Media coverage archive: 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 national planning guidelines presumed against development over old rail routes, and said the costs of re-opening the line should not be increased by building a motorway across it.

However the Crown Street Regeneration Project, which is spearheading the church restoration scheme, said demolishing the bridge over Gorbals Street was a key part of the project.

Tom Macartney, its director, said the obstacle had to be removed so roads could be realigned to remove the church from a traffic island, creating space for new housing.

He said: "It would otherwise make the project very difficult and I do not know if it would still be viable, which would be a tragedy."

A design competition to restore the church, which was floodlit last month, has had to be shelved because of the uncertainty. So far only £250,000 has been spent on essential repairs.

The building, which was constructed in 1857, has been derelict since being gutted by fire in the 1960s.

A series of planned new uses have foundered over the years, while James Boyle, the chairman of the Scottish Arts Council, called in May for the demolition of what he described as a "ghastly cadaver".

Dr Gavin Stamp, the chairman of the Alexander Thomson Society, greeted SPT's move with "utter dismay".

He said: "Restoring the church is a matter of some urgency, and it must be integrated with the proposed housing by moving the traffic, which would require the bridge to go."

Meanwhile James Mutter, the city councillor for the area, also expressed concern at the potential extra cost to the £245million motorway project, which will link its current end in Cambuslang with the M8 south of the Kingston Bridge.

He said: "This will involve further expense when the budget for the M74 is a highly contentious issue."

The Scottish executive, which is paying for most of the new road, said discussions were continuing with the city council about its precise route.

A spokeswoman said: "The route of the M74 extension has not yet been finalised and we are appointing consultants to look at the route in detail.

"We have had discussions with SPT about this matter but it is not viewed as an insurmountable problem and the M74 scheme is not in jeopardy.

"Should it be necessary to build a bridge over the railway, then estimated costs for this have been put at £5million."

The council said it was also in talks with SPT and was anxious to keep costs down.

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Old bridge will put £5m on M-way bill

Clare Holland, Glasgow Evening Times, 1 August 2001

Row flares as plan to keep rail route threatens vital M74 link

Controversial plans to retain a disused Glasgow railway bridge will send the cost of the city's vital M74 motorway link soaring by over £5million, it was claimed today.

City transport bosses, business chiefs and regeneration experts are at loggerheads over a scheme to reopen the abandoned Strathbungo rail line in the Gorbals.

Strathclyde Passenger Transport sparked the row by demanding the retention of a railway bridge previously earmarked for demolition.

If this bridge over Gorbals Street is kept, the M74 link will have to be raised 12 metres to clear it. This will send motorway construction costs spiralling but the SPT has refused to help pay the extra expense. The Scottish Executive plans to contribute £214m to complete the M74 link between Cambuslang and the M8 west of Kingston Bridge.

The scheme is expected to create 12,000 new jobs and bring millions of pounds of investment to Glasgow.

However, the city council must contribute at least £10m towards the total £245m, with other councils in the West of Scotland contributing the rest. But where any additional costs would be met remains unanswered.

Gorbals councillor James Mutter today demanded railway plans are scrapped to avoid delays to the new road extension.

He said: "I am extremely concerned that this could put other major initiatives in this area on hold, especially the M74.

"If the Strathbungo link is retained the M74 will have to be raised by 12 metres to rise above the railway line. This will involve further expense when the budget for the M74 is a highly contentious issue."

Duncan Tannahill, chairman of Glasgow's M74 Complete to Compete Group, said: "The M74 is of key economic importance to Glasgow and the West of Scotland."

Trains from Glasgow's former St Enoch's station travelled over the southernmost Gorbals Street bridge to Strathbungo. The line closed in 1966.

An SPT spokesman said: "We consider the Strathbungo line a key strategic route and would be very concerned to see it severed without proper appraisal of future requirements.

"If there is a requirement for reopening this railway route, the SPT does not accept that any railway scheme should bear the additional costs associated with the M74."

Senior Scottish Executive officials are to meet Glasgow City Council and the SPT to discuss the M74 next week.

An Executive spokeswoman said: "Discussions are still being held about the precise route of that stretch of the M74. A meeting will be held next week and the Strathbungo link is one issue due for consideration."

Glasgow City Council said: "We are holding talks with the SPT to resolve this issue. The M74 is a crucial development. But we are anxious to keep the costs under control."

The SPT decision has also stalled a £7m Gorbals facelift project. Crown Street Regeneration has been forced to shelve a competition to redevelop a Alexander "Greek" Thomson church.

Caledonia Road church sits on a traffic island but the road was to be re-routed to enable the church and surrounding land to be used for housing. The project cannot go ahead without demolition of the rail bridge.

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Scum of Britain: unfriendly rivalry

Leader, Edinburgh Evening News, 31 July 2001

The friendly rivalry between Scotland's two great cities, Edinburgh and Glasgow, has kept comedians in material for decades, but hardly anyone in the real world takes it seriously.

Apart, it seems, from one Andy MacMillan, a leading architect, government adviser and self-appointed cultural critic. In an astonishing outburst Mr MacMillan has accused Edinburgh people of being "ignorant" and "uncultured" because in his opinion they do not appreciate the finer points of the new Scottish Parliament building

"They don't have a working class culture interested in art", he opined, in what most surely be one of the most fatuous statements of the year.

Mr MacMillan misses the point completely. Most of the criticism which has been levelled at the Holyrood scheme has nothing at all to do with its aesthetic value. People have rightly expressed concerns about how the electorate have been misled about the true cost of the building, but the overwhelming majority of Edinburgh residents are looking forward to the new building in all its modernistic glory.

As for MacMillan's silly assertion that Weegie hooligans are more culturally aware than Edinburgh people, he has clearly not spend much time in Glasgow's Sighthill recently, where "culturally aware" hooligans have hounded terrified asylum seekers from their homes, simply because they are not Glaswegian. And how can he praise a city's working class culture which breeds the kind of sectarian hate which results in the cold-blooded murder of innocent young football fans?

His assertion that Glasgow is more culturally aware because it is home to such architectural greats as Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Alexander "Greek" Thomson might have had more clout if it were not for the fact that Glasgow city planners have just given the go-ahead to a huge apartment building which will dwarf Thomson's beautiful church in St Vincent Street. Hardly the mark of a city which is proud of its built heritage.

It is particularly disappointing to note that Magnus Linklater, himself an Edinburgh resident and until recently the chairman of the Scottish Arts Council, has given his backing to Mr MacMillan's ignorant slur. "There is something to it," he said, in what surely must be one of his most intemperate remarks in recent years.

Both men should know better, and their knee-jerk analysis does neither of them any credit. Edinburgh is one of the most culturally diverse and exciting cities in Europe and its people are open-minded and welcome to new ideas, whether it involves an international arts festival or a cutting-edge design for Scotland's new parliament.

Perhaps next time Mr MacMillan decides to give us his considered opinion on Scottish cultural life, he will think take a few moments to think before the puts his foot firmly in his mouth.

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Map brings old Glasgow to life

Glasgow Evening Times, 27 July 2001

Historic battle sites, tramway routes and famous landmarks have been brought back to life to show Glasgow in its former glory.

A 90-year-old map of the city has been published to give people an insight into what specific areas looked like almost a century ago.

The latest map is of Queen's Park and Langside. As well as showing the layout of the park itself, it features the Victoria Infirmary, which had just opened around 20 years earlier in 1890, tram and railway routes, allotments and even some long-gone drinking fountains.

English-based firm Alan Godfrey Maps is the publisher. Boss John Griffiths said: "We have worldwide interest and people have purchased Glasgow maps from all over Europe, Canada and America. People are very keen on tracing their family history and with a map like this they can also imagine what it would have been like in 1910."

The site of the Battle of Langside, where Mary Queen of Scots saw her army defeated after her escape from Loch Leven Castle in 1568, is one of the remarkable features of the map.

Early tram routes are also shown including one which ran along Victoria Road to Queen's Park gates. It was introduced in 1875 and extended to Langside in 1876.

Among the landmark private properties were Langside House, built in 1777 by Robert Adam, which gave its name to Mansionhouse Road, and the Double Villa, built for city clothing manufacturer Henry Watson and designed by Alexander 'Greek' Thomson.

Architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh lived in Strathbungo's Regent Park Square in the late 1900s and novelist John Buchan, who wrote the Thirty Nine Steps, lived in Queen Mary Avenue.

Already maps of Govan dating back to 1909, and Central Glasgow around 1893 have been reproduced by the same company, and more are to follow.

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£11.5m new look for city arts venue

Catherine Lyst, Glasgow Evening Times, 13 July 2001

Transformed venue to host club nights

Clubbing in Glasgow will soon take on a whole new meaning when a city arts centre re-opens after an £11.5 million revamp.

The crumbling Centre for Contemporary Arts in Sauchiehall Street is in the process of being transformed into a venue with six different performance spaces for arts events.

Apart from offering music, dance and visual arts, the CCA, which will open on October 25, will also be hosting club nights with a difference.

Once inside the building, formerly known as the Third Eye Centre, clubbers will be able to dance or drink at the bar or go into other areas to watch live music and a variety of performances.

Morag Hendry, the CCA's head of marketing and development, said: "We acquired four new buildings in Scott Street which have been pulled together to create one big arts centre containing six fully flexible arts spaces.

"We hope to hold one or two club nights a month with each night having a different feel. We will be using every space in the building to put on a programme of different art forms in a club atmosphere.

"This will be a one-off in Glasgow and will allow people to see something they normally wouldn't. Our philosophy is to make the whole experience fun."

A Georgian villa within the more familiar Grecian buildings - created by Alexander "Greek" Thomson around 1860 - had been hidden behind decades of plasterwork and false ceilings but is now to be used as a major performance space.

The new-look centre will also have a cafe-restaurant, with the food being provided by Andrew Radford of The Atrium and Blue Bar in Edinburgh and Sean Spillane, formerly of Le Bistro.

The centre will also have a small cinema, bookshop and a separate bar on the Scott Street side of the building - featuring an outdoor terrace.

Ms Hendry added: "We have something here for everyone but if people just want to come in and have a coffee or look around the bookshop that's fine.

"This is an absolutely fantastic building and everyone who has seen it so far has been completely taken aback.

"It is such a change to what was here before and, because of its uniqueness and size, it is going to be a huge asset to Glasgow."

The National Lottery provided £7.5m for the project with the rest of the cash coming from the European Regional Development Fund - through the Strathclyde European Partnership - Historic Scotland and Scottish Enterprise Glasgow.

