The former Martyrs’ School building in Glasgow’s Townhead is to be sold by Glasgow City Council to the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland.

It will be used as a public museum of Scottish Catholic archive, housing artworks and artefacts.

A Glasgow City Council committee approved the sale today (Thursday).

The category A building will be sensitively refurbished through a £1.75million works programme, funded by the purchaser, who will pay £250,000 in the sale.

The three-storey building, on Parson Street in Townhead, was designed by Mackintosh for the School Board of Glasgow when he was an assistant at the Honeyman and Keppie architectural firm.

The Martyrs’ School was completed in 1898 and used as a school and college facility until the 1970s, with uses since then including a period as an arts centre and office space for council museum and social work teams before becoming vacant for some time and being declared surplus in June 2024, as the council could find no use for the building.

A marketing exercise for the disposal of the building was carried out between October 2024 and March 2025 and three bids met the necessary criteria, with the other two being for commercial letting of workshop space with some public exhibition space, with occupation not guaranteed.

The Bishops’ Conference of Scotland also owns property on the opposite side of Parson Street – St Mungo’s Church and retreat.

Councillor Ruairi Kelly, Convener for Heritage, Development and Land Use at Glasgow City Council, said: “The successful sale of the Martyrs’ School is to be celebrated, with a new and sustainable use found for an A listed heritage building in a historic Glasgow district.

“Finding sustainable uses for unused and underused heritage buildings is a priority for the council.

“It will be fantastic to see new life coming to this early example of Mackintosh’s work, with public access bringing another attraction for local people and visitors to the city centre.”

The Herald By Craig Williams
Reporter