BA Social Club to be demolished
The demolition of the old British Alcan Social Club will begin today (Thursday October 17) to make way for the Highland Soap Company’s factory and visitor centre.
Efforts had been made to preserve the building due to its significance in Fort William but, after surveys, the building was condemned.
In a statement for the company, owners Emma Parton and Archie MacDonald said the demolition would go ahead.
Condemned
The statement continued: ‘The BA Club buildings were built by the family of Archie MacDonald, business partner of our founder Emma Parton, when they were the tenant farmers of Inverlochy Farm 150 years ago.
‘The current buildings were sadly condemned but we will be rebuilding to the same dimensions of the club and with the same look and feel that many people remember so fondly.
‘We want everyone locally to know that we feel a strong family and historical bond to the club and are creating a sympathetic and quality building that we hope people will love and really be able to get behind.’ In comments on the company’s Facebook page, people were sad to hear that the building would be demolished but were positive about the soap company creating something new on the site.
A hub for parties, ceilidhs and general socialising in the days of British Alcan, the building was most recently used for Stramash nursery before the nursery created other facilities on the same site.
The demolition and building work will not affect the usual running of Stramash, with staff praising how supportive the new developers have been.
Stramash team leader Cameron Sprague said: ‘The building work is not going to affect the way we work at all and we are working closely with Emma Parton so that we can use their café for parent coffee mornings and once they get their botanicals going we would like to get the children involved in the growing of them as well.’
The new building will take on the manufacturing of The Highland Soap Company’s products before distributing to customers and their stores across Scotland.
There will also be a visitor centre, shop and café area for people to go and see once the building is complete, which is likely to be at some point in 2020.