November 6 2024

The Department of Culture Media and Sport has been pressed by an MP to address the 'international tragedy' of the Glasgow School of Art and help break the present restoration logjam.

Torcuil Crichton, the newly elected MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, points to essential conservation works at Kisimul Castle on the Isle of Barra and the newly refurbished Lews Castle on Stornoway as examples of best practice. Contrasting these successes with the forlorn state of the Mackintosh Building, after a £35m restoration budgeted after the initial 2014 blaze went up in smoke in 2018, Crichton called for additional support.

Addressing a parliamentary committee Crichton said: "Glasgow is still in trauma over the loss of the Mack, the pall of it hangs over the city and the tang of burnt timbers could still be smelled on Garnethill when I walked up to the Art School last week as the ABC building, also damaged in the fire, is demolished.

"So much of Glasgow's built heritage is in danger of falling to the elements, neglect, lack of funding or malicious demolition.

"Above Sauchiehall Street, wrapped in a white plastic shroud, is the burnt-out corpse of the Mack. The site is sealed like a sarcophagus against the elements. The art school board and engineers, architects and firefighters have done their utmost, the walls are still standing, but there is no sign of a phoenix rising from these ashes."

The restoration has suffered a series of setbacks following the second fire, notably ongoing arbitration over insurance and a flawed procurement process. Calling for a national effort comparable to that of France in the restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral, Crichton added: "The Art School is a structure which is integral to Scotland's identity, central to the image of brand Scotland we want to portray and an asset to the UK on the world stage. Glasgow is a cultural lighthouse and a beacon, though much decayed in present days, but its buildings do speak to the world and will again when the Mack is restored."

In response, a government official dashed hopes of direct intervention, despite donating £10m following the initial fire, stressing that heritage is a devolved matter. Instead, officials state that they are 'open and willing' to facilitate applications to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, where Glasgow was selected as one of 11 priority places to receive a share of its £200m heritage place initiative - which includes the Sauchiehall Street cultural quarter. The government would also throw its weight behind applications to the National Heritage Memorial Fund and Architectural Heritage Fund.

Reiach and Hall with Purcell have been appointed by the Glasgow School of Art to prepare a business case by early 2025 for how a faithful reinstatement of the Mackintosh Building can be delivered.

24 Comments

#1 Posted by Spike on 6 Nov 2024 at 18:48 PM

As a frequent visitor and former resident of the city I get really frustrated with the lack of action in preserving many of the fine buildings ; obviously funding is a main issue but I can only think it is the inept political leadership which is the predominant reason for this

#2 Posted by Ghetto King on 7 Nov 2024 at 08:52 AM

Unfortunately , I have stated before that the MACK is not coming back.
There is no money ; just look at the reluctance of the insurance companies to pay out when the stakeholders couldn't even install a fire system.
The site will be managed student flats with a token remainder , if you are lucky , to what was there once.
Similiar sites can be found on the southside in Albert Drive / Kenmure Street , Pollokshields where 2 opposite buildings were razed to the ground by fire. There are still shells some years later.

#3 Posted by Pedro on 7 Nov 2024 at 10:29 AM

The Glasgow bashing is at epic proportions just now. I love how these boswellian politicians go to Westminster and gleefully inform anyone who will listen about how shite Scotland is. Perhaps 14 years of austerity and the impact of brexit - both originating in Westminster - is to blame and not Glasgow City Council.

#4 Posted by Duk on 7 Nov 2024 at 11:01 AM

Aye pedro its Westminster and brexits fault of course and not the people directly responsible, sounds like you just wanted to shoe horn in some irrelevant bashing

#5 Posted by John C on 7 Nov 2024 at 11:26 AM

The inept handling of the rebuild, which lead to the second fire, was the responsibility of the Governing Body of the Art School. Demolition is now the only sensible option as any attempt at building a copy would now be a waste of money.

#6 Posted by Jimbob Tanktop on 7 Nov 2024 at 14:52 PM

Aye Duk, Brexit and Westminster are the paragons of virtue and redolent of all that's good and great and are in no way to blame for Scotland's present state, I quite agree. What we really need are some of the procurement geniuses who tackled HS2 to sort out the Mack.

#7 Posted by Roddy_ on 7 Nov 2024 at 16:21 PM

Unashamed and blatent politicking -complaining to a UK Govt department whose functions are devolved to Scotland.

