danger of disappearing.

Ms Fuller is a big fan of the building,