A true champion of Scottish architecture

I WAS sad to hear of the death of the architectural historian Gavin Stamp. An enthusiast and activist, he lobbied hard for Glasgow to be recognised for its excellent Victorian buildings.

When he and his wife bought the Glasgow home of Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson, the great neoclassical architect was little known outside Glasgow. Now, largely due to Gavin’s efforts, he is celebrated the world over.

Some years ago, he and I hit the streets of Glasgow to make a radio show about his favourite and unfavourite landmarks. The plan was a 20-minute chat, with Gavin holding forth, while I held the microphone and occasionally poked him with verbal sticks like ‘Oh, but surely we have to embrace modern design occasionally?’.

Two hours later, we were still striding through the city, propelled onwards by the indignation that made Professor Stamp such a passionate defender of historic buildings and a waspish critic of contemporary architecture. He loved the Necropolis, but St Mungo’s Museum was ‘Fort Weetabox’, and the city fathers got a tonguelashing for demolishing St Enoch station, Glasgow’s version of St Pancras, and installing ‘a shopping centre of dismal mediocrity’. We trekked to the Gorbals to admire the derelict Caledonia Road Church.

Gavin pointed out that Scotland used to produce architects in numbers out of all proportion to the population. Rather than neglecting or destroying their work, we should push for more preservation.