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Avoiding further Greek tragedies

Murray Grigor, Sunday Herald, 1 July 2001

Midnight in the Gorbals next Sunday will mark a very special occasion. As the clock strikes 12, the temple front and the proud tower of the Caledonia Road church ruins will sparkle into light. For Tom Macartney, the director of the Crown Street Regeneration Project, this event will mark the first stage in a personal mission to reverse the fortunes of Glasgow's other great architect by consolidating what is left of Alexander "Greek" Thomson's masterpiece in the Gorbals

Ever since 1965, when vandals were invited to set fire to this innovative Thomson church by an uncaring city bent on destroying itself, there have been hordes who have wished it demolished. Just over a month ago James Boyle, chairman of the Scottish Arts Council, pleaded that this "cadaver on the south side of the city" be torn down. With such barbarians already within the gates, what chance do we have of saving this still-great Glasgow landmark? Standing defiantly like a mini-acropolis, its silhouette still evokes a sense of place as important to Glasgow as Ledoux's great neo-classical toll houses are to Paris.

Let us hope when it is illuminated that at least some of the philistines might see what the fuss is about. Perhaps light and shade will reveal to them Thomson's bold Greek temple, set under a medieval tower in banded masonry; a perfect conjunction of the classical and the romantic - Hugh Macdiarmid's famous Caledonian antisyzygy built in stone on Caledonia Road. They might appreciate in these noble ruins what the great American historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock called one of "the finest Romantic Classical churches in the world". Or what Andor Gomme later described as "one of the greatest 19th century buildings anywhere", as he lamented that, "in almost any country than our own, so great a work of art would call out for enthusiastic and complete restoration as a matter of course".

Now this cruelly neglected masterpiece, isolated for years in a forlorn traffic island, may be born again as a great gateway to the city. For an international competition is about to be launched to rejuvenate Thomson's ruins by incorporating them into a contemporary building as an architectural dialogue across time. Such an interplay of past and present is what distinguished the Venetian architect Carlo Scarpa's rejuvenation of the medieval Castelvecchio in Verona. It is the kind of solution sought by the cultural resistance fighters of Crown Street, who have no desire to see some pastiche fudging of the past. More than anything else, a successful end to this sad chapter of civic dereliction might finally return Thomson to place he deserves in the hearts of Glasgow's citizens.

Despite the success of the Thomson exhibition two years ago and his face still appearing on Clydesdale Bank fivers, everything has gone very quiet since Glasgow was City of Architecture and Design. Ironically, the 1999 sign on Thomson's own office at the corner of Bath Street and West Regent Street isn't a reminder of Glasgow's architectural annus mirabilis but a two-year-old offer to have his building demolished for commercial development. Only at Holmwood House, his most famous villa in Cathcart, can we celebrate the ongoing success of the National Trust for Scotland's restoration programme.

The Egyptian Halls in Union Street, now mouldering, is not only Thomson's finest commercial building but one of the most extraordinary commercial buildings of its time. We can glimpse what went on here in Victorian times from posters in one of Thomas Annan's surviving photographs. This was the place for promenade concerts, for art galleries and elegant teas, as well as providing Glaswegians with the best in retail therapy. Any city in Europe or North America would revel in its potential today. Yet this masterpiece was very nearly lost and still awaits restoration.

Three years ago, Historic Scotland offered nearly a million pounds towards a rather desperate scheme to save the remarkable facade of Egyptian Halls by destructive cleaning, as well as demolishing half its interior in what the historian Gavin Stamp calls the "Glasgow macho tradition of scrape and gut". Fortunately, the enterprising Dundee developer Derek Soutar and his partners came forward last year with a far more enlightened plan to stabilise the entire building. His restoration architects George Morrison and Daniella Dobrescu-Parr and the engineer John Addison have drawn up proposals which Historic Scotland regards as among the best it has ever seen. They fulfil every aspect of good conservation practice, historically, visually and structurally. Yet because the better scheme costs less, by some strange logic it appears that the grant that Historic Scotland can now offer will also be less. After nine months' delay the developers still wait to hear what Historic Scotland can grant towards the restoration of this world class building as it continues to rot on Union Street.

With limited funds one can sympathise with those who have to decide on restoration priorities. But I can't help thinking that Egyptian Halls rates higher than, say Edinburgh's St Mary's Cathedral, which has received more than 20 restoration grants totalling nearly £1.75m over the years. Even if this was one of Gilbert Scott's greatest buildings, the late Nikolaus Pevsner, whose opinions are still held in esteem, considered Scott a far less interesting architect than Thomson. And how Thomson would have loathed to hear that the Gothic was favoured over his version of the Greek.

As so often happens in Glasgow, it took international concern about the city's world-class buildings to get things moving. Dollars from the World Monument Fund allowed restoration of the St Vincent Street church to begin when it was classified as an endangered world heritage site, along with the Taj Mahal and the ruins of Angkor Wat. As the scaffolding comes down, we can again see the tower with its enigmatic sculpture and Indian cupola.

There was hope that its great silhouette would be able to breathe again when the neighbouring hulk of Heron House was deemed unsafe. Sadly, engineers have found a way to stabilise this cliff of wall-ovens and developers are now selling its floors off as apartments. The only upside is that the church might benefit financially by sharing its great hall, should the development incorporate a small hotel.

The Alexander Thomson Society, driven by the persistence of its indefatigable chairman Gavin Stamp, rescued Thomson's finest villa from the greediest of ghastly plans - to dot its grounds with bijou housing. It is now in the safe hands of the National Trust for Scotland. Visitors can participate in the scholarly restoration of its wall paintings; and the great wall connecting to the gatehouse has been rebuilt, giving it the look of one of Frank Lloyd Wright's early prairie houses. Its restoration was supervised by David Page, who sees Thomson's achievement as a model for 21st century Glasgow. As the city takes its first steps towards its post-industrial future, architects like David Page are drawing inspiration from the once-forgotten master. "Thomson's great strength was how he consolidated the city. His work is a fantastic model for us all to recreate a joined-up city," says Page, who is rejuvenating Thomson's Grecian Chambers in Sauchiehall Street as the new CCA. "If we had Turners mounted on the wall, there would be no question that they would be protected. Thomson's buildings are of that quality and we cannot afford to lose one more. Egyptian Halls is Thomson's final work. It's the summation of his career. What a great legacy for future architects to aspire to."

One of the most moving initiatives born out of Glasgow's year as City of Architecture was another competition. This one, tailored to young architects, invited designs for a new headstone for Thomson above his unmarked grave in the Southern Necropolis. The winners, Edward Taylor and Graham Andrew were appropriately students from the Glasgow School of Art and Strathclyde University. Soon their elegant allegory in black polished granite will be erected. A stylised, engraved sun will glow between two slabs, evoking the transition between life and death of an Egyptian temple. In the distance, beyond the forlorn slabs of tower blocks, the tower of Thomson's Caledonia Road church will seem to signal back. Surely the memory of this great architect is now secure in the city he did so much to create.

Murray Grigor's film Saving Greek Thomson, is on Scottish Television tonight at 11.30pm as part of the Artery series. Murray Grigor will be giving the RSA Lecture: Scotland and Heritage on August 24 at the Consignia Theatre during the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

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'Greek' Thomson's supporters still fighting back

Alastair Dalton, The Scotsman, 26 June 2001

He was Glasgow's forgotten architect, who campaigners hoped would be rescued from obscurity by a major exhibition during the city's year of architecture and design.

Yet two years after that historic showcase, the threat of destruction still hangs over some of the most important buildings erected by Alexander "Greek" Thomson.

Thomson, who for years has been overshadowed by renewed interest in fellow architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, designed a series of houses, churches and other public buildings, mainly in Glasgow.

Born in 1817, Thomson was given his "Greek" nickname in homage to the Classical influence of his style.

More than 50,000 people visited the largest-ever exhibition featuring his work, at the Lighthouse gallery in 1999.

However, an uncertain future still faces two of his important buildings in the city centre, while restoration proposals for two of his Glasgow churches remain incomplete.

A redevelopment scheme for the Egyptian Halls in Union Street is threatened by funding difficulties, while the fate of Thomson's former office in West Regent Street, earmarked for demolition, is embroiled in a planning dispute.

A new use is still being sought for the hall at St Vincent Street Church to secure the building, while the announcement of an architectural competition for restoring the Caledonia Road Church in the Gorbals as housing is still awaited.

On the bright side, further work to uncover more of the original interior decoration is planned at Holmwood House, in Cathcart on Glasgow's south side, which was rescued by the National Trust for Scotland in 1994.

Meanwhile, a church and manse designed by Thomson in Balfron, north of Glasgow, is finally to be built to house a heritage centre dedicated to his work.

Neil Baxter, secretary of the Alexander Greek Thomson Trust, tells a Scottish Television documentary to be broadcast next month: "Thomson's reputation was seemingly in the ascendant in 1999 and the recognition that he deserved was at long last coming.

"It seems to have all died away, which is very sad. There is an awareness among the cognoscenti, but we do not get the popular reaction which Thomson deserves, and Mackintosh is still the only architect in town."

The programme, part of the Artery series entitled Saving Greek Thomson, focuses on the fate of the four-storey Egyptian Halls, opposite the Union Street side entrance to Glasgow Central Station, its columns and windows blackened and forlorn.

Restoration of the former shopping centre, galleries and concert hall, built in 1873, two years before Thomson's death, has been stalled by a funding wrangle between developers and Historic Scotland.

Dr Gavin Stamp, the chairman of the Alexander Thomson Society, says on the programme, to be shown on 8 July: "Here we have not only Thomson's finest commercial building, but also the most extraordinary commercial building of its time in Britain."

Dr Stamp, who co-organised the 1999 Thomson exhibition, said: "Union Street is crying out for new commercial development and here we have a prime site and a huge amount of space standing empty. It seems preposterous.

"The condition of this building is deplorable. The structure is quite tough, but no building can take this sort of punishment for too long."

Just a few blocks away, Thomson's former office, on the corner of West Regent Street and Wellington Street, which he remodelled in 1872, is embroiled in a dispute over a public inquiry into planning permission for its demolition.

A judge ruled last year that ministers had breached human rights legislation by ordering the inquiry. Lord Macfadyen said the inquiry process could not be impartial because Historic Scotland, a Scottish executive agency, had prompted the process by objecting to the plans.

