Media coverage 2001

A building designed 140 years ago by the acclaimed architect, Alexander 'Greek' Thomson, may be constructed as a visitor centre commemorating his life.

Campaigners in Thomson's home village of Balfron in Stirlingshire want the achievements of their most famous son honoured by the creation of the £1.5m centre, based on drawings for a church and manse.

Balfron Community Council has sent a report on proposals for the centre to Sylvia Jackson, the local Labour MSP, funding bodies and the embryonic National Park Authority for Loch Lomondside.

It marks a new era of recognition at home for the internationally acclaimed architect. Despite his stature, his unmarked grave in Glasgow's Necropolis was only recently honoured with a crafted headstone after a nationwide competition.

As his profile grows, the Alexander Thomson Society and enthusiasts are to increase the merchandise based upon Thomson's designs and colours.

The community council argues that the increasing interest in Thomson's legacy, together with the imminent launch of the national park and an expected surge in visitors, make the concept viable.

The Strathendrick area surrounding Balfron is "poised for future change" whether the area is included in national park boundaries or set on the periphery.

Thomson's followers, 126 years after his death, propose that his design for the church and manse at Holm of Balfron should become the first heritage centre in his honour.

His original sketches, dated 1860 and currently in Glasgow's Mitchell Library, will be brought to life by contemporary Scottish architects if the scheme gets the go-ahead.

Thomson helped define the streetscapes of Glasgow during the mid-19th century.

Much of his best work was destroyed during the second world war, but his two surviving Glasgow churches at Caledonia Road and St Vincent Street incorporate Egyptian and Hindu motifs that put them decades ahead of their time when they were built.

The Thomson-designed church in St Vincent Street was recently placed on the World Monuments Watch List of 10 most endangered sites.

Mike Stone, chairman of Balfron community council, said: "This kind of recognition for Alexander Greek Thomson has been long overdue. We hope its time has come.

"While Charles Rennie Mackintosh has received all the attention in recent years, Thomson's style is much bolder. Thomson was Glasgow's most original Victorian architect, and was more than equal to Mackintosh.

"Although the design we will use is for a church, the buildings will be used to house the Alexander Thomson Heritage Centre. It will be amazing to see them come alive. The building itself will be a major attraction."

The heritage centre will house displays of illustrations, sketches and models of Thomson's work as well as relevant works by his contemporaries.

A recent Balfron community profile by the local council concluded that the village's location, just 20 miles from Glasgow, combined with national park plans, create a unique tourism opportunity.

Thomson's father, John, worked at the cotton mill in Balfron and the family lived in a small cottage in the town. Alexander Thomson was the 17th child in a family of 24. When John died in 1824 the family moved to Glasgow, although the architect retained close ties with Balfron, later designing the South Manse in the town's Dunmore Street, the only Thomson villa in Balfron.

Although keen to commercialise the work of their idol, Thomson campaigners say they are determined to avoid the Mockintosh pitfalls that have tarnished the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, who is recognised as the nation's leading architect.

Mr Stone said yesterday: "Ideally we would aim to achieve a building of a standard similar to Mackintosh's Art Lover's house in Glasgow and avoid the over-use of style that became Mockintosh."

Mockintosh flourished in the 1970s as architects and designers borrowed freely from the master. It still sells today, with jewellers and craft shops producing everything from earrings to table place mats replete with Mackintosh motifs.

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Tribute to great 'Greek' Thomson

James Reynolds, The Scotsman, 22 December 2001

For years his reputation as one of Scotland's finest and most original 19th century architects has been eclipsed by the shadow of the more widely famous, Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

But now, thanks to campaigners in his home village of Balfron, Alexander 'Greek' Thomson, the man credited with giving Glasgow its essential "Glasgowness", looks set to get a fitting tribute to his architectural legacy.

A new study has been published to promote plans for a £1.5 million visitor centre commemorating Thomson as one of Scotland's greatest ever architects.

Thomson was instrumental in defining the streetscapes of Glasgow during the mid-19th century.

Balfron Community Council want his achievements honoured with the creation of the centre and have sent a report on proposals to funding bodies including local Labour MSP Sylvia Jackson, and the embryo National Park Authority for Loch Lomondside.

They argue that a growing interest in Thomson's legacy, together with the imminent launch of the national park and an expected surge in visitors, make the concept viable.

Thomson's design for a church and manse at Holm of Balfron has been proposed as the first ever heritage centre in his honour.

His original sketches - dated 1860 and currently in Glasgow's Mitchell Library - will be brought to life by contemporary Scottish architects if scheme gets the go-ahead.

Born in Balfron, Stirlingshire, 'Greek' Thomson was the 17th of 24 children. He started his working life in a lawyer's office, but clearly his draughtsmanship was evident because an architect who saw his work took him on as an apprentice. He became a partner in the practice of John Baird in 1837.

Thomson designed buildings of all types, including churches, warehouses and mansion houses, and he was inspired by the good proportions and classic style of Greek architecture. It is his use of these motifs gave rise to his nickname 'Greek' Thomson.

He became President of the Glasgow Institute of Architects and because his style was popular, it was copied by many who came after him.

Balfron council chairman Mike Stone, 62, said: "This kind of recognition for Alexander Thomson has been long overdue.

"We hope its time has come. Alexander Thomson was born in this town and for years we have tried to create an identity around the work of our most famous son."

The heritage centre will house displays of illustrations, sketches and models of Thomson's work as well as relevant works by his contemporaries.

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Plan is gateway to a rescue bid

Deborah Anderson, Glasgow Evening Times, 29 November 2001

A £600,000 plan has been unveiled to save a historic Glasgow landmark.

The A-listed Southern Necropolis gatehouse needs to be re-roofed and restored before it can be converted into a family history centre.

The gatehouse at the entrance to the Gorbals cemetery has been derelict for 20 years and (£600,000 is needed to restore it to its former glory.

It was the second necropolis built in Glasgow and the final resting place of many famous people including architect Alexander 'Greek' Thomson and millionaire grocer and yachtsman Sir Thomas Lipton.

Among other notable people buried there are Rab Ha', the Glasgow Glutton, famed for such exploits as eating a whole calf in one sitting, who has a city pub named after him.

The cemetery opened in 1840 and was the first place in Glasgow to offer working-class people a cheap but dignified burial rather than the mass graves in which bodies were usually dumped.

Wee Willie White, a blind Glasgow street musician in the early 19th century, much-loved for playing tunes on his tin whistle, was buried in the Southern Necropolis thanks to funds raised by his admirers.

The planned restoration would give descendants of people buried there the chance to trace their ancestors in a purpose-built genealogy centre.

Gorbals Heritage Environmental Trust is hoping to give the A-listed gatehouse a new lease of life after a study showed it could be saved.

