Glasgow's buildings tell its story but we treat them with neglect

Despite their position as a prime example of the brutalist form, the four towers, constructed in the late 1960s, were deemed not significant enough to warrant status as listed buildings. 

According to architect Alan Dunlop, who has vocally protested the proposed demolitions, the towers’ plight are just one example of a worrying disregard for the city’s architectural identity. 

Dunlop told The Herald: “We have a relaxed attitude to historic buildings, particularly in regards to how important they are… We treat them with a certain degree of neglect. It’s embarrassing.”

A number of buildings have been left to rot in recent years, ranging from the historic St Vincent Street Church in the city centre to the Lyceum Cinema on Govan Road. These properties sit in a state of “managed deterioration”, as one Herald reader recently observed. 

Niall Murphy, the director of the Glasgow City Heritage Trust, is more hopeful. He told The Herald: “I think people do care about Glasgow’s built environment. People do generally care… but we need to find ways to look after these buildings.”

Glasgow School of Art building after the fire (Image: Damian Shields)

Noting the demolition of many of Glasgow’s iconic buildings in the 1960s, Murphy believes this change has had negative effects for the health and wellbeing of many older Glaswegians. 

He noted: “To lose all the context of your childhood, that has an effect on your health.”

“The [built environment] is key to any kind of place,” Murphy observed. “It ties into ‘place-making’ and [contributes to] mental health issues.”

Another problem, as Dunlop sees it, is the number of historic properties which have burned down in recent years, whether accidentally or as a result of arson. The Mackintosh building at the Glasgow School of Art (GSA), affectionately known as ‘the Mac’, is one of the more well known examples. 

After a fire ripped through the building in 2014, sparking a 35 million pound renovation, a second blaze gutted the site four years later. While GSA has said they are committed to restoring the building, a decade later, the Mac remains encased in a protective white shroud. Earlier this year, a public inquiry into the blazes was nixed by the Scottish government as “too expensive”.

As old buildings continue to crumble, Glasgow risks losing much of its “fabric and makeup”, contends Dunlop. 

He points to the ABC cinema building on Sauchiehall Street, a well known art deco venue built in 1875. Damaged in the 2018 GSA fire, the building has sat vacant for the last six years, falling deeper and deeper into disrepair. 

In August, Glasgow City Council ordered the demolition of the building after an inspection proved it to be unsafe. The site, owned by the Vita Group, will now become purpose built student accommodation.

“The most [destructive development] has been the loss of the ABC Cinema," Dunlop noted. “150 years of Glasgwegians knew about that building.”

He said: “[I] love the character of what makes Glasgow, Glasgow… the buildings are different from Edinburgh or Dundee.”

“The most environmentally friendly building is the one that’s already there,” the longtime architect added.

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“I used to think that if you were a commercial developer, it would be difficult to restore and [repurpose] historical buildings. I no longer think that.”

Speaking without words, buildings have the ability to point to the past, illuminating the creativity of the artist and the skill of the craft person. In a world of digital temporality, where one’s reality can quite literally become augmented, they are something… concrete. The whispers and secrets of thousands are harboured within their walls.

Yet, they are not unchanging, as the crumbling remains of the ABC Cinema demonstrate. Buildings are nothing if people forget about them. That’s where the work of people like Dunlop and Murphy come in, seeking to reverse the trend of disrepair and neglect.

Murphy noted: “[The Heritage Trust] looks after the tenements in the city and [helps] the owners to look after them in the long term.” 

He went on to cite the example of the Camphill Gate tenement in Shawlands, a five story edifice built in the art nouveau style. 38 of the building’s owners worked together, along with the Trust, to ensure the site was properly restored. In recent years, the building has hosted concerts on its roof, as well as former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, and was recently shortlisted for a prestigious national architectural prize.  

Another example is that of the Trinity College tower in Park Circus. A “real symbol of Glasgow as a Victorian city,” according to Murphy, the tower suffered from serious damage to its structural integrity, forcing nearby residents to evacuate in 2022. 

However, due to the work of the community, a new steel frame was installed and the building was stabilised. 

“The owners worked really effectively to save their tower,” said Murphy.

(Image: Handout)

The work of the Heritage Trust doesn’t stop there, Murphy told The Herald. 

“We are also working to get buildings off the buildings at risk register,’” he said, pointing to listed buildings in Trongate and Hunter Street that were successfully restored.  

“We [can’t ignore] the scale of the problem. More than 150 buildings are at risk in the city centre.”

Dunlop agrees, noting: “The louder the voices are, saying how important these buildings are… the more we speak out, the more we can change attitudes.” 

“The more we raise the issue, the more we talk about it, the more chances we have to keep Glasgow, Glasgow.”

An example from history helps to contextualise the importance of Glasgow’s architecture, which has proved to be a model for cities across the world. 

In the wake of the Great Chicago Fire, which destroyed much of the Midwestern American city in 1871, the people of Glasgow contributed several thousand pounds to relief efforts, the equivalent of more than 700 thousand pounds today. In return, according to Dunlop, Chicago’s mayor pledged to rebuild the city as “Glasgow on Lake Michigan.” 

Indeed, Glasgow has been hailed as a diverse and vibrant centre of architecture for centuries. From the days of Charles Rennie Mackintosh to Ernest Butuex, the city’s buildings have shaped its identity. That cannot be allowed to change. 

After all, people may make Glasgow, but buildings tell their stories.