Glasgow – Oh, Glasgow!
Clare Henry deplores what is happening to the city's iconic Victorian legacy
THERE WAS A TIME, not long ago, when Glasgow was known for its majestic and impressive architecture. No longer.
What has gone wrong? Today the City of Glasgow seems determined to demolish, obliterate all its famous Victorian architecture. The loss of the iconic Mackintosh School of Art is enough of a tragedy. So WHY? WHY? are beautiful old Victorian buildings NOT saved and repurposed? Part of the reason is TAX! – VAT is charged on refurbishments but NOT on new build.
Watt Brothers store façade -– a Glasgow classic
So Glasgow vitally needs to change things, to create tax incentives. Turn Glasgow’s historic buildings into new accommodation instead of building more and more ugly towers that won’t last. Why not recycle, reuse wonderful worldclass architecture? Why is the city council sitting on its hands? Lack of leadership? Laziness?
COLIN DRYSDALE’s fab architectural fotos as seen on his Instagram column, ‘THIS IS MY GLASGOW have now spawned a book, GLASGOW UNCOVERED, £14.99 from Pictish Beast worth every penny for its historical architecture notes alone.
In addition WESTFEST organised a terrific series of free talks at Kelvin Hall celebrating Glasgow’s architecture including a wonderful film, SYMPHONY IN STONE produced by Tony Burton. I am just glad that there are records of Glasgow’s magnificent built heritage. But surely it would be it would be so much better to keep the real thing?
Meanwhile architect Gordon Gibb thankfully keeps up his forensic assault on the national scandal that is Glasgow School of Art. In an extraordinary talk about the two Mackintosh fires he pulls aside the veil of secrecy – (and over £ 800,000 appaently spent on non-disclosure agreements.)
The level of shameful, heartbreaking incompetence was revealed in horrifying detail. As has long been recommended, the Macintosh’s future must definitely be put in the hands of an independent trust, with GSA as tenants.
As Sam Ainsley says, “The building is too precious and important to the City of Glasgow and world architecture to be left in GSA hands.”
Nathan Coley agrees: “The Mack should be owned by the nation, but it will take a new government to enable that.” This sorry saga has ruined Glasgow’s reputation - and also that of the Glasgow School of Art. An iconic world famous building has now become a dirty word.