Spokeswoman Isobel Barret said: "We're hoping to put a funding package together to save the building.

"This project would have international interest and we've already had donations from ex-pats living abroad who are interested in tracing their ancestors."

Fiona Sinclair, of the Glasgow Institute of Architects, which was involved in the study, said: "We now know the building could be restored but there's a lot of work to be done. It has no roof but is structurally sound. We would like to see it retained as a community building."

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Call to end delay over Egyptian Halls rescue

Graeme Murray, Glasgow Evening Times, 27 November 2001

A rescue plan has been drawn up to secure the future of one of Glasgow finest buildings.

The Egyptian Halls in Union Street have lain empty for 10 years and experts fear the building will fall into disrepair if nothing is done to save it.

But Dundee-based owners Union Street Properties has come up with a plan to rescue the A-listed Alexander 'Greek' Thomson building opposite Central Station.

The firm has forwarded three redevelopment plans to Historic Scotland for approval and is looking for more than a £1million from the heritage body to allow the project to go ahead.

Bosses say they are the best opportunity in 15 years to prevent the deterioration of the 125-year-old 27,000sq ft building

The Egyptian Halls is considered by many to be Thomson's finest work and in the past has housed an art gallery, a concert hall and a shopping centre.

But Union Street Properties' managing director Derek Souter claims Historic Scotland is dragging its feet over the application.

He said: "Our plan is to lease it long-term either as office accommodation or as a hotel. There has been a lot of interest in the property, but we need to get the work moving or there will be long-term damage to the building.

"Historic Scotland has had the application for nearly 18 months and we haven't progressed as well as we should have done.

"These opportunities are not going to wait around for ever. This is the best chance of long-term sustainable commercial use for the building and potentially the last."

Egyptian Halls is currently on a Scottish Civic Trust buildings at risk register.

A spokesman for the organisation said: "It is clearly an important building in the Glasgow context and in terms of Alexander 'Greek' Thomson's work.

"We support Mr Souter's proposals - it is a building which is part of the city's heritage."

Once a funding package is agreed, work on the site could start as early as next April and it could be ready for commercial use by August 2003.

A spokeswoman for Historic Scotland confirmed it was studying the developer's proposals.

She said: "We are currently considering a grant application and can't comment on any aspect of it."

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Masterpiece goes on the market

Glasgow Evening Times, 27 November 2001

A historic home designed by world-famous Glasgow architect Alexander 'Greek' Thomson is on the market.

But the new owners must be prepared to humour a constant stream of fans keen for a glimpse of the building, in Glasgow's south side.

The B-listed double villa, built in 1856, is described by experts as the "finest example" of Greek Thomson's work.

The design gives the illusion of a single home but it has two owners and is split in half.

The three-bedroom property in Mansionhouse Road, Langside, which is for sale at £295,000, was bought 10 years ago by Professor James McEwan and his wife Pippy.

The couple, who have been visited by hordes of Thomson fans over the years, knew little about the architect before moving in.

But Mrs McEwan is now a leading member of the Greek Thomson Society.

She said today: "I didn't know too much about Thomson when we bought the house. But when the house came up for sale we fell for it.

"We will miss the house a lot but we knew we wouldn't stay in Glasgow for ever because we wanted to move to the country."

During the past decade, the McEwans, who are moving to Huntly, Aberdeenshire, carried out major renovations to the building and its stonework.

The exterior is built from Giffnock sandstone and the home has many classic Thomson features, including an entrance supported by Greek-style columns which earned the architect his name.

It also features a drawing room described as "one of Thomson's most splendid creations" with a wall of five front bay windows and two side bays.

These create a stunning lighting effect offering panoramic views to the south-east.

Gavin Stamp, president of the Greek Thomson Society, said: "This is one of the greatest buildings in Scottish architecture. It is simply fabulous."

The property is being sold by Glasgow-based solicitors Maxwell MacLaurin.

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Funding clash for Egyptian Halls renovation

James Reynolds, The Scotsman, 24 November 2001

Renovation of one of Glasgow's architectural masterpieces hailed as "Britain's most extraordinary commercial building of its time" is being held up because of funding problems from Historic Scotland, the developer claims.

Developer Union Street Properties has received planning permission to completely renovate the Egyptian Halls on Union Street, designed by the celebrated Victorian architect Alexander "Greek" Thomson, who is credited with giving the city of Glasgow its essential "Glasgowness".

Derek Souter, a director with the company, is looking for more than £1 million funding from the Heritage Group to allow the project to go ahead. "This has been the impasse for the past 18 months," he said.

A spokeswoman for Historic Scotland said: "The grant application is still being appraised and we can not comment during this process."

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Alexander's Footsteps

Kathleen Manson, Sunday Herald, 11 November 2001

In Alexander "Greek" Thomson's own account of the double villa he built in Glasgow's Mansionhouse Road, published in Villa And Cottage Architecture (1868), he seemed keener to describe the locale than the building: "Langside, where, in 1856-57, this double villa was erected, is about two miles south of Glasgow, and adjoining what is now Queen's Park. With other lands adjacent to the park the locality is becoming an important offshoot, or suburb, of Glasgow. The views obtained from the more elevated portions of Langside are extensive and fine."

These days Thomson's unique double villa, an outstanding grade B listed building, is considered to be one of the finest dwellings erected in the 19th century.

Half of this property is now up for sale. The present owner and committee member of the Greek Thomson Society, Pippy McEwan, is moving to Huntley, near Inverness, and is very sad to be the leaving her home of 10 years: "I've enjoyed living here immensely, so many architects and students have come to visit us over the years, but I always knew that when my husband Jim retired we'd move away from the city and live in the countryside."

Among Glasgow's most celebrated buildings, the clever design gives the illusion of the house being a single prestigious residence, when in fact it has two separate occupiers.

McEwan says: "When it was originally built it was called Maria Villa and was the only house on Langside Hill. It was built as two houses for two brothers, according to hearsay. It is a very unusual building and that's the beauty of the design: each half of the house is built facing in the opposite direction, away from each other, so you are not aware of your neighbours."

The McEwans have painstakingly carried out major restorations and repairs to the stonework and roof of the double villa, with advice from Historic Scotland. The exterior is built from Giffnock sandstone and has a monumental bay supported by colonnades. Incorporating both Greek and Egyptian influences, it is a perfect example of Thomson's powerful classical style.

Inside, Thomson's mastery of detail is revealed - the entrance hall has a terrazzo tiled floor leading through to the lobby, which allows access to the formal dining room, the third bedroom and kitchen. It also boasts an original marble fireplace panelled in Quebec pine.

