Mackintosh Queen’s Cross, where an impressive war room gathered last week (Image: Newsquest)

Last week, inside the only church designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, an impressive war room gathered. The mission? Save our built heritage, once and for all.

Organised by Conservative MSP Dr Sandesh Gulhane, the round table on the cusp of Maryhill drew an impressive crowd. There was his co-host, Labour MSP and building crusader Paul Sweeney. Then there was Stuart Robertson, director of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society.

Representatives attended from New Glasgow Society, Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland, National Trust of Scotland, Glasgow Building Preservation Trust, Glasgow City Heritage Trust, Glasgow School of Art, Historic Environment Scotland, Alexander Thomson Society, Glasgow Institute of Architects, and the Architectural Heritage Fund. Esteemed architects Alan Dunlop and Scott Abercrombie were also there. Notably absent was anyone from Glasgow City Council. I was assured an invite had been sent.
There was a lot of hurt and a lot of hope in the room. And a lot of questions for the council that could not be answered because no one from the local authority was present. Why, for example, are they considering selling the McLellan Galleries on Sauchiehall Street? “If Glasgow wants to have an international exhibition, it needs to have something resonating,” Stuart Robertson says. “Kelvingrove doesn’t cope with that.”

The McLellan Galleries are a great exhibition space. Why are we not using the building as such? Alas, the council says they do not have a “core operational need” for the B-listed gem. Sauchiehall Street is currently the site of a major PR makeover that will see money pumped into it to create a new Culture and Heritage District. It would be nice to revive the 2007 plans to turn the McLellan Galleries into a Gallery of Scottish Art in the city. We could charge a small fee for exhibitions and create a self-funded culture and heritage asset worthy of the new district.

Another thorn was the announcement last week that £2 million in funding from the UK Government would be going straight to The Lighthouse in the city centre. Everyone agrees that the A-listed former Herald offices are worthy of a makeover, but confusion abounds as to how the decision was made. I asked the council, and a spokesperson said the investment was to make it more attractive and fit for purpose to lease out. Permission to negotiate a lease with Sustainable Ventures to turn the Mackintosh building into a Net Zero Innovation Hub was agreed in February. “None of this funding will go to Sustainable Ventures, no lease has been signed, and negotiations are ongoing,” the spokesperson added. The money will be used to fix defects in the building.

“I think the recurring theme is a lack of systems thinking,” Paul Sweeney says. The Lighthouse and Kelvin Hall (which is getting £600,000 in funding) might be “worthy” projects, “but the decisions were made by officers behind closed doors,” he adds. “They weren’t decided democratically, openly or transparently. And I don’t think that’s a sustainable way to allocate two and a half million pounds in capital funding.”

I look around the room and nervously pop blueberries in my mouth from my paper plate. I am no expert on built heritage, but these folks are. Surely, I think, these should be the people our city takes advice from with every decision regarding heritage and redevelopment? But after an hour, I get the feeling these key figures do not feel in the loop. The look of surprise that danced across the face of a representative from the Glasgow Building Preservation Trust when the sale of the McLellan Galleries was mentioned was fairly telling.

The sentiment at the round table was that there must be more transparency between the council and the organisations represented when it comes to decisions that affect built heritage. There was a lot of love for a Compulsory Purchase Order being used to take back the Egyptian Halls, but why don’t we use them more often? Why did they make the “stupid” decision to scrap business rates relief for empty and partially empty buildings in the city? Why are we installing PVC windows in conservation areas?

Glasgow has an incredible, passionate population of experts and enthusiasts who are deeply committed to protecting the fabric of the city. By the end of the meeting, we had heard some pretty good ideas about how to tackle the derelict building crisis. Take, for example, bringing experts back into the council. We need joined-up thinking to bring the city to its full potential. A team that decides what should go up and what should get torn down. What should be sold, and what should be kept and repurposed. “We’re a city of architecture without a city architect,” Alan Dunlop tells me later over the phone. “I think that’s ridiculous.”

Glasgow City Council has spent more than £280 million on heritage buildings and projects over the last dozen years. But the built heritage situation is still a calamity. And the council is the largest owner of derelict buildings in the city. I empathise that they don’t have the budget to fix everything, but the consensus in this room is pretty clear: more needs to be done. Decisions need to be made better and more openly. And evidently from this discussion, we have the expertise to do it. It’s just not getting tapped into.

I leave feeling more optimistic than I thought I would. It’s not every day that senior-level architects, politicians and conservationists come together for a meeting over coffee, cakes and fruit. Let’s hope the next time this impressive situation room gets together, the council sends a liaison.
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Marissa MacWhirter is a columnist and feature writer at The Herald, and the editor of The Glasgow Wrap. The newsletter is curated between 5-7am each morning, bringing the best of local news to your inbox each morning without ads, clickbait, or hyperbole. Oh, and it’s free. She can be found on X @marissaamayy1