The question is does this intervention get us any closer to a rebuilt School of Art. The answer is a resounding no but he's trying hard to score political points. Clyping to the Committee while shedding crocodile tears over an area he doesn't even represent is just sickly. If a Glasgow Central MP had made such moves over an issue in the Western Isles they'd be rightly told to go polish their brass neck. The obvious question is why isn't a Glasgow Labour MP making this case? It stinks of something thrown to Torcuil Crichton from the Whip's office via the Sec of State to shield the local guys lest they become targets of criticism of inaction or neglect.

Any one who knows anything about the conservation of Lews or Kisimul Castle knows that the comparsion is entirely spurious. Pathetic.

#8 Posted by Raibeart on 7 Nov 2024 at 16:42 PM

Well said #7 you’ve hit the nail on the head. Labour game playing , rather than a serious intervention.

#9 Posted by Raibeart on 7 Nov 2024 at 18:30 PM

Mr Crichton has spent most of his working life in London in the UK parliamentary bubble. As Labour MP for the Western Isles, there are lots of important local issues for him to focus on: housing, poverty, transport, the economy, concerns about fish-farming & land reform, support for Gaelic & education, and worrying recent reports in the Ferret about radioactive pollution from MoD facilities/subs risking health & economy of the West Coast.

#10 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 8 Nov 2024 at 09:00 AM

And we wonder why we can't build ferries ...

Guy brings a huge public scandal into the open / gives the issue publicity and what does the Scottish cringe do?

It does what it always does -- attack the messenger rather than message. Plays the man and not the issue.

The Art School ongoing multi catastrophe shames the nation and what are we actually doing to fix it -- the square root of nothing just retreating further into the cave and attacking anyone talking about the light outside.

Bad
Very bad.
Disastrous actually.

#11 Posted by Islands of sanity on 8 Nov 2024 at 10:05 AM

#10. Well FBOT, you are absolutely spot on.
Meanwhile Mackintosh is exploited re cultural tourism whilst ignoring his greatest legacy. It is always easier to destroy than to create. Sometimes a faithful reproduction is justified. The Germans have many fine examples.

#12 Posted by Sven on 8 Nov 2024 at 11:41 AM

It is puzzling why the School of Art building has not been restored and back to due by now. It is owned by the university, via trusts, and it should be forced to give the building to a new trust to restore it. I feel millions can be gained from pledges and crowd sourcing as people want this rebuilt. The trust can then lease the building for GSA use and for tourism.

#13 Posted by Roddy_ on 8 Nov 2024 at 12:22 PM

If our friend at #10 doesn't think that the GSA rebuild issue hasn't been extensively and comprehensively vented across all media then they have clearly been living on another planet (which sort of makes sense based on the post) . If they think this intervention will have any effect whatsoever they similarly are delusional.
There are some folk that want to the GSA rebuild to be progressed and there are some that want to make political capital out of it. Mr Crichton's intervention is clearly and unashamedly of the latter variety.

#14 Posted by Mansartarchi on 8 Nov 2024 at 12:41 PM

The School of Art building first and foremost needs to be functional again.
Bring the building back into use and allow it to evolve rather dwell on what was lost.
It’s gone, and we need to draw a line rather than bicker and watch the building stagnate in its current condition.
It would be great to see certain elements of the old building reinstated, but I was always fonder of the circulation spaces myself.
Nuff said from me.

#15 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 8 Nov 2024 at 13:38 PM

Venting is one thing.
Building is something else.

Interesting that venting is enough for most people on this topic -- the effort of actually doing something is too much for them.

The situation with the School of Art corpse shames the nation -- student politicians lost in the complexity of modern life.

Holyrood / GCC just going through the motions.

#16 Posted by Jimbob Tanktop on 8 Nov 2024 at 14:03 PM

#15 "Interesting that venting is enough for most people on this topic -- the effort of actually doing something is too much for them"

And satire lies prone, clutching its heart, dying in a ditch.

#17 Posted by Showbiz Sam on 8 Nov 2024 at 16:31 PM

fbot - "Shames the nation"? Scotland? Not a nation, mate, by definition. A region at best. And just perhaps, therein lies the problem. I just can't imagine Finland, for example, allowing a major Aalto building to meet a similar fate.

And even taking a regional example such as Blackwell House by Baillie Scott in the Lake District, if it had been gutted by fire, do you think for one minute it would have been allowed to just rot into the ground over time? Nah. I can't imagine that - apart from viewers in Scotland that is.

#18 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 8 Nov 2024 at 16:50 PM

We were a nation -- the only nation in the world to get smaller at every level when we got more responsibility / we got to do our own thing.

First 8 years -- we did not punch our weight.
Last 17 years -- we have sat on our hands and griped.

