Choose Moderne life
Derelict former children’s hospital building has been transformed into trendy apartments
IN its prime, the sleek Moderne building offered a stylish solution to a not-so-stylish problem. This was the Cubicle Building of the Hawkhead Infectious Diseases Hospital, where local children who had tuberculosis were sent to recover.
Of course, it could be argued that the 1930s medical facility was overengineered for what it was meant to do.
But if a property like this couldn’t make you feel better, what building could?
Years of neglect meant that, by the turn of the Millennium, the Cubicle Building and its assorted neighbours were in danger of being lost forever.
But in a triumph for lovers of Art Deco everywhere, the Cubicle Building has found a new lease of life as a collection of one and two-bedroom apartments.
Property developer Kier has restored and transformed the A-Listed building as part as an ambitious redevelopment of the former hospital site at Ralston, on the outskirts of Paisley. Incredibly, you could join the A-List property set for as little as £135,995.
Strictly-speaking, it’s not Art Deco. The technical books tell us that the Moderne style is present when ‘white or streamlined architecture is applied to an otherwise conventional building’.
That is not to say it does not have some fairly exotic Art Deco influences, notably from Dutch architect Willem Marinus Dudok.
The architect responsible for the Cubicle Building was local man Thomas Tait, who would later constructed the Tait Tower, a feature of the Empire Exhibition of 1938 at Glasgow’s Bellahouston Park.
Tait was a big fan of Frank Lloyd Wright, ‘the father of American architecture’, and Dudok, who felt that stark Moderne buildings could be enhanced with coloured tiles.
One of the nicest touches to the new Kier flats is the retention of the original turquoise blue tiles which first adorned the building when it was opened in 1936.
One of the apartments boasts no fewer than four metal doors which open out to the verandah, where once children lay in their hospital beds in the belief that fresh air would do them good.
New owners had better get used to elderly strangers knocking on their door, reminiscing about the days when pneumonia almost got them before TB did.
Sales staff report dozens of visitors to the show home recalling how they used to work in an operating theatre or laundry room years ago.
The Horizon apartment boasts an unconventional living room, in the shape of the curved bow at each side of The Cubicle Building.
Above it, on the first floor, The Adler constitutes every small boy’s fantasy as the two-bedroom flat that allows access to an outdoor terrace which – with a little imagination – could double as a helicopter landing pad. The bedrooms may be compact but best use of the living area has been achieved by combining the living room and dining area and slipping the kitchen into a sizeable recess.
Here, you get a fridge/freezer, a cooker with extractor hood above and a washer/drier. This is a particularly nice touch as there are no outdoor drying facilities. Neither is the profile of the building likely to be marred by the addition of assorted satellite dishes; each apartment is wired to a communal aerial.
Kier sales manager Jean Robertson said: ‘The whole development at Hawkhead Village has given us a platform to show what we are capable of. This was a chance to preserve an iconic building and retain some of the history of what went on there.’
Such is the beauty of this redevelopment, Kier should begin clearing its mantelpiece for the plethora of architectural awards coming its way next year.
And, as a touching historical note, it’s nice to reflect that in its former guise, this establishment singlehandedly wiped out TB in Paisley.
The Madison flat is available for £135,995. Contact Kier on 0141 840 1354 or email hawkhead.sales@kier.co.uk