The property is a family-sized home with a fitted dining kitchen, sitting room, family bathroom, an upper hall, a drawing room, master bedroom, double bedroom, shower room, conservatory, a garage with a driveway long enough to provide parking for several cars and a drawing room described as "one of Thomson's most splendid creations". Its window wall of five front bays and two side bays provides a stunning effect of light and a panoramic view to the southeast. Recently restored Canadian pine panelling with a stencilled decoration runs to picture rail height and there is a cornice of mahogany fretwork. The cornice ceiling is decorated with a star motif, symbolising night.

During the construction of the double villa, Glasgow experienced one of three major cholera epidemics which struck the city in the 19th century. During the last outbreak, Thomson was living among professionals in a tenement flat, south of the river. But between 1854 and 1857, four of his five young children died, prompting a move away from the low-lying and insanitary inner-city streets to Shawlands, which was then a pleasant, sleepy village raised 150 feet above the infectious river.

According to Charlotte Imrie of the solicitors Maxwell MacLaurin, who are handling the property, interest in the double villa has been minimal despite its architectural significance: "I'm quite surprised, because although we do see properties in a similar price range to the villa, it's not often that such an unusual and beautiful building of note comes on the market. Perhaps people are put off by the fact that it is a listed building and there are restrictions on what you can do to the property. This aside, lots of people have inquired, but only one has viewed it so far."

Thomson's work of art resides in mature gardens with a good sized lawn featuring a central oval rose bed bordered on two sides by deep planted beds and trees extending along the front of the house.

Opposite the front door, steps lead down to a small patio area. The rear garden is laid to lawn and screened from the road by a wall of rhododendrons and mature trees. Offers over £295,000 are being considered. Contact Maxwell MacLaurin on (0141) 342 2013 for a prospectus.

If the price range is out of your league then the next best option is to wait until next September when it's Glasgow's annual Doors Open Day (that's if its new owners decide to take part). Then you can take a peak into the city's history and appreciate the elegance of a bygone era.

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Glasgow's architectural legacy begins to crumble

James Doherty, The Scotsman, 25 October 2001

Glasgow’s architectural legacy is in danger of being lost, with some of the city's most important landmarks at risk of demolition unless urgent repair work is completed.

The Scottish Civic Trust, yesterday, identified some 140 buildings across the city as being close to collapse after years of neglect.

Buildings, renowned throughout the world for their architectural significance, including some designed by Alexander "Greek" Thomson, are among those threatened.

The warning comes a week after a category B-listed building collapsed in Candleriggs, bringing with it the loss of Granny Blacks, one of the city's oldest, and best loved, watering holes.

Jane Nelson, buildings at risk officer with the Scottish Civic Trust, warned: "Our heritage is worth an awful lot of money to our economy and it's about time that the powers that be woke up and accepted that fact and put the money into saving this finite resource.

"It's a very sad reflection on what we think about our architecture when it takes the collapse of a building in the city centre of Glasgow before people sit up and say that we have buildings that we must take care of.

"People love architecture; it gives them a sense of place, of their identity and something to be proud of. We must value that."

Among the buildings highlighted are the grand columns of the former Glasgow Sheriff Court, languishing in the heart of the Merchant City. The Egyptian Halls in Union Street and the Watson Street Warehouse - both designed by "Greek" Thomson - are also in urgent need of repair.

The celebrated Strathbungo Parish Church, the former Tobago Street Police Station and the Springburn Winter Gardens are also at risk.

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The business of not making money

Claire Prentice, Business a.m. 23 October 2001

The old Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) was all over the place; a shop on the left, a cafe on the right, a rambling exhibition area behind. After a £10.2m refit, Vivienne Gaskin, the centre's new head of artistic programming and education, says Glasgow's premiere contemporary arts centre has not changed in spirit.

"It's an illogical building, it's fragmented. There might be a club happening there, a film showing over there, some theatre here, some live music over there. It is like a big pick and mix, which reflects the recent shift in the way people consume culture," says Gaskin, who comes to Glasgow after five years at London's Institute for Contemporary Arts.

In the 1990s, the CCA was the place for arty intellectuals to pop in and experience the pick of contemporary arts. There were high points Damien Hirst's formaldehyde cows came here. There were low points exhibitions of wallpaper and solipsistic poets. It was great and it was terrible, but mostly it was a mess. Albeit a cutting edge one.

Then, in 1999, the old CCA closed its doors. The initial intention was to carry out a £1m package of structural repairs. But when an Arts Council lottery grant of £7.5m the largest capital grant ever awarded to a Scottish arts organisation came through, it was decided to go ahead with a much-needed revamp.

Once a haphazard building of dingy corridors, the new design by David Page, of Glasgow firm Page & Park, has taken the best elements of the old CCA and thrown away the rest. The brief was simple: to create a place that was "fun to hang out in", flexible and multi-functional. Four adjacent buildings were acquired, creating a complex of seven buildings of differing ages and designs. These were then yoked together by the architect to comprise six spaces three for exhibitions and one each for performance, film and rehearsals a shop, cafe-restaurant and bar.

A lot of pressure will be put on the latter two facilities to generate income. Despite its huge capital grant, supplemented by money from the European Regional Development Fund, Scottish Enterprise and Historic Scotland, the CCA's maintenance grant has barely increased since 1999. Add the additional buildings and staff and costs have gone up by 220 per cent.

The ability to hire out parts of the building for conferences will also play a crucial role, while director Graeme McKenzie suggests possible money-spinning links between, for instance, emerging artists and the computer games industry.

"We could easily sit back and say 'OK then, we'll go for Damien Hirst' and we'd have queues going all the way down Sauchiehall Street, but that is not what we are about," says Gaskin. "No," adds McKenzie, "we are about giving emerging artists somewhere to experiment and play, the sort of work we put on here does not make money."

The decision not to label the six artistic spaces as pertaining to any particular function was a conscious one. Although CCA4 is primarily a cinema, for example, the seats, screen and acoustic panels can be removed and, using the lighting tracks that are already in place, it can be transformed into a further exhibition space. Similarly, a fully sprung dance floor can be fitted in the main gallery.

Where once passers-by on Sauchiehall Street would look inside the listed 1865 Alexander "Greek" Thomson building and see little more than a long white corridor, now they will catch a glimpse of the restaurant and immediately be drawn into the action. It is a small touch but, from a commercial point of view, a crucial one.

"We needed a presence to draw people in," says McKenzie. "But there is a limit to what you can do at the front of the building because it is Thomson. That meant it was important to us to create interest with a second visage."

This additional face, around the corner on Scott Street, is in the shape of a bar designed by contemporary artist Jorge Pardo. It will host DJs and club nights, often specially selected to tie-in with other events in the programme.

This linking of events is a common theme in the programme and a policy intended to provide lots of in-roads so that someone attending a film screening might then stumble upon an exhibition or a spoken word, theatre or live music event they would not ordinarily be exposed to.