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The Regeneration Trail

Stewart Paterson, Glasgow Evening Times, 13 June 2001

Planners see why city's streets ahead. Delegates go walkabout to witness Glasgow's regeneration showpieces

Glasgow is showing off the jewels in its crown of regeneration to town planners from all over Britain.

And among the gems are some of the city's most famous buildings.

Today more than 500 delegates from the Royal Town Planning Institute descended on the city for their annual conference.

As part of the event the planners are being taken on tours of Glasgow highlighting the old and the new to illustrate recent urban regeneration.

Three walkabout trips have been arranged, including a tour of the Merchant City, charting its history from home to the city's richest 19th century businessmen to upmarket residential area for the 21st century.

The City Centre tour, showing modern residential and commercial projects and a City Centre design walk are also on offer with the focus on the award winning Lighthouse Building in Mitchell Street.

A further two study tours will concentrate on the works of architects Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Alexander 'Greek' Thomson which include the House for an Art Lover in Bellahouston Park, the School of Art in Renfrew Street, Caledonia Road Church and Queens Cross Church.

The second aims to bring architecture and planning in the city up to date with a look at urban regeneration projects in the Gorbals and the east end of the city.

Among the areas included are the Crown Street Regeneration Project, East Hutchesontown, Graham Square, St Andrew's Square, and Homes for the Future at Glasgow Green.

Oatlands, which is also included as part of the regeneration of Gorbals, has just been given the go ahead for the next stage in a £100 million new homes plan for the area.

Homes for the Future at Glasgow Green and St Andrew's Square will be held up as shining examples of innovative approaches to regenerating run down and neglected areas.

Philip Kennedy, spokesman for the Royal Town Planning Institute, said: "The tours are expected to be a popular part of the conference programme.

"Glasgow is considered to be a model city in terms of regeneration which should be held up as an example to other places in Britain.

"We know that many of the delegates are very happy that Glasgow is this year's venue."

The conference will be attended by Social Justice Minister Jackie Baillie and the Deputy Transport and Planning Minister Lewis MacDonald.

Controversial Glasgow academic Ivan Turok will address the conference to talk about the progress the city has made over the years and the challenges it still faces.

Professor Turok caused a stir in recent years when he claimed that Glasgow was lagging behind Edinburgh in terms of jobs, regeneration and health.

He also recently called on the Scottish Parliament to develop a plan for the whole of central Scotland.

The 'east versus west' debate was reopened two years ago when his report showed there was more derelict land in Glasgow and there were far more deprived areas in the city than there were in the capital.

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Galling views

Letter, Sunday Herald, 3 June 2001

What a lamentable view of architecture is held by James Boyle (Seven Days, May 27), who calls for the demolition of the "cadaver" of the Caledonia Road church in the Gorbals.

He does so just at the moment when the imaginative Crown Street redevelopment project has had the ruins of Alexander "Greek" Thomson's masterpiece consolidated, in order to launch an international competition to incorporate this great gateway to the city into a contemporary building. Boyle's arrogance or ignorance is as much redolent of Ceaucescu's Bucharest as of Glasgow's period of self-hatred in the 1960s which caused such monuments to be ruined by vandals or demolished by the wrecker's ball of planners. What is so galling is that Boyle chairs the Scottish Arts Council, which has done so much recently to create an architectural risorgimento in Scotland.

As a grateful recipient of SAC funding, which enabled the 1999 Thomson exhibition at the Lighthouse and my film on his architecture, Nineveh On The Clyde, to go ahead, I can only hope that Boyle's views are sat upon by those who serve on the organisation he chairs. Thomson is a world class architect and in any other European city his buildings would be preserved as an inspiration for future generations.

Murray Grigor
Inverkeithing, Fife

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Burrell home sold for £400,000

John MacCalman Local government correspondent, The Herald, 31 May 2001

The "Greek" Thomson townhouse which became the first marital home of Sir William Burrell early last century has been sold for just under £400,000 to a single purchaser.

Glasgow City Council received two higher offers but these involved sub-division of the property at 8 Great Western Terrace, Hyndland, into four flats.

Both the council and Historic Scotland preferred the single buyer option. Indeed, Historic Scotland had made it clear it was opposed to subdivision and confirmed it would recommend to Scottish ministers that such an application be refused.

Bailie William Timoney, convener of a council property sub-committee, said: "By and large, the sub-committee has got what it wanted, a single purchaser. It preserves an important building and ensures it is brought up to a proper standard."

The A-listed building was vacated by the social work department in the spring of 1998 having been declared surplus to requirements the previous year.

The city's cultural and leisure services department and the National Trust for Scotland had done much heart-searching with a view to utilising the building as a museum, given its connection with one of Glasgow's greatest arts benefactors. However, neither the capital investment required, nor the funding for running costs, could be raised.

The two-storey attic and basement townhouse, built around 1860, comprises 18 main apartments, kitchen, and six bathrooms. Essential repairs are required to make the property wind and watertight. It will also require major internal refurbishment and redecoration.

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Let us have courage to dump the past and build a new future

James Boyle, Sunday Herald, 27 May 2001

Please join me in wishing that someone in high civic office has the resolution to pull down the ghastly Alexander "Greek" Thomson-designed Caledonia Road Church presently preserved like a cadaver on the south side of the city of Glasgow. Let's also have the nerve to push over the unattractive sandstone facade standing, purposeless, in Ingram Street.

Remember why we schooled ourselves into our current preservation policy? Because we had pulled down so many irreplaceable buildings in slum condition at a time when there was no money to renovate them and an urgent need to replace the housing stock.

To maintain this indiscriminate life-support for all old buildings is wasteful and cowardly. A mature alternative would be to adopt a review mechanism that slowed and scrutinised proposals for demolition and then made recommendations based on taste and on knowledge of the architectural scheme for replacing the building. The latter is essential. Another reason for the current knee-jerk preservation has been the notorious failure of so many modern designs to meld with the surroundings. It was a sensible and green reaction to call a halt to the damaging demolitions of the 1950s and 1960s. We now have the cash to preserve the best and we ought to have the courage to dump the worst.

One of the most interesting, satisfying and useful books ever published in Scotland was produced in 1965 in celebration of the Commonwealth Arts Festival of that year. Don't ask what that festival was - it's long forgotten - but the book it gave birth to, Glasgow At A Glance: An Architectural Handbook, is still prized by those who own it. This small volume, pocket-sized, contained 217 photos of prominent buildings in Glasgow together with a single short paragraph to accompany each image. It was a work of genius because it introduced the citizenry to their environment and to the possibility that Glasgow might, after all, be a place of architectural interest and prestige rather than a notorious slum city.

The photos of buildings were arranged chronologically and included the most sublime Victorian constructions - such as Cleveden Crescent, the hopeful modernism of the Festival of Britain cottages in Queen's Drive and the sinister Spence, Glover and Ferguson housing blocks in Hutchesontown.

The evaluations were muted, never intrusive and left the reader to absorb the data rather than be bullied into an expert's orthodoxy. Glasgow At A Glance was like the best history: it was succinct, loyal to fact and reluctant to speculate. In that way it encouraged and educated the reader. In less than an hour, anyone could pick up the changing shape and styles of the city architecture, starting with the 13th century Glasgow Cathedral and ending with a chapter on "The Future" which included some frightening draughtsman's impressions of what was to pass during the following decade.

Long before Glasgow was a City of Culture (1990) or, indeed, Architecture (1999) it had convinced everyone who forked out 8/6d that Betjeman was right and that we lived in the finest Victorian city in the land. The catalogue also made it obvious that just because it is old, it is not necessarily good or worth preserving - St Andrew's Cathedral on Clydeside is a particularly unsuccessful building, intended to revive the Gothic style but actually without the necessary scale and proportion.

We need the confidence to dump the past at the right time and the will to devote the resources over a planned period to constructing the future using the highest standards of our time. The alternative is not dishonourable but it is disheartening: a life in a museum where the vision from another society determines ours.

When the Nazis razed Warsaw, they destroyed the very beautiful medieval town centre as well as the substantial vibrant capital city shaped over the preceding centuries. The Poles, impoverished by the war, without any measurable living standard and devoid of foreign currency, replicated the medieval centre in its entirety, stone by stone. The spirit of the Polish survivors is evident in the achievement, but it is impossible to feel that it was worth doing. What took national sacrifice and determination seems like the much greater but insubstantial theme parks and entertainment centres of our era. The abiding impression of Warsaw old town is of willpower rather than imagination.

Let's agree that it is beneficial to invest in exhilarating public buildings. While there is dissent about the cost of Holyrood we should remember what it symbolises and how appalling it would be if the parliament were merely adequate. If it costs half a Dome, so be it. It is our legacy to the future.

New money has endowed new life to older buildings and allowed people to re-inhabit forgotten quarters of the cities. When St Jude's Free Presbyterian Church in Glasgow's West George Street became the Malmaison Hotel, there must have been angels on high shouting hosanna that such an eccentric building was to be rejuvenated. In Edinburgh's George Street, the conversion of three important former banks into restaurants - The Dome, All Bar One and The Standing Order - began the transformation of what was a financial strip into a more satisfying commercial thoroughfare. As the restaurants arrived, the new shops followed and today George Street is nearer the original plan that it be the principal street of the New Town.

It's a funny thing about Glasgow At A Glance but its method of grouping by period also exposed mercilessly the later architecture of the 1960s. There are plausible defences of the buildings in their individual contexts and functions, but together they make an unanswerable case for high explosives.

The little book also showed that good design and appropriate materials are safer on the whole than genius and inspiration. James Miller's 1913 Bank of Scotland at 110 St Vincent Street is good-looking inside and out, yet it is without show or pretension.

Next time you wander round a city centre looking for a shop or an office, look up at the buildings above and enjoy. Meanwhile, let's have nominations for immediate demolition work.

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Traveling Smart: On Beaten Paths or Off, There's a Guide to Get You There

Katherine Ashenburg, New York Times, 15 May 2001

Dante counted on Virgil, and Everyman had a useful chum called Knowledge, who promised, ''Everyman, I will go with thee and be thy guide.'' Christian in ''Pilgrim's Progress'' relied on Evangelist for advice on where to go next.

Let's face it, every traveler needs a guide. What Baedeker was to the 19th century, Frommer's and Fodor's were to the mid-20th, and the choice widens every year.

