We call on the current owners of the ABC Cinema, OBARCS (ABC) Ltd, and future developer Vita Group to save the eye-catching portico entrance of this Glasgow landmark and retain it as part of future proposals for this site.
This former cinema, which sits right next door to the world-famous Glasgow School of Art, is under imminent threat of demolition.
This Category C-listed building of cultural significance is defined by its iconic art deco entrance designed in 1929 by one of Scotland's celebrated cinema architects, CJ McNair. This building has been the site of entertainment of many different kinds for generations of Glaswegians. It has changed and adapted over the years, from panorama, to circus, to ice rink, to dance hall, to cinema, to music venue. It was the site of Glasgow's first-ever moving picture show.
We urge the current owners and future developers to respect not bulldoze Glasgow’s architectural heritage. Work with a conservation engineer to save not just fragments but the whole solid central entrance to this much-loved building. Future generations will thank you.
Henrietta Billings, director, SAVE Britain’s Heritage, London; Niall Murphy, director, Glasgow City Heritage Trust; Gordon Barr, committee member, Cinema Theatre Association; Jocelyn Cunliffe, acting chair, Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland (AHSS).
French show the way in planning
WELL done Marissa MacWhirter for telling it like it is ("Are developers from London the new planning authorities in Scottish cities?", The Herald, September 30). The wanton laxity of Scotland's developer-led urban planning procedures truly beggars belief. She makes reference to the execrable "Golden Turd" in Edinburgh's St James Quarter, describing it as "giant faecal emoji" of London architects Jestico + Whiles.
It should not be forgotten, however, that the developer seeking to profit from this aesthetic crime was the North Carolina-based pension fund TIAA, which has over $1.2 billion funds under management. Despite this wealth, the Scottish Government and Edinburgh City Council decided to give it a public subsidy of around $100 million as a "regenerator". TIAA also exerted its muscle in a neighbouring authority's area when it opposed plans for a top-quality film studio complex which it felt might, at some future time, add on a retail park, which it regarded as a competitive rival.
Glasgow not only sells out on the perfectly salvageable ABC entrance portico by Charles McNair, but seems incapable of doing anything to reconstruct Mackintosh's School of Art.
In Paris, meanwhile, Notre Dame was restored in double quick time. Perhaps we should be outsourcing our planning powers to the French.
David J Black, Edinburgh.
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Austerity has never worked and it never will
Don't block assisted dying
I APPRECIATE the concerns of Eileen McCartin (Letters, September 2) and many others opposing the Assisted Dying Bill currently being considered in the Scottish Parliament. If this bill is properly constituted it will only apply to long-suffering adults who are still mentally competent, declared to be beyond medical help and requesting assistance to end that suffering.
As an elderly person who lived for three long years with a beloved, long-suffering but still mentally competent wife, dying with a body completely riddled with cancer, I pray that this bill becomes law to prevent others having such to go through what she did.
Suffering animals are treated better than humans.
G Caskie, Campbeltown.
Why I'd choose a Catholic school
AS a non-Catholic who finished my extensive and varied teaching years in a Catholic school, I endorse every word in the Kevin McKenna interview ("Scotland may be liberal but there’s a deep disregard for people of faith", The Herald, August 31). If considering my own children's education now I would be choosing a Catholic school for the overall ethos and other advantages offered.
Olive Bell, Dunbar.
No money for national park
GORDON Mann (Letters, August 31) writes in favour of a national park in Galloway. He says "a national park will be given recurring funding" and herein lies a major problem. There is no funding available.
Despite the largesse of the Barnett formula we have been told by the Finance Secretary that there is no money available even to maintain the winter fuel payment in Scotland. Thanks to mismanagement of Scotland's economy by the SNP administration over the past 17 years the coffers are bare. And while it is true that a national park will draw more visitors and spending into an area, you also have to ask how it will benefit local people. Consider the downsides of the NC500 for example, which are many and varied. Residents of Galloway should be careful for what they wish for.
William Loneskie, Lauder.
Could Oasis have charged even more?
IT seems that Oasis are about to get egg on their face and play to half-empty stadiums due to the “ ridiculous, outrageous and unacceptable" prices of their tickets ... or then again, perhaps not. Maybe they’ve undersold themselves as they could probably have charged even more and still filled every venue ("Government minister hit by dynamic Oasis ticket pricing as fans express fury", The Herald, September 2).
It’s called judging the market and it’s how a free market economy works.
John Gilligan, Ayr.
Decline in TV commentating
ANOTHER weekend of exciting football on BBC Scotland and Sky has been somewhat ruined yet again by slack pronunciation and blatant grammatical errors by commentators and studio summarisers, usually ex-footballers.
I am astounded that most of them seem to think that the letter "T" is no longer in use. Examples from this weekend's howlers in which "T" is omitted are quality, opportunity, strategy and, inexcusably, the word Scottish.
Good grammar also appears to have gone out of the window, for example "too many new signings have came in", "the referee has went to the VAR screen for to check for offside", and this classic mauling of the language, "What a terrible foul, he should be ordered off off the park."
I will spare the unlikely blushes of the people involved by not naming them but I can’t help thinking that if the real doyens of football broadcasting like the late Bob Crampsey, David Francey, Alistair Alexander et al could hear the English language being distorted and mauled each week, they would be birling in their graves.
Sadly, we will not see or hear their like again.
David Murdoch, Lower Largo.
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