Before the ICA, Gaskin worked at Factual Nonsense, an independent arts space which emerged in Hoxton in the 1990s. This background has clearly informed her first ever CCA programme but she could not be accused of simply transporting the ICA north.

"It was the space that attracted me to the CCA; it opens up so many avenues as regards what is possible," she says.

"I also like the fact that a big noise can be made in somewhere like Glasgow. In London, everyone is screaming and shouting and people are getting a bit bored of it as a cultural centre."

The desire to appeal to a wide audience is evident throughout the first three-month programme. Jarvis Cocker is to guest DJ on the first weekend and the controversial diva Diamanda Gallas will appear on her visit to Scotland. Other events include a Tartan Film Selection which runs alongside an exhibition by Rotterdam-based artists Tracy Mackenna and Edwin Janssen who were commissioned by the CCA in 1999 to look at the notion of "Scottishness" during the centre's closure and redevelopment. Further in a series of piano solos sit alongside a showcase of Finnish video art.

Although Gaskin insists that this kind of art is not for everyone, the programme, with its simple descriptions, is suggestive of a new, and less exclusive era.

There are, they claim, no limits. According to McKenzie: "The only thing we can't do, but only because we won't, is anything safe, traditional, static." "Or established," adds Gaskin. The disdain in her voice says it all.

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Caught bang to rights

Jim Stanton, Edinburgh Evening News, 19 October 2001

It’s arguable that developers and investors in multi-million pound construction projects have never slept easily in their beds at night.

But the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into mainstream British law added a new dimension for all those exposed to the planning system.

The convention passed into Scottish life with the dawn of devolution, and into wider British law last October, compelling all public bodies, including planning authorities, to consider a person's human rights when arriving at decisions.

But very few developers are sufficiently ECHR-aware on the planning/human rights relationship, says Alastair McKie, who heads the planning unit at Edinburgh law firm Anderson Strathern and is acknowledged as one of Scotland's top planning brains - his unit was recently voted in the top division in Scotland in the latest issue of the industry bible, Legal 500.

To raise awareness among the planning community in Scotland, Mr McKie and the group's senior solicitor, Robin Priestley, are undertaking a series of roadshows to bring planning professionals up to speed on planning law and the ECHR.

Challenge

"I'd say many planners and developers are not entirely familiar with the changes," says Mr McKie. "They are aware of the existence of the ECHR but not of the way it applies to planning law."

As an example, he says many are unaware that under the ECHR, an objector can challenge planning permission up to 12 months after it's granted.

"For developers on multi-million pound projects, an individual or even rival developer challenging a decision once development has begun could be disastrous," says Mr McKie. "The workshops aim to demonstrate ways in which risks of challenge can be managed and minimised."

Article 6(1) of the ECHR states that in the determination of civil rights (including property rights) everyone is entitled to "an independent and impartial tribunal established by law".

Planning authorities in Scotland face strict guidance to ensure all their procedures comply with the ECHR.

Much of the planning benchmark for human rights challenges to date in Scotland has stemmed from the case of County Properties versus The Scottish Ministers (2000). County, which wanted to demolish a listed Glasgow building, argued successfully that the chairman of a public inquiry could not preside over an impartial hearing as he was a government appointee.

The Inner House of the Court of Session later ruled that Scotland's planning system, where the planning minister was both policy-maker and ultimate decision-taker, did not contravene the ECHR. But they agreed the Executive's planning minister was neither impartial nor independent. However, it said an appeal option to the courts made the current system compatible overall.

This effectively meant that an autonomous planning board to consider appeals was unnecessary.

The County Properties case followed an English case (Alconbury v Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions) where the House of Lords set the ruling precedent. Although the Scottish courts followed its lead, the ruling could yet be challenged in the European Court of Human Rights.

Mr McKie warns: "Rulings in this instance should not be taken as an overall endorsement of the compatibility of the planning system with human rights. They concern only the matter of procedure, not the way in which planning authorities balance the rights of objectors. It deals with one particular issue only. Given that, I think it's inadequate to rely on a right of review by the courts simply because the courts cannot look at the merits of a particular planning application - they can only deal with the points of law."

In the County Properties case, Mr McKie says consideration of the aesthetics and other conservation issues surrounding the Alexander "Greek" Thomson-designed building were "not matters that the courts are entitled to exercise their judgement upon".

Referring to the County Properties and Alconbury cases, Mr McKie says they demonstrate that the courts are interpreting the human rights convention in a "restrictive way".

In other words, the courts may be very wary of swapping their own decision for the "value judgement" of an elected minister or a qualified planner.

Mr McKie says that so far the only challenges under the ECHR have been developers challenging decisions.

"I'm not aware of any case yet where the challenge has come from an objector claiming their human rights have been infringed by the granting of planning permission," says Mr McKie.

One aspect of planning under ECHR that Mr McKie feels developers are unfamiliar with concerns "third party" appeals.

"One important challenge that's not yet come before the courts in Scotland is third party right of appeal," he says. "At the moment the applicant has the right of appeal but an objector living next door to a proposed development has no right of appeal if an application is approved.

"There is a strong body of opinion that the rights of third parties are not being properly recognised. I would say that the only way this will be established is through a judicial challenge because the Scottish Executive has no plans to introduce this."

Other challenges Mr McKie says may emerge from the ECHR are considerations such as the right to a view, any potential drop in value of a property and the rights of audiences before planning committees issue their decisions.

Mr McKie says: "The way to look at it is that the planning system regulates your right to develop in the public interest, whereas the ECHR places the emphasis on the protection of an individual's right to develop. In other words, the ECHR has taken planning in the opposite direction. The problem is that it's maybe too early to tell how that inherent tension will be resolved.

"It seems likely that the matter will be for the courts to give guidance on how the planning system can be made compatible with human rights."

Mr McKie believes the ECHR will deliver a "more transparent" planning process. "I see it being one where the rights of all interested parties will be properly balanced in making a decision," he says. "Whilst it will lead to further complexity and inevitably delay, the results should bring about better and more consistent decisions."

Scotland's planning system has attracted criticism in the past, but with devolution and the coming of the ECHR, Mr McKie believes "there's scope for the new Executive to propose a new planning act devised to suit the needs and requirements of the Scottish economy under devolved government".

He says: "The current emphasis in planning appears to be an increased requirement for control in areas where economic activity is to be particularly encouraged. The Executive should be relaxing these controls, but in many instances quite the opposite is the case."

In Edinburgh, Mr McKie says the "sanctity" the Executive and the city council have for the Green Belt is not helpful.

"This puts pressure on the development of other green space within the urban settlement, intensifying pressure to develop there," he says.

Only last week, protesters living near Colinton Mains Park took to the streets in anger at a planning application to turn over parts of the park for housing.