I get inordinately attached to my guidebooks, even the less-than-congenial ones. I seem unable to part with any of them, beginning with the Fodor's guide to Germany that accompanied me on my honeymoon in 1966 and Frommer's ''England on $5 and $10 a Day'' from 1969 (currently ''$85 a Day''). Looking at my collection can summon memories of some strange little byway, comic mishap in a bed-and-breakfast, a treasure I would never have glimpsed on my own.

Part of the adventure of any trip is the developing relationship with a guide -- resisting, trusting, admiring, feeling betrayed. Usually one book is not enough for any trip longer than an extended weekend, and their differing personalities emerge as we tour, say, Hanoi together. One guidebook will remind me of a hypercautious uncle; another an infectiously enthusiastic, but not always terribly discriminating, college roommate.

When new to a series, I often look at the suggestions for further reading. A healthy selection of novels and personal views of a country, rather than more standard works of nonfiction, makes me feel a guide and I will be compatible. My well-traveled daughter, who is 29, uses another measuring stick: she looks at a volume that covers her town, or one she knows well, to get a sense of a guidebook's savvy.

While I have certainly had memorable trips inspired by one-shot guides, the big series have a reassuring reach and track record. Here is a personal guide to some of the best-known guidebooks:…

INSIGHT GUIDES -- Lushly designed with heavy paper and brilliant photography, Insight Guides could ravish armchair travelers and real ones. This London-based series is strong on conveying the character of a place, with essays like ''The Samurai Way of Dying'' (Tokyo). Expect quirky, insider details from their writers, who are often specialists.

Information is timely, with updates for the most popular destinations made when the book goes back to press, sometimes more than once a year. These guides, which address a self-reliant, worldly traveler, also tend to be more impressionistic than systematic, but their hints can be fruitful. A few mentions in the Glasgow guide of a 19th-century architect named Alexander (Greek) Thomson intrigued me enough to locate a map of his buildings at the Tourist Board and visit his bizarre designs.

The listings of restaurants and hotels, however, are much sketchier than the books' treatment of neighborhoods, museums and sites. You really need another source for food and lodging if you are going to spend more than a few days with an Insight Guide. And they are heavy.

But those evocative photographs whose weight you rued while traveling become a smashing souvenir album once you are home. Just one glance at a particular picture in Glasgow -- the wrought-iron railings of the Great Western Terrace on a snowy day -- transports me back to a splendid trip.

Katherine Ashenburg is the author of ''Going to Town: Architectural Walking Tours in Southern Ontario.''

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On top of the world

Graeme Murray, Glasgow Evening Times, 10 May 2001

Househunters are being offered the chance to snap up a £500,000 penthouse in one of Glasgow's tallest buildings.

Apartments at The Pinnacle, which will occupy the former Habitat building in Bothwell Street, go on sale this weekend.

The 200ft-tall 20-storey building was put up in the 1960s but has now been transformed from offices into homes by Edinburgh-based FM Developments, which bought the building from insurance firm Standard Life.

It boasts rooftop terraces and panoramic views across Glasgow. From the top floor, residents of the 93 apartments will be able to see as far as Ayrshire, Arran and Ben Lomond.

Alan Baxter, of selling agents Slater Hogg and Howison, said: "It's a very prominent building and one of the highest points in Glasgow.

"It was built in the 1960s but it has been given a complete refurbishment with a modern twist. It is clad in aluminium and has green glass on the gable end."

The 200ft building towers over Alexander "Greek" Thomson's nearby church in St Vincent Street.

But the nearby Renfield St Stephen's Church rivals The Pinnacle in the height stakes with a 220ft steeple.

Glasgow's skyline has changed beyond all recognition within the past few years with new hotels and buildings springing up one after the other.

The most recent addition is the Radisson Hotel which is under construction at Oswald Street, near Central Station. The building will transform the area and will feature a massive copper frontage.

It follows in the footsteps of Lang's hotel at Port Dundas Place. The £10million hotel has become a notable city landmark after opening last September.

And towering above the city skyline is the new multi-screen UGC cinema at the top of Renfield Street which some critics have labelled a carbuncle.

Potential buyers at The Pinnacle will have to wait until January next year before they can move in and will have to make do with a computer-generated 'virtual' walkthrough of the property at this weekend's launch.

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£1/2m plan to restore Southern Necropolis

John Woodcock, The Scotsman, 7 May 2001

Far more than simply a place to bury the dead, the Southern Necropolis in Glasgow was once a vital part of the Gorbals community it served.

Before decades of neglect saw many of its tombstones defaced by vandalism, the pleasing garden layout of the cemetery made it one of the most popular recreational areas of the city.

But now the vast graveyard, which counts celebrated architect Alexander 'Greek' Thomson among its 250,000 occupants, could be restored to its former grandeur under a £500,000 project to be unveiled tomorrow.

Officials at the Glasgow Building Preservation Trust hope the scheme to renovate the castellated gatehouse will be the catalyst for a reversal of decades of decline.

A survey of residents and local businesses found strong support for a plan to convert the gatehouse into a genealogy centre, where people can trace their ancestors or find out more about people buried in the necropolis. Another option is to convert the building into a Gorbals museum.

Alison Tanner, project development officer at the trust, said the ultimate aim of the project was to make the necropolis a pleasant social spot, as it had been in the Victorian era.

Ms Tanner said: "Like so many cemeteries, the Southern Necropolis has gone into decline in recent times.

"It used to be a place where people would go to push prams or just to sit. Now the vandalism and graffiti make people too scared to spend any time there at all."

She added: "The gatehouse is a landmark that is unique in the Gorbals. It is one of the few remaining historic buildings in the area. Currently it does not have a roof, but it would be wonderful if it could be restored."

Built in 1840, the Southern Necropolis was the first cemetery to offer the city's working classes an inexpensive yet dignified burial, rather than the mass interments that were previously carried out.

It relieved the pressure for space in the city's principal necropolis, built next to the cathedral in 1832. Eastern and western necropoli were built soon after. They were directly inspired by the Parisian cemetery built by French architect Pere Lachaise at the beginning of the century, which was famed for its expansive garden design, hygienic principles and public rather than denominational ownership.

The imposing gatehouse of the Southern Necropolis, built by architect Charles Wilson, was added in 1848. One of the city's great 19th-century architects, Wilson went on to design the city's Gartnavel Hospital and was himself buried in the necropolis.

Mrs Tanner stressed that the project, which will be presented to the Trust's gatehouse steering group for consideration tomorrow evening, is still in its early stages.

She said: "The challenge now is to find a use for the building that is commercially viable."

Mrs Tanner said the overall cost of restoring the gatehouse had yet to be finalised, but it is understood the scheme will require more than £500,000.

News of the project comes a month after a £10,000 donation saved a scheme to provide a headstone for Alexander Thomson's currently unmarked grave. He died in 1861, aged 44 [Ed: in 1875, aged 58].

Sir Thomas Lipton, the pioneering grocer whose tea is still the best-selling brand in the USA, is buried at the graveyard, as is John Robertson, designer of the engine of the Comet, the first sea-going steamship.

The drive to raise the profile of the necropolis began last year when local theatre group TramDirect used it to stage their production City of Silence.

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Riddle after famous bar shuts down

Brian McIver, Glasgow Evening Times, 3 May 2001

A popular Glasgow pub has become the first casualty of the collapse of the Big Beat leisure chain.

The Church on The Hill pub in Langside has closed after it was put into receivership along with the rest of the Big Beat Empire.

Club king Ron McCulloch's chain of pubs and clubs is currently in administration after the closure of his London club Home when police found evidence of drug dealing.

The venues are all now up for sale.

But, despite the original intentions of liquidators KPMG that all Big Beat venues - including the Church, the Tunnel nightclub and the Cul de Sac bars - would be maintained as going concerns, they confirmed the southside bar closed earlier this week.

Receiver Blair Nimmo refused to reveal the reasons behind the closure of the converted Church and could not confirm if it would now be put up for sale with the rest of the portfolio.

He confirmed there would almost certainly be redundancies but said the receivers were trying to find as many of the staff as possible other jobs within the group.

Up to 24 people were employed at the pub.

He said: "The Church is closing for a variety of reasons that I can't go in to, but I can say that it was out of our hands.

"We'll do what we can for staff working there and who have been very helpful in working with us - but there are likely to be some redundancies.

"We're trying to emphasise the success of the rest of the chain and there has been an incredible amount and quality of interested parties over the portfolio.

"They're all operating as normal and doing good business and there are no plans for the closure of any other properties.

"What will happen to the Church on the Hill is not clear at the moment."

The Gothic [Ed: actually Classical] property was bought for £1 in 1993 as a ruin and redeveloped.

It was designed originally by Alexander Greek Thomson [Ed: actually Alexander Skirving, a pupil of Thomson] and built in 1896 near the Victoria Infirmary.

Its closure comes as KPMG announced record interest in the Big Beat chain, which includes the Puppet Theatre restaurant, October Cafe, Canal, Oblomov and properties in Aberdeen, Sydney, Coatbridge, Nottingham, Dundee, and the Cricklewood Hotel, Bothwell.

They've received 250 expressions of interest in taking over the 23 venues with £26million turnover either as a whole or buying pubs individually.

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At the exchange and carp

Johnny Rodger, The Herald, 28 April 2001

Terry Farrell's masterplan to regenerate a sprawling nine-acre wasteland in Edinburgh has prompted both outrage and wonder

Is Terry Farrell the long lost mad bastard great great grandson of "Greek" Thomson? This must be the question on the lips of all those Glaswegians as they speed eastwards following the great Scottish cultural brain drain of the new millennium.

In 1989 Farrell, finding his particular brand of post-modernism had exhausted its favour in London, headed north to teach Edinburgh - a minor Athenian sort of a capital - a thing or two about classicism. He was to design the masterplan for The Exchange, a sprawling nine-acre wasteland between the Western Approach Road,

Lothian Road and Morrison Street, which was the former Caledonian Railway Station and Goods Yard.

The plan was to create a new financial centre with office space catering for the needs of large corporations, a much needed conference centre, designed by Farrell himself, car parking, a leisure centre for the Sheraton Hotel, and a public square, all round the two existing buildings on Festival Square - the Sheraton and Capital House.

The resultant structures in The Exchange have faced much criticism in terms of their exaggerated scale and brashness, but Farrell, it seems, can take it. Even the critical squib the Real IRA fired off last year at MI6 headquarters in London caused more publicity than damage.