Plus Glesga has had it twice as bad -- giant vampire squid in Auld Reekie making sure what we get nothing and know our place as in second rate.

Andy Burnham @ Manc Central -- 20% of the levers / 200% of the output.

Bad.
Very bad.
Catastrophic actually.

#19 Posted by Roddy_ on 9 Nov 2024 at 19:37 PM

Well let's keep an eye on this call for a 'positive engagement'.

The response from the Government minister to Torcuil Crichton was less than resounding - basically saying that this was a devolved matter and why not apply to the National Lottery Heritage Fund/ National Heritage Memorial Fund/Architectural Heritage Fund. Wow- who knew ? In other words - no direct UK government funding but they are 'open and willing to facilitate conversations'. A stunning commitment if ever there was one.

The intervention from Patricia Ferguson was also particularly sickly- saying :
'‘Glasgow that once respected its heritage, now seems to be ignoring it’

As usual - the collective amnesia of politicians trying to score points against the current Glasgow administration. It is clear that they (the SNP Admin) have a case to answer, but so too have countless Labour administrations. If we are keeping a score of who did what and when, then we might wish to consider the wholesale destruction of vast swaths of the city under Labour governance in the 60's, 70's and 80's. The instances of neglect by the present administration (in place since 2017) pale into insignificance compared the outcomes of the Bruce Report of 1945,commissioned by a local Labour admin, The Highway Plan for Glasgow of 1965, similarly commissioned and implemented by a Labour administration or the Clyde Valley Regional plan promulgated by the UK's bureaucracy in Edinburgh and implemented by multiple Labour councils. These smashed the city to pieces with the loss of countless churches , tenements,neighbourhoods and industrial heritage.

If we want to score political points then let's look at the thing holistically and with the perspective of history.

#20 Posted by Cadmonkey on 10 Nov 2024 at 00:16 AM

Taking a step back…
Was it not insured?

#21 Posted by Showbiz Sam on 10 Nov 2024 at 12:47 PM

On second thoughts, I had forgotten to cite a perhaps more relevant example above - please consider if you will, a fire that hypothetically would have gutted the Sezession building of JM Olbrich in Vienna. Do you really believe, that the Austrian government would just stand by and say, 'oh well thats a shame, we'll just let that piece of history rot into the ground.'
Political responsibility has failed here big time, irrespective of the insurance claim.
Better Together.

#22 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 10 Nov 2024 at 12:49 PM

It is always someone else's fault -- never look to the present just scour the past and start pointing fingers.

For the record regarding the rebuilding of Glasgow -- everything started with GEAR in 75/76 when the city stopped exporting its citizenry to new towns across the land.

The issue we have at the moment is that the first wave of regeneration has ran its course and we have nothing now to takes things forward.

Holyrood has hurt Glasgow and eventually the regeneration wave petered out and now our future is mapped out in Auld Reekie with all the bits they don't want or can't find a use for.

If it had been an Auld Reekie landmark -- people would have been shamed into getting things done / money would have been found / erses would have been booted.

Glesga -- let them stew in their own sea of mediocrity and self importance.

At every level the response of Civic Scotland has been self serving and wasteful -- what O/T can we squeeze from the cloth rather than what solutions can we develop.

Has anyone did in any level of investigation into the state of the first rebuild before it went up in flames a second time?

What work had been done vs what payments had been made and who had signed off the work for the Art School?

Basic stuff -- but given this level of civic / public sector catastrophe associated with the last 10 years all bases need to be covered.

#23 Posted by Roddy_ on 10 Nov 2024 at 20:10 PM

I would urge everyone to revisit the Committee proceedings if they haven't already and take note of the Government's response starting at 16:18.
https://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/91a956ee-63e4-4d4f-9f6c-5e9bd703179c

It is basically a load of patronising drivel with zero commitments.No, sorry I take it back, as I said in the previous post they are 'open and willing to facilitate conversations'.

Can I ask that we all check back in a year's time and E-mail Torcuil Crichton's parliamentary office to get an update on all of the conversations that and others have facilitated and a tally of all the cash committed by central government. Address below.

That is all.

torcuil.crichton.mp@parliament.uk

#24 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 11 Nov 2024 at 17:09 PM

I wonder what would have happened if the MP had not kicked the hornets nest?

More afternoon naps at Holyrood with a bit of performative sleepwalking thrown in for good measure?

We have no housing crisis in Glesga -- the professional political gum-bumpers and their trendy wendy acolytes all live in a cave.

Post your comments