Under the ECHR legislation, both the developer and the residents may soon be watching the application's progress with a more refined interest.

Case history so far

Scotland is no stranger to challenges under the ECHR.

In the first UK judgement under the convention, it was successfully argued that Scotland's temporary sheriffs were appointed by the Lord Advocate, Scotland 's senior solicitor, and therefore not independent enough to guarantee a fair hearing for defendants. Temporary sheriffs were subsequently outlawed.

Other moves are expected to challenge the right to bail for rapists and murderers. Cases involving drink-driving and speeding have also been called into question.

The first major planning issue called into question was when Historic Scotland stepped in to prevent County Properties demolishing an Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson listed Glasgow building, sparking a public inquiry.

Alastair McKie says developers must not just think f their rights under ECHR, but the rights of others as well. This could mean a tightening of procedures in applications, better notification of proposed development and making public supporting documentation relevant to the case.

He also feels there may have to be an avenue to provide objectors with the opportunity to address councillors before a planning decision is made.

It's pointless having an act that gives people rights unless you give them ways in which they can exercise those rights, he says.

And for planning lawyers, Mr McKie sees a great opportunity to help formulate a strategy to deal with the inherent challenges of the ECHR itself.

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On the endangered list

The Scotsman, 18 October 2001

Girnigoe Castle in Caithness is in grave danger. The problem started with the Clan Campbell in 1690 when they attacked it with artillery. Relations between the Campbells and the castle's owners, the Clan Sinclair, have much improved since then but not, alas, the state of Girnigoe itself, whose ruins are now in danger of falling into the sea. So the prestigious World Monuments Fund has put Girnigoe on its endangered list for the year 2002 (along with a very fine warehouse in Greenock that is under demolition threat from developers).

The last time Scotland got on the WMF list of shame was in 1998, when Alexander "Greek" Thomson's magnificent St Vincent Street Church, in Glasgow, was fingered. No cannons at work there, only civic neglect. Hopefully, publicising the woeful state of these Scottish buildings will prompt the Heritage Lottery Fund to come up with cash, especially since its patron, the Queen Mother, lives next door to Girnigoe, in the Castle of Mey. Mey, by the way, was built by the Sinclairs as their new abode after that little argument with the Campbell's artillery.

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Grosvenor Building

Glasgow Evening Times, 17 October 2001

One of the most impressive buildings in the Glasgow is the Grosvenor Building on Gordon Street.

The building was originally the work of Alexander 'Greek' Thomson and his brother, George.

It was the first attempt by the A G Thomson partnership in the design of the highly lucrative warehouse-style buildings in the city.

The Gordon Street building owes its elaborate design to the fact it was built to satisfy the architects rather than any prospective owner.

It was constructed on the site of a United Presbyterian church.

George, a member of its congregation, persuaded the church to sell the site to fund the building of a new church - Alexander's famous St Vincent Street Church, built between 1857 and 1859.

The three-storey warehouse was built between 1859 and 1861. It burned down in 1864 but was rebuilt to the same design.

Additional upper floors topped by twin baroque domes were added between 1902 and 1907 by architect J H Craigie.

These accommodated the banqueting hall of the Grosvenor Restaurant, from which the building derived its name.

The hall and magnificent staircase were destroyed by fire in 1967 and were replaced with offices in 1971.

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Space odyssey

Neil Cameron, The Scotsman, 9 October 2001

The CCA is seven buildings of different dates and design yoked together by one of Scotland's best known contemporary architecture firms, Glasgow-based Page & Park whose previous commissions include The Lighthouse in Glasgow.

The complex is on a corner site and the main part is a listed building from 1865 designed by Alexander "Greek" Thomson in Greco-Egyptian style. The entrance area leads through to a courtyard that has been given a glazed roof in the recent refurbishment. Bizarrely, the frontage of a neo-classical villa hovers above you, apparently supported only by two Victorian cast-iron columns.

This was an original Garnethill villa, its front garden having been excavated when the Greek Thomson building was built, leaving it standing as if it had been built on stilts - a remnant which gives the interior of the CCA an extraordinary outside-inside/inside-outside feel.

The buildings incorporated into the CCA have had many earlier uses. Previous inhabitants include the Victorian portrait painter, Alexander Keith, the Scottish Daily Express in 1945, Glasgow Unity Theatre in 1948 and various nightclubs. Page & Park started the £10.2 million project by a massive shoring up of the wall to the rear of the site (the weight of the slope threatened to push the structures downhill). The various buildings were gutted and their walls taken back to brick or stone. A mesh of girders roofing the courtyard area was removed.

There are six arts spaces on three levels, although, at only 140 square metres, the principal exhibition space on the ground floor is surprisingly small.

A glazed bridge at second-floor level links the rear to rooms on the side towards Scott Street, the corner site allowing a separate entrance for the administrative offices. The top floor will be used as offices by various arts organisations including music, theatre and dance companies and Scotland's first Cultural Enterprise Unit.

There is also a self-contained flat for visiting artists. Overall, the building now incorporates various spaces for arts performance, practice or display, a 74-seater cinema, a bookshop, a bar-restaurant in the courtyard and a separate bar entered from Scott Street. The CCA believes this will be the social hub of the building and it is being fitted by Cuban sculptor Jorge Pardo.

The overall approach taken by the architects hinged on the integration of varying design styles and periods.

The arts spaces are designated with numbers rather than names to underline the potential for a variety of uses, and there has been a conscious attempt to blur divisions between public and private work areas.

Aesthetically, there is an extraordinary, compelling disjunction between the straightforwardness of the exterior and the visual richness of the interior.

The surprise of being filtered through the enclosed entrance foyer into the open space of the glazed courtyard with a 19th-century villa perched above your head, is surely one of the most surreal architectural experiences in Scotland.

CCA publicity material uses fashionable buzzwords like "flexibility" and "collaboration", which currently have the air of moral imperatives. There is a definite subtext here, and you could read the building, with its emphasis on fluidity, openness and integration, as an architectural metaphor for social inclusion. And with the need to generate revenue a crucial requirement, it is no surprise that CCA has followed Dundee Contemporary Arts in placing a bar-restaurant at its core.

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New Gorbals girls move in

Glasgow Evening Times, 1 October 2001

A dozen sculptures symbolising the spirit of regeneration in the Gorbals have been attached to a new housing development.

Five of the aluminium female figures were attached to the Tay Homes development on Cathcart Road opposite the Alexander "Greek" Thomson church.

Created by Glasgow-based artists Matt Baker and Dan Dobowitz, the figures will complement a huge sculpture which is to be built at the gateway to the Gorbals on the corner of Cathcart Road and Caledonia Road.

The housing development is part of the Crown Street Regeneration Project included in a £700million Gorbals investment plan which aims to regenerate the whole area.