While the influence of Glasgow's Alexander "Greek" Thomson - his post and lintel emphasis on the horizontal and his neo-classical incorporation of elements of every style from Greek to Egyptian - on the actual buildings is clear enough, it must be said that the worst of the criticised excesses are not perpetrated by Farrell but by the architects of the Exchange Plaza which curves round the bend of the Approach Road.

This long, post-modern, classical fronted office building - the one which the culturally impoverished Glaswegian would drive past on the way to work - has nothing of what Thomson called "the mysterious power of the horizontal element", and it featured prominently in an article on the "Outrage" page of the Architectural Review, which said: "Surely a city that was once the wonder of the civilised world deserves better than such vulgar provincial banalities."

Indeed, it can be argued that the two most successful buildings on site were designed by Farrell himself - the international conference centre and the Sheraton Hotel health club.

The circular form of the conference centre is not only recognisable in the context of urban Edinburgh, but also in a historical sense, with the Colosseum of Rome and Ledoux's Barriere de la Villette coming to mind. In the interior the brief was to create a 1200-seat auditorium capable of quick and easy subdivision.

Farrell solved this masterfully by having two small drums at the rear of the auditorium, each seating 300, which can rotate on a circular rail, turning their back wall to the principal space of 600.

The concrete and glass walled box of the Sheraton Hotel health club comes as a relief from the heaviness of the surrounding neo-classical frontages. The fish shaped curve of its outdoor warm pool and the blue and green ceramic fritting on its glass walls do how-ever belie the almost classical promenade of its neo-Roman Baths interior.

The relative success of Farrell's own buildings on site raises a couple of uncomfortable questions about this type of urban development. How can there be such discrepancy in the quality of building on the site of one masterplan? What are the relationships between planner, developer, masterplanner, and architect of individual buildings?

We have to look to recent history to find answers. The present renaissance of Edinburgh architecture has its roots in 1985 when an incoming Labour council set about regenerating Edinburgh through its Lothian region structure plan.

The inner ring road plans were abandoned, freeing blighted zones such as the Caledonian Railway Yard, Tollcross, Greenside, and the Pleasance, for development. In the financial sector it was clear that larger open plan buildings with deeper floorplates to cater for the new technologies and systems of administration were needed.

The Georgian and Victorian buildings of the traditional "golden rectangle" of the financial sector of the city, between St Andrew's and Charlotte Squares, were no longer suitable.

How disappointing it is then, and not only from a historical perspective, that to promote the regeneration of these city centre sites in accordance with the findings of their planning and economic studies, the council chose not to organise open competitions among architects for the design of masterplans, as was the traditional and successful method in the design of the New Town.

Instead, they held a series of developer competitions for such sites now underway as the Caledonian Railway Yard, the Morrison Goods Yard and Holyrood North. This developer-led type of competition might mean that the vision, aesthetic and general motive may be compromised by some short term commercial ethic. But on the other hand, there exists now a record of more or less successful examples of such public/private partnership which is commendable in itself, given that much of the programme was undertaken during a time of recession.

Yet perhaps the most important relationship established here must be that between the users of these buildings. To that end Farrell has linked public spaces through the site by providing north-south and east-west cycle and pedestrian routes.

His design also seeks to link the Old and the New Towns together, but one wonders whether the great forbidding crust of commercial buildings around this edge of the site will not deter the more casual flaneur and prevent the development from becoming truly incorporated into the fabric of the city.

Clearly a lot of money has been spent here and these buildings put Edinburgh's current success on show, but as The Architectural Review says: "No-one doubts the necessity for big buildings in one of Europe's most successful financial capitals, but do they all have to be so brash, over-scaled and assertive?" The Victorians, and of course, Greek Thomson, thought they had an answer to that ostensibly rhetorical question. But do we know any better?

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Is death dying out?

Jennifer Cunningham, The Herald, 26 April 2001

Maintenance of Scotland's cemeteries is becoming increasingly difficult - and our attitudes to burial are changing, too.

Headstones tipped over and daubed with gang slogans, the century-old cemetery littered with broken glass and empty drinks containers is testament to a new Scottish attitude to death. Cathcart cemetery, opened in 1873 and still in use, has most recently been noted for wanton destruction by gangs of local youths. East Renfrewshire Council has just agreed to spend £25,000 on a feasibility study on how best to refurbish and protect the graveyard, which includes separate Muslim and Hebrew cemeteries, cared for by their congregations.

Craigton cemetery in Glasgow has also been heaped with criticism for its unkempt state. It is one of the last private cemeteries in Glasgow and its owner, Roy Hart, has been in long-term negotiations with the city council to take it over. The inescapable problem with cemeteries, he explains, is that their success is also their death-knell. As the lairs fill up, the income from new lairs declines, so there are no funds to maintain the grounds and, as the decades go on, fewer relatives to care.

Roy Hart's solution has been to bring in volunteers from conservation groups, but their efforts have been restricted to the most visible areas. His hopes are now pinned on the possibility of applying for landfill tax to fund some environmental improvements.

Raising monuments to the dead reached its height in Victorian times, so it's natural enough that in Glasgow, Victorian city par excellence, each of the four quarters of the city is guarded by its own necropolis, city of the dead. The city necropolis, where obelisks and memorials jab the skyline in warning of the fate which awaits us all, is the most prominent of the city's 35 cemeteries.

The recently completed campaign to raise funds for a headstone for the grave of Glasgow architect Alexander "Greek" Thomson in the southern necropolis is evidence that the need to mark a significant life remains as strong as ever. Most people's lives are significant only to their own families, but despite the majority of funerals being cremations (just over 70% in the UK), there is a significant demand for headstones, including those to mark buried ashes.

Glasgow's 35 cemeteries have the same problem writ large: that they don't make enough money to keep them well-maintained. The additional problem of vandalism inspires a heartfelt plea from Lucille Furie, Glasgow's cemeteries and crematoria registrar. "The park ranger service has patrols of the cemetery grounds, the police have spotlight campaigns in cemeteries, and the council's policy is to prosecute, but we urge everyone who lives close to a cemetery to tell the council, the park ranger service, or the police immediately of cases of vandalism, because there's no point in saying that something happened two days later," she said.

She is anxious to accommodate the wishes of the bereaved with regard to the memorial as far as possible. The chief restrictions are on maximum height and weight for stones, to comply with health and safety regulations. "We do vet inscriptions, purely to ensure they are not going to cause offence, but we do try to satisfy the wishes of the lair owner," she says. "We are not here to police good taste and I have not refused any wording over the past 15 years," she says.

There is a rebirth of the Victorian concept of celebration of life and at the same time some people are looking towards living memorials. As yet there is no tree planting to mark graves in Glasgow cemeteries but that might be a possibility in the future.

There's nothing to prevent people from other areas being buried in Glasgow, but if they are not council tax payers it is appropriate that they pay a little bit more for a lair, according to the city.

Our attitudes to burial are changing, says Dr Julie Rugg, of the Cemetery Research Group at the University of York, who detects a move towards burial in preference to cremation as part of a general demand for consumer choice. "People want choice and regard cremation as more like a factory product," she says. "Local authorities are responding to the need for more personal services. Instead of restricting services to half an hour, crematoria are now allowing 40 minutes or longer. In the past people were more likely to want everything over and done with and to say they don't want a lot of fuss and weren't bothered about burial and a headstone as a memorial."

Her argument is that in a secular society our need for ritual is still there and people need to express that in their own way, even though some of them are bound up with commercial practices. She adds: "What happens with death is that some people want to visit the grave frequently and find that comforting, and others don't. Those who do tend to be more vociferous about what they want. As a result, cemetery authorities may, for example, set aside an area for people who want unusual headstones or a kerb round the grave, while requiring people to comply with prescribed structures within the lawned area.

"There has been a big increase in the number of cemeteries with areas set aside for children, particularly for stillbirths, which has been welcomed as allowing families greater privacy and also as providing a place where they are likely to meet other bereaved parents and some of them gain comfort from the idea of children being buried alongside other children."

It's a process of gradual change. "When I first started looking at cemeteries, managers were very keen on complete clearance, but now people like a little bit of wilderness and are keen that the old stones should be there. Local authorities are much less prescriptive now.

"Although we may not be aware of things changing, in 10 years' time we will have realised that we have come an awful long way," says Dr Rugg.

Cremation has been one of the catalysts of long-term change. The Glasgow crematorium, the first in Scotland, began just over 100 years ago, but cremation became most popular just after the war, in a spirit of altruism and amid much declamation about land for the living rather than land for the dead. Perhaps the legacy of unknown graves and military cemeteries also made the scattering of ashes more acceptable. Cremation continued to grow in popularity and now accounts for 70% of funerals - 75% in a few urban areas, such as London, with Scotland a little lower - and the level is unlikely to grow much higher.

Nowadays many people seem to want a more permanent memorial after cremation and, increasingly, cemeteries may set aside a site which is not appropriate for full body burial for ashes to be interred.

The various churches are still major providers of graveyards, but in Scotland the local authorities have a duty to provide cemetery spaces for their population under the Burial Grounds (Scotland) Act of 1855. The anomaly of private cemeteries largely came about as a result of the Disruption of the Kirk when many people lost their right to burial in the kirkyard. Edinburgh had a large number of private cemeteries as a result, some of which have been acquired by the council. Most notorious were six which were compulsorily purchased by the council after the original owners went into liquidation and there was public concern and a threat of development after the new owners took over. According to George Bell, the council's cemeteries officer, four of the six have been returned to acceptable condition. Others, particularly Grange and Morningside, were acquired in good condition with excellent records.

As a result of the Church of Scotland Endowment Act, churchyards no longer in use are transferred to local authorities, as happened in Edinburgh with Canongate and Duddingston kirks, both of which contain historic graves. Greyfriars, perhaps the best-known, however, was given to the council by Mary Queen of Scots in 1562.

"Although there is a revenue grant from the Scottish Executive for old burial grounds with historic graves requiring to be maintained, it goes into the council's general fund," adds George Bell.

External funding - largely from the Heritage Lottery Fund - provided refurbishment for Edinburgh's Dean Cemetery, which has now provided a link with the grounds of the Dean Gallery.

The 39 cemeteries George Bell is responsible for range from the historic to Scotland's first woodland cemetery on Corstorphine Hill, where there have now been 30 burials.

"We opened it because the nearest one was in Carlisle and felt there was demand from the public. Only one burial takes place in each grave and at an appropriate time of year we plant a birch tree and underplant it with wild flowers.

"We only sell the rights to burial at the time of bereavement, whether for woodland burial or in traditional cemeteries, as a policy of good management. The cost of the rights to each type of plot is the same at £500."

