11th-hour intervention saves a roofless cinema from further demolition
January 16 2024
An at-risk former cinema may have skirted demolition by the skin of its teeth after planning officers issued a building preservation notice (BPN).
The decision means the building owners, Allied Vehicles, must immediately halt demolition work pending further assessment from Historic Environment Scotland (HES), effectively placing a demolition warrant issued just before Christmas on ice for 6 months.
Last week HES declined to list the structure on procedural grounds, equating the demolition warrant to 'advanced development proposals', dashing expectations that it would be C-listed. The issue of a building preservation notice upends that equation.
In a statement, Glasgow City Council explained: "Planning officers have instructed the service of the BPN to allow for Historic Environment Scotland to undertake a further assessment following which it is anticipated (repeat, anticipated) that they will list the building. The officers have contacted the owners and informed them of the service of this notice, highlighted that unauthorised alterations or demolition of the structure would now be an offence and requested that they halt demolition works at this time.
"The building will effectively become listed whilst HES proceed to assess it for listing in the context of the BPN. HES have six months to complete their review and this would also include consultation on any proposed designation. We have requested that HES expedite this assessment. Any decision to list the building would then be subject to appeal to Ministers."
G&J Demolition began dismantling the cinema on 8 January, removing the roof and much of the rear elevation but the primary facade remains intact, sparking hopes that it can still be saved.
Campaigner Callum Forrester said: "There is no guarantee that when the cinema is demolished the site will even be developed. The owners demolished the former bus depot on Hawthorn Street similarly and never developed the site, which is now just a car park. They have so much spare ground in the area that if they did have a genuine interest in developing, they have many vacant sites to choose from and do not require to demolish local heritage assets to achieve this."
There are no live planning applications for the site at 124 Balmore Road, nor have any pre-application consultations taken place.
12 Comments
Even if the building is eventaully listed, the roof is already off. Doubtless AV will find unending reasons to delay and demure its reinstatement until the rain and cold undermines the structure and they have a good enough excuse to flatten it. How many times have we seen this play out in Glasgow before?
If the planning officers looking at the project see the value in the building and have instructed the BPN, why was the demolition warrant granted in the first place? Any by Whom?
Were this in the South of England, where you can't take five paces without tripping over a listed building or scheduled monument, the BPN would have been served at the first suggestion of demolition to allow proper time for evaluation.
Surely doing it this way round is even more of a headache for everyone involved. The planners have to backtrack and double their work, AV have to stop and delay mid-demolition, and HES have to evaluate the significance of a half demolished building.
Glasgow's planning authority need to sort their process out. Arguably, anything that could be called a 'historic' building should, by default, be subject to a light-touch appraisal by HES as part of the planning consultation.
How many examples of this architecture are left in Glasgow / left in Scotland and are they all to be saved?
A more pressing problem would be the language skills of the Council -- their statement would invoke the UN Torture legislation if they were ever to read it.
Plus you have the Manufacturing industry angle -- not a lot of it about in Glasgow -- and here we have a company giving it a go and all the student politician's care about is a piece of poor quality design from the 1930's.
Same immature student politics that thinks industrial and economic development will come through the Avenues Project rather than offering a growing local company some support to build a new assembly hall / modern offices / signature design showroom on a highly visible street corner.
I wonder if the Avenues Project will ever make it to Balmore Road?
You mention 'a new assembly hall / modern offices / signature design showroom on a highly visible street corner' is there a planning application for this? I haven't seen anything. The normal thing to do is to apply for planning permission before you demolish a building, unless of course you are at it and trying to thwart a listing of the building but ended up getting caught with your trousers down.
The best thing to do is for the owner to come back with a new plan to keep the frontage as part of any redevelopment and then everyone is happy.
They have owned this ugly building for many years and for 99% of that time it has been vacant.
Think of the Business Rates they will have paid on this lump during that time. Had it been listed (and there has been plenty of time for any of the recent handwringers to request that) - it would have been zero rated for Rates. The owners would still have had utility connection costs, insurance and maintenance costs - but not Rates.
Sadly this building is in Possil - where it must be nearly impossible to "magic up" an alternate use that would make money for the owners.
As we say in Glasgow - You canny polish a jobbie - but you can roll it in glitter. But this building would need a mountain of glitter.
Lastly - they did the right thing and obtained a legally valid Demo warrant on an unlisted building, got started - then the same department forces them to stop. I hope they crack on and take GCC to court - or we will all have to fear similar "Stop orders" for any future demolitions.
BTW - I have no connection to the owners.
It was also really quite attractive prior to Allied Vehicles' ownership of it and their removals of the details and garish paint jobs has made it the mess that it is today. Thankfully HES have been able to look past this.
They were well aware that the building was going through the listing process and were dead set on thwarting the process by demolishing within the consideration period. While this was absolutely legal, it was disingenuous in its intent.
Many have mutated into bingo halls so all we are left with is a formulaic frontage / a low cost 30's big box shed / a new shiny interior.
In the 2070's will we be listing any remaining B+Qs?
The Balmore Road unit is a very poor example of the design style with very poor positioning and no integration with its surroundings.
No reason to retain apart from cheap headlines and a large bucket of overworked sentimentality.
Other comments suggest an over emotional mindset and an inability to understand how the real world can operate. The owners have followed the rules and been caught up in a bureaucracy at war with itself with hobby horsers desperate for publicity.
Not good.
Not sure the exact timeline but it has been used for cheap office space in living memory after the Bingo crew moved out to a modern unit along the street.
You say it's a bad example, clearly Historic Environment Scotland disagree. What would be a good example? And in the real world there are hundreds of examples of facades being retained that would work on this site.
You mention hobby horsers looking for publicity, who is that?
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How long before the owners advise that the rest of the building needs to be razed due to safety concerns but are stopped from doing so and then do not carry out the necessary remedial work due to financial restrictions?