Each sculpture cost £6000.

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Mark of the Scots Part Four - Art & Design: Builders of the modern world

Peter Wilson, The Scotsman, 11 September 2001

If there is one artform more than any other in which Scotland can be said to have made its mark on the world, it is architecture.

The names of Robert, James, John and their father William Adam, Alexander "Greek" Thomson and Charles Rennie Mackintosh still resound in every architecture school in the world, a trio that remains a constant source of intellectual excitement to both practising architects and the general public. What moulded this distinctive Scottish architectural heritage?

Our national architecture is usually seen as being based on the use of stone, but it has not always been so. Our story begins with the Great Caledonian Forest that covered the land after the last Ice Age. Most history books trace the roots of our building traditions back to the brochs on the Orkneys. But the crannogs built on our lochs from locally available timbers have an equally important role in our heritage, and the earliest Scottish architecture was made of wood.

The defensive structures that became tower houses and castles began as timber constructions and, in parallel with developments in weapons technology, slowly evolved into stone buildings.

By the 1530s, Scotland's forests had been so stripped in the assembly of ships and palaces for James IV and V that timber began to fall out of use. But stone and wood co-existed to spectacular effect in structures such as the Great Hall of Stirling Castle, which has been recently restored. The scale of the hammer-beam roof and the sophistication of its construction highlight the extent to which timber was fundamental to the development of architecture in Scotland.

In our towns and cities too, the prevailing medieval domestic architecture used timber. But as towns became more densely occupied the fire risk increased, and the introduction of by-laws and other constraints pushed the nation's architecture towards the use of stone. Improvements in transport meant that stone could be brought from further afield - allowing Glasgow, for example, to make use of the red sandstone of Dumfries. But our towns and cities were built mostly from local materials.

It is the hardness of Craigleith stone that makes the detail of Edinburgh's New Town Georgian architecture as sharp today as it was when it was first built in the middle of the 18th century, just as the sparkling granite of Aberdeen gives that city its strongest visual characteristic.

Not until the 17th century did a distinct breed of individuals known as architects began to emerge in Scotland. Until then, master masons responded to royal instruction for many of the country's major buildings, while towns and cities evolved through the hands of anonymous skilled craftsmen.

The first architects to appear produced some of the finest buildings in Scotland - Sir William Bruce, for example, built Holyrood Palace, Hopetoun House, Thirlestane Castle and his own country seat, Kinross House. James Smith, a contemporary described in 1719 by a Scottish laird as "our first architect", often crossed paths with Bruce. Smith was responsible in his own right for a surprising number of buildings, including Drumlanrig Castle, Edinburgh's Canongate Church and, across the street, Queensberry House, now being reconstructed as part of the new parliament complex.

It was William Adam, however, who began the dynasty of architects who would operate on a wider stage. Adam produced a remarkable list of projects including Arniston House, the Drum, and Duff House. An entrepreneur as well as a talented architect, Adam owned mills, mines and other businesses that supplied his burgeoning building empire. He was also Mason to the Board of Ordnance in North Britain, a post which after 1745 brought him large contracts for military fortifications and provided the training ground for his architect sons John, Robert and James.

William Adam produced Vitruvius Scoticus, Scotland's first real book on architecture, in which he included his own works and those of contemporary Scottish architects.

Of Adam's sons, it was Robert who emerged to push Scottish architecture to its next stage. After an apprenticeship on the construction of Fort George near Inverness, he set off on a five-year Grand Tour to Italy. He returned with an ambition to become the most important architect in Britain. He succeeded. Basing himself in London, he established an empire based upon the eponymous style he had developed on his travels. For nearly 30 years he was one of the busiest architects in England and the catalogue of his country house architecture is formidable (Kedlestone Hall, Syon House, Bowood, Harewood House, Osterley Park and Kenwood to name but a few).

Aside from the Admiralty Screen in Whitehall, however, the chance to extend his architectural ideas on a monumental urban scale escaped him. Returning to Scotland in the 1770s, Robert Adam developed the castellated, picturesque style of architecture we associate with Culzean Castle while still using his more familiar, classical approach at Register House and Charlotte Square in Edinburgh.

But Robert Adam was not the only Scottish architect to succeed away from his home patch. Robert Mylne, Colen Campbell and James Gibbs all made significant impacts in England, while Christopher Galloway, Charles Cameron and William Hastie made their success in Russia. Robert Mylne came from a long line of master masons and travelled to Rome at the same time as Robert Adam. Lacking the former's financial resources, he was still confident that "a little studye [sic] will make more than one family of architects in Scotland".

His 1760 competition-winning scheme for Blackfriars Bridge in London spanned the Thames with only nine elliptical arches, an astonishing innovation for that time.

By comparison, Colen Campbell started his professional life as a lawyer in Scotland. His importance to British architecture was established with his publication, Vitruvius Britannicus, in which he promoted the Palladian movement. His now demolished Wanstead House (1714-20) was, in the words of Sir John Summerson, "a classic statement by which English country houses were influenced, directly or indirectly, for more than a century".

James Gibbs, Campbell's great rival, took the route to Rome in 1703 with the intention of entering the Scots College as a candidate for the priesthood. Disliking the over-zealous regime there, he became a pupil of Carlo Fontana, then Rome's leading architect. On his return, the Church of St Mary-le-Strand was his first public building, and the one on which he built his reputation. Gibbs published his designs in A Book of Architecture, which was immensely successful and became the most widely used architectural book of the century and the source of several stock features of Georgian vernacular architecture and a host of church steeples on both sides of the Atlantic. Almost half a century before Gibbs was born, the little-known Christopher Galloway was completing the main entrance to the Kremlin in Moscow.

Built in 1623, the Saviour Gate is still an iconic feature of Russian life, and Galloway was handsomely rewarded by Tsar Mikhail for his efforts.

The next Scot to make his name there, Charles Cameron, was astute enough to describe himself to Catherine the Great as a Jacobite and, with his own book on the baths of Rome - produced during his sojourn there - he entered her employ in 1779, building the Cold Baths, the Agate pavilion and the colonnaded Cameron Gallery at her Tsarskoye Selo palace on the outskirts of St Petersburg.

Cameron employed William Hastie as a stonemason, but by 1795 Hastie was working as an architect in his own right. Hastie pioneered the design and construction of cast iron bridges in St Petersburg (many of which were made in the Carron Ironworks in Falkirk), but it was his plans for new towns that were his biggest legacy to Russia. His more than 130 plans included one for the rebuilding of Moscow after its destruction by fire in 1813.

Back in Scotland, the 19th-century architectural training of the day produced a host of talented individuals able to work in many stylistic directions at the whim of wealthy patrons.

William Henry Playfair, for example, used the Classical for the National Gallery and the RSA on Edinburgh's Mound, then turned to Gothic for the Church of Scotland's General Assembly building further up the hill.