Stirling Council, with 53 cemeteries, mainly in small rural villages, has implemented a five-year plan of extending local churchyards to ensure that everybody can be buried within their local community, with a longer-term plan for a woodland site.

The new £1.3m Coltswood Cemetery at Coatbridge, being developed by North Lanarkshire Council to replace Old Monklands Cemetery which is nearly full, will prove both traditional lairs and sites for woodland graves, as well as a pond and areas for reflection, when it opens this summer.

In some areas of London, authorities are not providing more space and so it has been suggested that they should be allowed to re-use old burial spaces. A House of Commons committee recently suggested that the practice, currently illegal in the UK, should be allowed.

A public opinion survey found that people took a pragmatic view and did not object to a grave being re-used after 100 or even 75 years. Re-using burial space is not something any local authority is looking at in Scotland. Julie Rugg believes it is time we overcame our inhibitions about death: "We need to talk about it more than we do. It is important that public opinion is tested, and that people don't think things are going to happen that are outside their control. In some areas, people are going to be faced with tough choices. In some areas, fees for new burials will be the only income for maintaining graveyards.

The deadline for submissions to the cemetery of the year awards is tomorrow. Contact 0207 463 2020.

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Outrage over Lighthouse cash

John Innes, The Scotsman, 18 April 2001

Glasgow’s Lighthouse arts centre was yesterday awarded £900,000 by the Scottish executive to promote good building design through community schemes.

Scottish Conservatives immediately condemned the move as a waste of money.

The cash will fund such projects as a Virtual Architecture Centre, which will give internet access to architectural projects as well as providing information on buildings in Scotland.

The deputy culture minister, Allan Wilson, announced the funding package yesterday, saying it would encourage debate about the state of Scotland's architecture.

The programme will include:

A Virtual Architecture Centre to use web-based technologies to provide information on architecture and the built environment as well as providing links for local architectural projects and events.
An exhibitions programme to tour throughout Scotland.
Events to encourage debate and interest in design and architecture throughout the country as well as small grants for local projects and community events.

The Virtual Architecture Centre web site will deliver information nationally on architecture and the built environment. It will also act as a link to local on-line architecture centres which will reflect local interests, information and events. A development officer will be appointed to implement the programme.

The Lighthouse will receive £300,000 a year for the next three years under the terms of the funding deal.

However, Brian Monteith, the Scottish Tory culture spokesman said the project "shows yet again how the Labour/Lib Dem coalition is concerned only with presentation, and not real action.

"Repairing Glasgow's crumbling treasures by Greek Thomson and others and opening them to the public will ensure greater accessibility to architecture.

"We should be preserving our heritage and taking schoolchildren to see and experience the real thing."

However, Mr Wilson claimed the project would be a major boost for Scotland and Glasgow.

He said: "I am delighted that The Lighthouse, with its international profile and reputation, will develop this programme.

"This national programme aims to stimulate community interest in architecture and the built environment. It includes direct support for local groups wishing to develop projects, events, publications and exhibitions.

"The quality of buildings directly affects our quality of life and it is right that we should all have the opportunity to help shape them."

Dr Stuart MacDonald, director of The Lighthouse, said the award reinforced The Lighthouse's national role, and would facilitate a range of projects aimed at raising awareness of the built environment.

The Lighthouse, which was opened in 1999 as the centrepiece of the city's year as UK City of Architecture and Design, has come under fire from some quarters after running up a £300,000 deficit in its first year despite receiving £2.1 million from the Scottish Arts Council.

The venue drew 260,000 visitors in its first 12 months, but numbers are expected to fall off with the introduction of entrance fees this year.

Dr MacDonald said The Lighthouse had recovered from its early financial setbacks and described the announcement as a vote of confidence.

The grant, he said, "will benefit the wider community because there will be things for education and lifelong learning, and it allows us to develop a debate around issues in Scottish architecture.

"With 400,000 visitors since opening, The Lighthouse has demonstrated how to make architecture more accessible.

The projects this award makes possible - touring exhibitions, community schemes and promotion of the initiatives with the posts to develop them will extend that mission."

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Cash-crisis design centre gets £1m aid

Iain Wilson, Chief reporter, The Herald, 18 April 2001

Council gives extra help to troubled Lighthouse

Glasgow councillors agreed yesterday to plough a further £103,000 into the Lighthouse design centre even after being told the Scottish Executive had awarded it £900,000.

The centre in Mitchell Lane has already received more than £500,000 from city taxpayers to help reduce its financial troubles.

The latest grant, subject to full council approval, follows meetings in which the Lighthouse trust and other main funders provided assurances that "robust measures" for its operational and financial management are in place.

The backers, including Scottish Enterprise Glasgow and the Scottish Arts Council, also outlined measures to turn its deficit into a small surplus over the next three years, the policy and resources committee was told.

It was also informed that Allan Wilson, the deputy culture minister, had just announced an executive package worth £900,000 to the Lighthouse.

Mr Wilson said the money will promote good building design through community schemes and stimulate debate on architecture and design throughout Scotland.

It will also fund ventures such as a Virtual Architecture Centre, providing internet access to local projects as well as information on Scottish buildings. Other plans include touring exhibitions.

The £1m worth of support comes within four months of revelations of a financial crisis at the £13m flagship centre for the Glasgow City of Architecture festival in 1999.

The council subsequently provided £320,000 on top of its annual grant of £100,000, plus £93,000 towards a shortfall in rental income.

Troubles were blamed mainly on higher-than-forecast exhibition costs and lower-than-expected sponsorship.

Councillors were told yesterday that a three-year business plan involving all key stakeholders has been drawn up.

It includes "fully exploiting" the commercial potential of the building, to be promoted as Scotland's centre of excellence in architecture and design.

The plan also seeks "efficiencies and cost reductions in the ongoing operation". It predicts a reduced deficit this year, but warns that "in the short term the Lighthouse cannot be sustained without a basic level of public subsidy".

From Edinburgh, Mr Wilson expressed delight at the £900,000 scheme for the Lighthouse to develop a national programme aimed at stimulating community interest in architecture.

However, Brian Monteith, shadow Tory culture spokesman, dismissed the package as showing yet again how the Lab-Lib coalition "is concerned only with presentation and not real action".

He added: "I say repairing Glasgow's crumbling treasures by Greek Thomson and others, and opening them to the public, will ensure greater accessibility to architecture.

"The minister says the debate on architecture must be taken to our schools. I say we should be preserving our heritage and taking schoolchildren to see and experience the real thing."

Stuart MacDonald, the Lighthouse director, said of the government award: "It reinforces the national role of the Lighthouse and will facilitate a range of projects around Scotland aimed at raising awareness."

He added the centre has recovered from early financial setbacks and that the announcement was a vote of confidence.

"The grant is very helpful in that it allows us to develop a national profile."

The Lighthouse ran up a £300,000 deficit in its first year despite receiving £2.1m from the arts council.

It also drew 260,000 visitors, but numbers are expected to fall after entrance fees are introduced later this year. It is now aiming for 150,000 visitors a year from home and abroad.

The centre, in the former Herald building in Mitchell Lane, was converted at a cost of £13m. Total external funding was £11.8m from sources including the National Heritage Lottery, European Regional Development Fund, and National Historic Scotland.

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MSPs say £900,000 grant is waste of cash

Vivienne Nicoll, Glasgow Evening Times, 18 April 2001

Lighthouse aid package is slammed

A grant of £900,000 to the hard-up Lighthouse design centre in Glasgow has been branded a waste of public cash.

Angry MSPs claimed the centre is a "white elephant" and said money would be better spent repairing some of the city's crumbling buildings.

The venue, which has struggled to attract visitors, has been awarded the grant by the Scottish Executive to allow it to promote good design for the next three years.

And the Executive announcement was followed within hours by a decision by Glasgow City Council to give the Lighthouse £103,000 for the next year.

It has already received more than £500,000 of council support, but councillors warned this would be the last cash it would give the troubled project.

Last month councillors were told the Lighthouse could not survive in the short term without public subsidy.

The Lighthouse, in Mitchell Lane, which was supposed to be the top attraction of Glasgow's 1999 Year of Architecture, has also benefited from £2.1million from the Scottish Arts Council, as well as cash from the National Heritage Lottery Fund, Historic Scotland and the European Regional Development Fund.

Even before the latest Scottish Executive announcement, total funding amounted to almost £12million, which was used to transform the Charles Rennie Mackintosh building.

But SNP local government spokesman Kenny Gibson today branded the Lighthouse a "white elephant" and said the cash would be better spent elsewhere.

The Glasgow MSP said: "Kelvingrove Museum is desperately short of money and is having to go cap in hand to the Scottish Executive.

"I would have thought the money that has gone to the Lighthouse would have been better spent helping the refurbishment of a highly popular museum rather than a white elephant.

"When resources are finite money should go to the most popular venue, which is not the Lighthouse."

Tory culture spokesman Brian Monteith also criticised the £900,000 grant. He said: "Repairing Glasgow's crumbling treasures by Greek Thomson and others and opening them to the public would ensure greater accessibility to architecture."

Lighthouse boss Stuart MacDonald said the new cash awards meant the centre had got over its early "hiccups" and staff could be confident about the future.

He added: "Since it opened 18 months ago, it has been visited by 400,000 people - half of those from Glasgow."

The Scottish Executive grant, which will be spread over the next three years, will fund a virtual architecture centre that will give internet access to local architecture projects and provide information on buildings in Scotland.

Deputy Culture Minister Allan Wilson said: "The quality of buildings directly affects our quality of life and it is right we should all have the opportunity to help shape them."

Glasgow architectural consultant Neil Baxter welcomed the Lighthouse grant, but said: "It has to focus on attracting a wider range of people."

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Town to set architect's vision in stone

Craig Nisbett, The Scotsman, 9 April 2001

A church and manse designed by one of Glasgow's most celebrated architects finally to be built - 126 years after his death.

The buildings at Holm of Balfron will not only stand as a physical monument to the ideas of Alexander "Greek" Thomson but will house the first heritage centre dedicated to his work.

News of the project comes just days after The Scotsman reported that a firm of Glasgow architects had promised half the funds needed to have a £20,000 memorial created at the site of his unmarked grave in the Southern Necropolis.

The original gravestone mysteriously vanished in the 1950s and many of Thomson's fans regard it as a national disgrace that there is no proper headstone for a man who was famous for his buildings inspired by the wonders of ancient Greece and Egypt.

