Write to cabinet secretary to save station hotel plea
THEAyrStationHotelCommunity Action Groupis callingonreaders towritetoMichaelMathesonMSP, ScottishGovernmentCabinet Secretary forTransport, Infrastructureand Connectivity, to save the crumbling Ayr StationHotel.
The group’s chairman Esther Clark, said:“We are at a critical point in the battle to save Ayr Station Hotel as Network Rail is pushing for the demolition and replacement of the 1885- built, Glasgow& SouthWestern Railway ( G& SWR) hotel, withamodern building. This is instead of refurbishing the existing station and finding alternative purposes for the hotel itself, such as community use, after community buyout, or use as student flats and offices.
“South Ayrshire Council has commissioned a feasibility study, but we understand that it does not include in its remit the hotel’s conservation. A modern‘ glasshouse’- style station, as proposedbyNetwork Rail, would cost an estimated£ 25 million, and last for 25 years, whereas a conservedhotel would not only keep an important pieceofVictorian railway heritage alive, as very muchpart of the town’s architectural character, but would stand for another century.
“Please e- mail Mr Matheson, expressing your support for the conservation of Ayr Station Hotel, as, at the end of the day, a political decision will be made on the fate of this gem of railway architecture, and time is fast running out. The cabinet secretary can be contacted at ministers@ gov. scot marked for his attention. I hope that asmany readers as possible will support us inour campaign for save Ayr Station Hotel from demolition.”
Built by the G& SWR in 1885, the hotel passed to the LMS in 1923, and was sold off by the British Transport Commission in 1951. It is currently owned by Malyasianbusinessman End Huat, who bought the hotel in 2010 as a going concern, but closed it in 2013, sincewhen it has crumbled and been issued with a dangerous building order by South Ayrshire Council. Scaffolding was erected in 2018 to stop masonry falling on to the adjacent station platforms and railway lines.
The building is also home to the G& SWR FirstWorldWar Memorial, moved to its current position on the building’s outer wall facing the Stranraer line platforms, when GlasgowSt Enoch Stationwas closed in 1966.