In Glasgow, Alexander Thomson brought to his native city a spectacular facility to manipulate form. Thomson's work proved to be acceptable in Glasgow's heady commercial atmosphere and he found considerable opportunity to practice his own version of Greek architecture without ever having visited the country.

This lack of travel experience was balanced to some extent by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, one of the first recipients of an Alexander Thomson scholarship. His work, which was highly original, was inspired by his travels and by his research into nature. His interpretation of a forest in the design of the library of Glasgow School of Art is one of his finest creations, and one that brings us full circle to the timber origins of Scottish architecture.

Unlike contemporary European modernists, however, Mackintosh had little real impact on Scotland. Why? There had been rumblings of new, more modern architectural influences: the steel, concrete and glass that would dominate the 20th century. In the 1880s, the Forth rail bridge was the first great modern structure. William Morris, the English writer, thought it was unnatural and ugly, but it prefigured the 20th-century trend in building design.

Scottish architecture of the late 19th and early 20th century came under the spell of "traditional" values, however - the very sentiment expressed by Morris. The new mood was championed by two towering names in Scottish architecture: Rowand Anderson and later Robert Lorimer. In Lorimer's words, Scottish architecture should not build skyscrapers but reflect "the ideal life in the ideal old, traditional 'un-hurrying' Scotland".

Between the wars, the emerging national consciousness that produced the Scottish Literary Renaissance also led the Saltire Society, a private body concerned with promoting Scottish culture, to champion the creation of a modern Scottish vernacular architectural style. But the period was also heavily influenced by Art Deco trends from abroad. The dominant name in Scottish architecture during this period was Thomas Tait, who designed (old) St Andrews House in 1939 and was the moving light in the famous Glasgow Empire Exhibition in 1938. Tait took Scottish influence abroad, designing the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Scottish architects were also influential in the post-war period but their modernist approach - associated with the welfare state and public architecture in the new towns - has since been the subject of much criticism, so that their reputations today are often at a lower ebb than they were during their lifetimes. Sir Basil Spence attracted international controversy for his contemporary designs. Although born in India, Spence was educated and spent much of his working life in Edinburgh. Coventry Cathedral is his most notable building but his award-winning Glasgow flats were recently blown up.

During the period from the 1960s to the 1990s, much of Scottish architecture was dominated by the large partnerships serving public-sector clients. A new generation of creative Scots architects found an outlet for their talents abroad, as their predecessors had done in the 18th and 19th centuries. They included the likes of John McAslan in London, Doug Clelland in Germany and Ken Armstrong in Paris.

It took until the late 1990s before a building emerged that intelligently encapsulated and synthesised all of the preceding influences and debates: it came in the form of the new Museum of Scotland, designed by expatriate Scottish architect Alan Forsyth and his partner, Gordon Benson.

The architectural form of the Museum of Scotland draws on brochs, tower houses, castles, medieval closes and wynds, the classical and the picturesque, the stone traditions and the steel of the shipyards, the works of Mackintosh, Le Corbusier and Carlo Scarpa.

Love it or hate it, the full story of Scottish architecture can be read within its walls.

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Can you gET wide-eyed enough to name these famous buildings?

Jim McLean, arts correspondent, The Herald, 4 September 2001

Landmarks seen in the round create new visions for art lovers

See Glasgow? Only an expert in parliamo would have the 360 degree vision to christen a unique exhibition of interior photographs Panorama Glasgow.

However, cockeyed it is not. The revolutionary look at several of the city's landmark buildings is leaving art lovers wide-eyed in admiration.

The collection of distorted perspective images may now also have an important role to play in a major new art fund-raising campaign, as Glasgow's museum and gallery shops focus on raising money towards the (pounds) 25.5m renovation of the 100-year-old Kelvingrove art gallery.

Glasgow City Council art gallery and museum photographers may soon have the fruits of their fancy camerawork transformed into a quality book that could prove to be an international favourite.

A series of promotional posters of the images, including St Vincent Street church, designed by Alexander "Greek" Thomson and built in 1858, the Burrell Collection, by architect Barry Gasson in 1983, and the Victorian splendour of the Kibble Palace and Botanic Gardens is also proposed.

Jim Dunn, Ellen Howden, and Maureen Kinnear, the official team of council photographers based at the Kelvingrove gallery, spent six months photographing 50 buildings using an ultra wide-angle lens.

Special access was granted to several typically busy buildings to allow the photographers a clean shoot.

Then multiple digital images were layered together on computer with the help of Strathclyde University's department of architecture. Specialist software made the images join virtually and seamlessly.

The result is a stunning collection of images of the city as never seen before. In all, 20 images have been selected for the Panorama Glasgow show at Kelvingrove art gallery until September 25.

Jim Dunn said: "We called it Panorama Glasgow because it was supposed to be a pun on parliamo Glasgow.

"The Botanic Gardens one is my favourite photograph because of the strong structural lines in the composition.

"We used a modern very wide-angle lens rather than an old rotating camera.

"There is a massive resurgence of interest in these types of photographs and a new digital camera that rotates has been brought out. It is specialist equipment, but the advantage is that it produces a complete panoramic vision in one go with no computer software involved.

"Some of them worked out really well. Others were a real surprise.

"We took one inside the Rotunda at the river Clyde. We were surprised to see the photograph. Because we were standing in the centre of a round room, equidistant from the wall all around us, the final image looked like we were facing a long straight room."

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New plan to link city rail systems

John MacCalman Local Government Correspondent, The Herald, 22 August 2001

Hopes were high last night that a proposed new route to link Glasgow's northern and southern rail services would finally make the long-awaited Crossrail project a viable proposition.

After a pessimistic consultants' report on existing options earlier this year which projected decreases in passengers numbers and revenue, the possibility of reviving the Strathbungo link, coming into the city via Gorbals, appears to have put the (pounds) 120m Crossrail scheme back on track.

And it has been emphasised that the new option, using the route of a former line that ran from Kilmarnock into the former St Enoch station, would still keep alive hopes of a direct rail link to Glasgow Airport.

Walter MacLellan, vice-chairman of Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority (SPTA), said last night: "It looks as if this option may be the one that makes Crossrail a much more viable project than it looked a month ago."

Members of the SPTA had made no secret of their disappointment when consultants re-ported unfavourably on the economic viability of the St John's Link at Glasgow Cross and the Muirhouse Link at West Street.

Now it looks as if the Strathbungo link might be the solution. However, the new option could be more expensive, given that track and a bridge over the west coast main line would have to be reinstated. Members of the SPTA are likely to commission such a study when they meet in Glasgow on Friday.