Thomson's design for the church and manse will be brought to life by contemporary Scottish architects if community councillors in his birthplace of Balfron, near Stirling, get the go-ahead from planners.

His original sketches for the church and manse, dated 1860, are currently in Glasgow's Mitchell Library.

Balfron council chairman Mike Stone said yesterday that the sketches would finally be used, 141 years on, to build the heritage centre.

Historians claim Thomson put Glasgow on the map for architecture long before Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Mr Stone said: "This kind of recognition for Alexander "Greek" Thomson has been long overdue. He was born in this town and for years we have tried to create an identity around the work of our most famous son. 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.

"At the moment they are just drawings, but it will be amazing to see them come alive."

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

His father, John Thomson, worked at the cotton mill in Balfron and the family lived in a small cottage in the town.

Alexander was the 17th child in a family of 24.

When John died in 1824 the family moved to Glasgow, although Alexander retained close ties with Balfron, later designing the South Manse in the town's Dunmore Street.

Mr Stone said the community council would raise more than £1.5 million, the minimum sum required for the project, by co-ordinating their efforts with development agencies like Scottish Enterprise, who have agreed to a meeting next month.

He said that sources close to the Glasgow School of Art had indicated that two-thirds of the building could be used to house classes for art students.

Other ideas for generating revenue from the centre include the creation of a tourist information centre.

Two Balfron sites for the proposed centre will shortly undergo feasibility studies.

The preferred site is on the southern approach to the town, near the cottage in which Thomson was born.

Although Thomson spent all of his working life in Glasgow, designing warehouses and offices, tenements and mansion houses, churches were his greatest contribution to 19th-century neo-classical architecture.

Much of Thomson's best work was destroyed during the Second World War, but his two remaining Glasgow churches, at Caledonia Road and St Vincent Street, incorporate Egyptian and Hindu motifs decades ahead of their time.

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Greek history comes to life

James Hamilton, Sunday Herald, 8 April 2001

More than a century after his death, a design by one of Scotland's leading architects is to be built as a monument to his life and work.

Alexander "Greek" Thomson's design for a church and manse at Holm of Balfron, near Stirling, will become the first-ever heritage centre in his honour.

His original sketches for the church and manse - dated 1860 - are currently in Glasgow's Mitchell Library. The design will be brought to life by contemporary Scottish architects if community councillors in the architect's hometown of Balfron get the go-ahead from planners.

Thomson, who died in 1875, aged 58, became famous for his monumental buildings inspired by ancient Egypt and Greece.

Historians claim that he put Glasgow on the map for architecture long before Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Balfron council chairman Mike Stone said: "This kind of recognition for Alexander Thomson is long overdue. He was born in this town and for years we have tried to create an identity around the work of our most famous son.

"While Charles Rennie Mackintosh has received all the attention in recent years, Thomson's style is much bolder. He 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.

"At the moment they are just drawings, but it will be amazing to see them come alive.

"The building itself will be a major attraction."

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

Stone said the community council would raise more than £1.5m - the minimum sum required for the project - by coordinating its efforts with development agencies such as Scottish Enterprise, who have agreed to a meeting next month.

He said that sources close to the Glasgow School of Art had indicated that two-thirds of the building could be used to house classes for art students.

Other ideas for generating revenue from the facility include the creation of a tourist information centre, which would also capitalise on increased tourism from the nearby National Park.

Stone said: "We are still exploring this as a project.

"To make the plan work we would need a regular income and these are some of the ideas that have been put forward."

Two Balfron sites for the proposed centre will shortly undergo feasibility studies.

The preferred site is on the southern approach to the town, adjacent to the cottage in which Thomson was born.

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£10,000 lifeline saves plans for tribute at unmarked grave of Greek Thomson

Tom Martin, The Scotsman, 6 April 2001

A campaign to create a fitting memorial to one of Glasgow's famous sons has been saved from failure by a £10,000 guarantee.

The remains of architect Alexander "Greek" Thomson have lain in an unmarked grave in the city's Southern Necropolis ever since the original tombstone vanished mysteriously in the 1950s.

Fans of Thomson organised a campaign to raise £20,000 to erect a new stone. But despite a £7,000 gift from the Glasgow Lord Provost's Millennium Fund, the efforts by members of the Glasgow Institute of Architects looked doomed to failure.

Now, however, a private architectural firm has now offered to underwrite the project to create an impressive headstone, made from black granite.

Alan Dunlop, partner of Murray & Dunlop, which is backing the scheme, said yesterday it was a disgrace the Thomson legacy had been forgotten.

"It was embarrassing no-one was coming forward to support the fundraising campaign," he said. "Thomson was one of the most influential architects Scotland has ever produced, and we felt something should be done to ensure that he does not remain in a neglected grave.

"It is difficult to say why both the private and public sector have not come forward before. But there is a trend in architecture to concentrate on what is happening now and forget the achievements of the past. We, however, were in a position to do something about it and have agreed to underwrite the project."

Thomson, who was famous for his monumental buildings inspired by ancient Egypt and Greece, died in 1861 at the age 44 [Ed: actually in 1875, aged 58]. His forgotten grave lies in the shadow of the now-derelict Caledonia Road Church, one of three churches he built in the city [Ed: actually four, including Ballater Street Church]. Another, on St Vincent Street, is now receiving the same international recognition as the Taj Mahal, after being placed on the World Monuments Watch List of Ten Most Endangered Sites.

His third church, Queen's Park, was destroyed during the Second World War.

Angus Kerr, president of the Glasgow Institute of Architects, said he was confident the gravestone scheme could go ahead.

He said: "Although much of Thomson's work has suffered destruction and neglect, he was one of the most innovative architects of his generation.

"Without Murray & Dunlop stepping in, it's difficult to see how we could go ahead.

"Five years ago it would have been impossible to consider something like this, but with a greater awareness of architecture and Thomson's legacy, I am sure we will now get more money in and secure this memorial."

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Donation will allow Glasgow's architect to rest in glory

The Herald, 6 April 2001

A threatened scheme to save one of Britain's most respected architects from an unmarked grave has been rescued by a £10,000 donation.

The grave of Alexander "Greek" Thomson, the Glasgow architect, has been unmarked since the original tombstone disappeared in the 1950s. Thomson is widely regarded as one of the most influential architects of the nineteenth century and historians claim he put Glasgow on the map for its architecture long before his more famous successor Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Despite a campaign last year to raise £20,000 to construct a new gravestone at the Southern Necropolis, members of the Glasgow Institute of Architects had failed to reach their target. Glasgow Lord Provost's Millennium Fund had given £7000.

Now the scheme to honour the architect with a headstone made from rare black granite has been saved after a firm of architects agreed to underwrite the costs.

Alan Dunlop, partner of Murray and Dunlop which is backing the scheme, said it was a disgrace the Thomson legacy had been forgotten. He said: "Frankly it was embarrassing no-one was coming forward to support the fundraising campaign.

"Thomson was one of the most influential architects Scotland has ever produced and we felt something should be done to ensure that he does not remain in a neglected grave.

"It is difficult to say why both the private and public sector have not come forward before.

"But there is a trend in architecture to concentrate on what is happening now and forget the achievements of the past.

"We however, were in a position to do something about it and have agreed to underwrite the project."

Thomson, famed for his monumental buildings inspired by ancient Egypt and Greece, died in 1861 aged 44 [Ed: actually in 1975, aged 58].

His grave lies in the shadow of the now derelict Caledonia Road Church, one of three churches he built in his illustrious career.

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Thomson tomb's boost

Glasgow Evening Times, 5 April 2001

A bid to save one of Britain's most respected architects from an unmarked grave has been given a £10,000 donation.

The remains of famous Glasgow architect Alexander "Greek"' Thomson have been left neglected since his original tombstone mysteriously disappeared in the 1950s from the Southern Necropolis in Gorbals.

A scheme to raise £20,000 for a new headstone looked like failing but now a firm of architects has agreed to underwrite the costs.

Alan Dunlop, a partner in Murray and Dunlop, said it was a disgrace the Thomson legacy had been forgotten.

He said: "It was embarrassing no one was backing the campaign."

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The perfect home for Bridget Jones

Philip Cowan, The Herald, 21 March 2001

The market for one-bedroom apartments to let in the centre of Glasgow is growing. It may be something of a surprise to some, particularly those who may be finding it hard to sell a one-bedroom flat, but the letting market has its own rules.

At one time, companies which were relocating staff around the country where quite prepared to pay four figure sums in rent each month for their employees. Perhaps times are harder or accountants have taken a look at the books, but expenses for rent are no longer what they used to be.

"The person who is mobile is probably in their twenties or early thirties," says Stephen O'Neill, letting agent.

"At that age coming to Glasgow for six months is still something of an adventure. They are also less likely to have children and will have no need for more than one bedroom."

Nevertheless, the flat has to be stylish with all the latest appliances as well as being fully furnished. Unlike the tenant who will do a lot of the leg work themselves looking for just the right flat, the tenant on company business simply wants a place to stay which is comfortable. But the independent landlord is unlikely to break into this market without a letting agent.

Much of the business for company lets is arranged through a relocation agent, who in turn will almost invariably only deal with agents rather than with landlords directly.

While an agent will have dozens or hundreds of flats available, the landlord has only one or two homes to let.

O'Neill says: "The company letting market is still fickle in Glasgow as the city is not yet a huge financial centre. But about 40% of my tenants are in the IT industry and the recent announcement that Cisco is bringing about 2000 jobs to the old Daily Record building in Anderston Quay is welcome news.

"I am sure one factor in the decision was that Glasgow has a high standard of housing but the prices are keener than other major cities in the UK."

An example of the quality homes available in Glasgow are the flats O'Neill has to let on West Nile Street in the heart of the city.

Above a barber's shop, numbers 99 to 107 were built by Alexander Thomson. Only when you look up above street level can you see the row of windows and patterns, reminiscent of ancient buildings, that earned him the name "Greek" Thomson.

Inside, apart from patterns around the door frames, there are few clues left of the Victorian's work, but the flats at 101 West Nile Street, which are to let, have Ikea furniture, laminate flooring and the kitchens have attractive wooden fitted units.

The landlord had originally intended to create two flats with three bedrooms each but O'Neill, aware of the potential for one-bedroom flats in the company relocation market, persuaded him to change his plans to four, one-bedroom apartments.

Rents at 101 West Nile Street range from £525 to £595pcm....

