December 20 2022

Historic Environment Scotland is proposing to grant statutory protection to a Victorian sawmill in Port Dundas to thwart its threatened demolition.

The former City Sawmills office building at 124 Craighall Road, Glasgow, is subject to a live application for replacement by 60 apartments, sparking protests from the local MSP and the Architectural Heritage Society for Scotland (AHSS), among others.

The backlash has guided a pending decision by the government body to award C-listed status to the industrial brick building, subject to consultations through 9 January. In a letter of objection to demolition, Paul Sweeney MSP argued that the building is a vanishingly rare slice of Glasgow's industrial history in an area of the city where such examples have '... been almost entirely obliterated'.

Sweeney has also applied for a building preservation notice to be served on the property pending the outcome of HES's deliberations, in effect granting it listed status for an interim six-month period.

This echoes the concerns of others, including the AHSS, which argues that while the building is architecturally modest, it is representative of the untold histories of the working class.

A C-listing is no guarantee of protection, however, as the decision to demolish a later Art Deco sawmill in Anniesland attests.

7 Comments

#1 Posted by Whispering Andy on 20 Dec 2022 at 10:45 AM

Whisper it.......but why?

#2 Posted by RJB on 20 Dec 2022 at 13:04 PM

Poor people like old stuff too

#3 Posted by Neil Paterson on 20 Dec 2022 at 14:15 PM

Without Paul Sweeney and others like him holding planners to account, there would appear to be little to no regard for areas of the city, ripe for regeneration, where having a few historic buildings in and around the streets surely has to be a good thing. Some of the recent additions to our skyline have been truly appalling, and would never be allowed to happen in comparable European cities. It seems sometimes to attitude is that 'anything is better than nothing'. This is a nice building which can surely be repurposed.

#4 Posted by KLD on 20 Dec 2022 at 16:37 PM

Maybe one where a façade retention would work?

#5 Posted by pooka on 21 Dec 2022 at 11:58 AM

'Listing protection could save threatened Port Dundas sawmill' ...or provoke a mysterious fire after a period of neglect.

#6 Posted by Jimbob Tanktop on 21 Dec 2022 at 21:16 PM

#3 Genuine questions: what recent additions have been truly appalling and which other, comparable cities would never have allowed them to happen? What are the mechanisms and restrictions those cities work with as opposed to Glasgow?

#7 Posted by Alasdair Macdonald on 27 Dec 2022 at 15:35 PM

While the building itself is probably worthy of preservation, Craighall Road is not a road which is attractive to people on foot. It has for years been part of a fast route to from Milngavie and its environs via Balmore Road and Saracen St. Essentially, it is a legacy of Glasgow's decision in the 1950s and 60s to make the city subservient to motor vehicles. The Port Dundas area was not populated and was an industrial estate. However, some housing is being erected on Dundas Hill and there are residents in Spiers' Wharf, but it is still some way from being a neighbourhood with amenities and services. Unless Craighall Road is transformed into a local street, then it is unclear what purpose a refurbished former sawmill would serve.

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