The new proposal involves the restoration of a line which was originally the main line from Carlisle via Dumfries and Kilmarnock into St Enoch station. It runs close to the Citizens' theatre. Looking south away from the city centre there are railway arches with workshops underneath. That line forks on to a goods line parallel to Cumberland Street. The other fork is simply the route of a former line leading to a bridge between the Brazen Head Pub and the Greek Thomson church. The project would involve the restoration of that line which was originally the main line from Carlisle via Dumfries and Kilmarnock into St Enoch station.

A major cost factor would be the reinstatement of a bridge over the west coast main line that was removed at the time of electrification. Asked why this option had not been examined before, Mr MacLellan said: "The consultants had been looking at the cost-benefit analysis of the scheme that was on the table - the Muirhouse Link. It wasn't really that the consultants got it wrong. It was simply that there was an existing scheme that had been subjected to a lot of analysis and had a lot of benefits to it.

"But then in the new financial regime of railways it didn't appear to stack up very well. It was then they went back to the drawing board."

In recent months there have been moves to have the Strathbungo solum abandoned to make way for housing development. However, the SPTA has made it clear it would never relinquish solums unless it was absolutely certain they were not needed.

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Our architectural heritage: More effort must be made to protect what is left

Editorial, The Herald, 17 August 2001

In Alexander "Greek" Thomson, Glasgow has been fortunate to enjoy the concepts and buildings of one of the masters of Victorian architecture. In a real sense the work of Thomson, and of other renowned contemporaries like Charles Heath Wilson and the unrelated Charles Wilson, defined the new city which grew with the prosperity of Victorian manufacturers and their desire to have buildings worthy of their sense of themselves. Glasgow 1999, which celebrated that architecture and which held a hugely popular exhibition on Thomson, expanded everyone's knowledge and appreciation of the city's architectural heritage. But it is a sad fact that many of those old buildings have been needlessly demolished, and that efforts to retain those that are left have often met with philistinism or simple incomprehension.

The A-listed building associated with Thomson on a block at West Regent Street and Wellington Street is a case in point. Developers who wanted to demolish it and replace it with an office block were granted planning permission by the city council, who should have known better. When permission was blocked following an objection by Historic Scotland, and an inquiry under a reporter ordered by Scottish ministers, the developers claimed that their rights under European human rights legislation were being flouted. They argued that as the objection was made by a government agency, and the inquiry held by a government official, there could be no independence in the procedure. This extraordinary claim was upheld initially but has now been overturned on appeal, and rightly so. If it had been allowed, the status of all listed historic buildings in the city would have been in jeopardy. Worse, the right of a nation to protect its architectural heritage by appointing expert advisers, like Historic Scotland, and a system of assessing applications, would also have been under threat.

Old buildings of great worth may present problems to council officials and builders. But the problems are as nothing compared with the beauty they display and the heritage they represent. More effort must be made to protect what is left, and that endeavour will be helped by the sensible decision of the appeal judges.

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'Greek' inquiry gets go-ahead

John Staples, The Scotsman, 17 August 2001

A public inquiry into a plan to knock down Alexander "Greek" Thomson's former workplace and turn it into a modern office block can now go ahead following a two-year delay, it was ruled yesterday.

Developers had hoped to demolish the former A-listed McTaggart and Meikle building on the corner of Glasgow's West Regent Street and Wellington Street and turn the plot into a new five-storey building.

But two years ago Historic Scotland and the Alexander Thomson Society objected to the plan which had been approved by the council, prompting a public inquiry.

However, the building's owners, Edinburgh-based County Properties, went to court to demand a judicial review, claiming that the decision infringed their rights under the European Convention of Human Rights.

They successfully argued that any inquiry held by the Scottish executive would not be "independent" or "impartial" enough as it would be acting on calls from Historic Scotland, part of its own organisation.

The ruling was overturned yesterday during a hearing at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, leaving the way open for a public inquiry.

Gavin Stamp, from the Alexander Thomson Society, said last night: "This whole legal process has been a waste of time.

"We are now back to square one, but obviously we welcome the decision."

The crumbling building had lain vacant for ten years when County Properties proposed a plan to demolish it in 1999.

But the plan coincided with Glasgow's UK City of Architecture and Design status - and a rising interest in Thomson.

For a century, Thomson had played second fiddle to the more famous Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and only 24 of the 100 buildings he designed remain standing.

Although Thomson, whose other buildings include Caledonia Road Church in the Gorbals and the Egyptian Halls, in Union Street, did not design the former townhouse at West Regent Street, he added an extension of four storeys to the back of the original premises which dates from the 1820s.

Yesterday Alistair Fyfe, from the New Glasgow Society, said: " Thomson is one of the city's finest architects and to destroy his office would be completely wrong."

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Appeal judges delay threat to historic house

Evening Times, 16 August 2001

A plan to knock down a historic town house in Glasgow city centre has been put on hold after a long legal wrangle about property developers' human rights.

A decision by appeal judges at the Court of Session in Edinburgh today cleared the way for a public inquiry into the future of the building - once used as offices by architect Alexander "Greek" Thomson.

At the centre of the courtroom battle is an empty property at the corner of West Regent Street and Wellington Street.

In 1999, developer County Properties, of Edinburgh, came up with a plan to put a five-storey office block in its place.

The firm got the go-ahead from Glasgow City Council, but the Scottish Executive decided it should take the final decision after a public inquiry.

County Properties won a court fight that its rights under the European Convention on Human Rights had been breached, saying a planning inquiry was not independent and impartial enough to comply with the Convention.

That decision was overtaken by a House of Lords ruling in an English dispute and County Properties' tried to convince the Court of Session that the Lords' decision did not apply in their case.

But appeal judges did not agree and today supported the Executive's appeal, lifting the immediate threat to the building.

They said rules governing public planning inquiries, coupled with the right of appeal, were enough to guarantee developers a fair hearing.

An Executive planning spokeswoman said the inquiry into the office plan could now go ahead.

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Bell tolls for Greek Thomson church

Alastair Dalton, The Scotsman, 3 August 2001

It has survived a devastating fire, decades of dereliction and calls for its demolition.

However the future of an architectural landmark seen by thousands of drivers every day on Glasgow's south side has again been thrown into doubt following moves to block the removal of a disused railway bridge.

The planned £10 million redevelopment of Alexander "Greek" Thomson's Caledonia Road Church in the Gorbals could be scrapped because the city's public transport authority wants the route of an old rail line kept clear for possible future reopening.

Its stance could also add £5million to the proposed M74 extension through the area because it would require a 40ft elevated section to go over the bridge.

Strathclyde Passenger Transport said the former Strathbungo line, which was closed in 1966, must be retained for possible use as part of its Crossrail scheme to link railways on either side of the Clyde. The route would link Pollokshields East with an existing line across the river to Glasgow Cross.

SPT said nationa