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Still room at the top but it doesn't come cheap

Byron Cooper, Business a.m., 20 March 2001

Flats have been an important part of Scottish cities and towns since the high-rise lands of Edinburgh's Old Town.

In the Victorian and Edwardian eras, the multi-occupied tenement block was transformed from the routine work of jobbing builders to the exuberant facades of the art nouveau architects who created worthy homes for more aesthetic middle class families.

For a century or so, town centres lost out to the leafy suburbs. Then, led by the boom in the eighties, demand reappeared for residential properties close to the city centre attractions.

Though flats have always tended to be associated with student living and starter homes, there is clearly no reason for assuming that layered living is only for the bottom end of the housing ladder.

Some recent loft developments have shown that there exists a strong demand for spacious apartments in the inner city and that prices will reflect the space premium.

One of the market leaders was FM's redevelopment of the former CWS headquarters building on the south bank of the Clyde where 60 two and three-bedroom flats were snapped up within a day.

More recently, Fleming House, a former skyscraper office block opposite the Glasgow Film Theatre, has been offering penthouse suites at around £300,000.

You might think that sort of price would give buyers pause for thought, but only four of the original 23 remain unoptioned.

Marketing began in December and, according to the agent, Clyde Property, the delay was caused by lenders' initial reluctance to offer mortgages on flats above the fifth floor.

Now there is a string of up-market apartment blocks in the pipeline in central Glasgow, often accommodated in the upper levels of mixed developments.

Buyers are expecting to get more than a good view for their money. High-speed lifts are essential for any building of more than six floors, as is secure basement parking. Prospective buyers will be more willing to reserve off a plan so that they can have the most input into room layouts and finishes.

These high-life apartments will add a welcome dash of new after-hours life to the hearts of our cities. Currently there are a thousand or so in the pipeline.

Is the demand really that large, once the stockbrokers, footballers and Lottery winners have been accommodated?

Indeed so, according to the Elphinstone Group director, Ken Campbell, who points to whole districts of central Birmingham and Manchester now devoted to flats created above shopping and leisure schemes. As well as owner-occupiers, there is a growing band of investors who set up special tax-effective companies to buy blocks of flats for rent.

Elphinstone has its own 12-storey scheme about to start on site in Argyle Street, Glasgow, providing around 150 flats selling at prices ranging from £80,000 to £200,000, with ten penthouse flats in the upper price range. The area has been exclusively offices, retail and hotels, so the new development, due for completion by the end of next year, will add to the mix of activity.

A scheme to upgrade and reclad the 1970s concrete eyesore that was Heron House in Bothwell Street, Glasgow, is another case in point. The Pinnacle, situated on a podium close to the Greek Thomson church, will now accommodate 95 apartments, some on three levels, at selling prices starting at £90,000. At ground floor level (where the former Habitat store was) there will be leisure facilities and a bar/restaurant.

A further novelty of The Pinnacle is the creation of apartments-cum-offices with around 500sq ft of workspace for those who want to combine home and workplace.

The apartments are to be marketed by Slater Hogg and will be ready for occupation by early next year. On the St Vincent frontage there is planning consent for a 74-bed hotel.

Alan Baxter of Slater Hogg comments: "These apartments will be offering a much higher specification than has been seen in Glasgow until now. People are wanting to be city centre dwellers now that there are cafes, restaurants, shops and clubs that open until late. We are anticipating a varied buyer profile, including people who have taken early retirement, but still have meaningful income."

The Merchant City is one area where the conversion of older buildings into modern living space has been under way since the late 1980s.

The former Goldberg's store is the subject of a recent planning consent to create a complex of around 350 one, two and three-bedroom flats above a two-level retail and leisure arcade with two-level basement parking.

Completion of the scheme, the Merchant Village, which is partly conversion of listed buildings and partly newbuild, will not be until 2003.

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Government control of planning may breach Human Rights Act

Jamie Grant, The Herald, 19 March 2001

Within the property sector, there is mounting excitement over the awaited outcome of a House of Lords decision which could force government ministers to give up control of the country's planning process.

As in so many recent cases, the future is in doubt as a result of legal challenges under the Human Rights Act. The act, which came into UK law on October 4 last year but applied in Scotland due to earlier incorporation in the Scotland Act, was always forecast to have a wide-ranging impact.

Few property sector executives, however, imagined it would apply quite so critically to their affairs.

The issue first arose from a Court of Session case, originating in Glasgow, over the future of the grade A-listed former McTaggart & Meikle offices, on the corner of West Regent and Wellington streets.

County Properties, a developer, some years ago obtained planning permission, since renewed by the planning authority, Glasgow City Council, and listed building consent, to demolish the building and replace it with another of similar design.

The building has a connection with Alexander "Greek" Thomson, in that he occupied it at one stage in his career [Ed: actually, he redesigned the main entrance and added an extension, in which his own office was based].

When a more intensive form of redevelopment was prepared by County Properties, the city council granted planning permission, but the Scottish Executive, through its agency, Historic Scotland "called-in" the listed building consent application.

There are two kinds of call-in procedure, a delegated call-in, where a public inquiry is held by a government-appointed reporter, and a non-delegated call-in, heard by ministers themselves. The latter option was chosen.

County Properties challenged the call-in on the grounds of the Human Rights Act, arguing that nether the ministers, nor their appointed reporter, could be "an independent and impartial tribunal."

The court agreed, deciding the procedure was fundamentally flawed because the executive was adjudicating in a dispute between a third party, County Properties, and a part of its own organisation, Historic Scotland.

This decision was appealed by the executive, but legal process is on hold while the decisive action, on which depends the entire future of the planning system, moved south of the border where cases raising similar issues had emerged.

In January this year, the High Court in London blocked the power of John Prescott, environment secretary, to call-in a planning application relating to the sale and development of a former Ministry of Defence airfield, on the grounds that the call-in procedure breached the right to a fair trial by an impartial tribunal.

An appeal by the government to the House of Lords was then made. Its decision is expected around Easter.

The case clearly has long-term implications. If, for example, the Lords throws out the government's case, and removes elected politicians from acting as guardians of the environment, the entire UK planning system will have to be re-cast, perhaps by the establishment of specialised environmental tribunals, presided over by independently-appointed judges.

An alternative would be to free the planning inspectorate from all political control. There is no knowing at this stage which path the planning system may take.

Within the property sector, there has been for many years a yearning for a planning system, which was clear and free of the sometimes quixotic intervention of politicians.

Some developers, while acknowledging the validity of democratic accountability in planning matters are severely frustrated with the current system.

They argue that the politicians enjoy two opportunities to intervene in the planning process; first when as a local authority they draw up their structure plan, and second, when development proposals come before them which, for whatever reason they dislike.

A better alternative, they argue, might be to adopt the planning systems widely applied in the United States and Australia, where providing a developers' proposals comply with the terms of the established structure plan, they are cleared in advance and no further permission is required.

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Facelift for city eyesore

The Herald, 15 March 2001

One of Glasgow's most prominent eyesores is set for a £25m facelift and refurbishment.

Heron House, a former BT building which towers over Alexander Greek Thomson's St Vincent Street Church, is to be turned into a 20-storey residential and commercial development. To be re-named The Pinnacle, the building will offer its residents the best views in Glasgow.

The scheme is by FM Developments who purchased the building from Standard Life. The building will be redeveloped into 95 homes over 18 levels with bars, restaurants, shops and leisure facilities on the first two levels.

The Pinnacle will incorporate a mix of one, two, three and four-bedroom apartments and penthouses. Outline planning permission has also been granted for a new 74-bedroom hotel as part of the development.

Craig Morrison, development manager of FM Development Group, says: "There is a growing demand for city-centre apartments, specifically from young professionals and from retired people who want to be close to all the facilities the city centre has to offer."

As well as a mix of one, two, three and four bedroom apartments, The Pinnacle will also offer a number of special apartments which will include home offices extending up to 500 sq ft. For the first time in Glasgow city centre, a number of triplex (three-level) apartments will be created.

Craig Morrison says: "The demand for good quality homes in Glasgow city centre is continually on the increase and The Pinnacle enhances and complements what is already on offer within the city centre."

Construction will begin in spring, with first occupancy planned for January 2002. No prices have yet been released for the apartments, which will be marketed by Slater Hogg and Howison.

FM Development Group was also responsible for the redevelopment of the Co-op building in Glasgow's Morrison Street, which has been turned into 60 apartments, three office suites and a bar/restaurant. It was the city's fastest-selling development last year, with all 60 properties sold in one day - after an all-night queue.

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Building a tidy little fortune

Ian Fraser, Sunday Herald, 11 March 2001

He's helped to transform the landscape of European cities but, finds Ian Fraser, Edinburgh and Glasgow are not top of Alex Watt's agenda

When the average human being looks at a building, most will first consider its looks - taking into account bulk, architectural merits and design. But Standard Life Investments' head of property, Alex Watt, always places greater emphasis on the bottom line.

When assessing bricks and mortar Watt will let his head rule his heart, doing quickfire sums to assess such things as yield, rental income, capital growth and prospects for the relevant economy before determining whether it represents an opportunity.

"Pretty buildings don't necessarily make you a lot of money," he says. "We're not in the business of winning awards but of making cash. It's all about cashflow at the end of the day."

To prove his point, Watt points to a planned development in central Glasgow which he believes would have done a great deal to lift the fabric of his native city, but on which Standard Life recently had to pull the plug.

Standard Life had been intending to redevelop Heron House, an eyesore that once housed BT offices and a Habitat store adjacent to the famous "Greek" Thomson church on St Vincent Street. Plans had been drawn up by the world-leading architects Foster and Partners. But Watt had to scrap he ambitious project when he realised that Glasgow rentals were going to make it impossible to generate a decent return.

"It would have been nice to have done something that moved Glasgow up a league in terms of quality of building but there's a price resistance there. You could do something architecturally wonderful - but take a bath."

With £5 billion invested in property in the UK and around Europe, Standard Life is among the largest landlord in Europe. Buildings in its portfolio include Bloomberg's head office in the City, the Brent Cross and Whiteley's shopping centres in London and the Thistles shopping centre in Stirling. The group also owns a £340 million portfolio in Edinburgh - including its own office buildings at Lothian Road, Canonmills and George Street - and an embryonic £600m portfolio of offices in France, Belgium and Spain.

With UK equities and technology stocks in the doldrums, having 10% of your money invested in property is now seen as a "benchmark" by the large life funds. Last year, Standard Life generated overall returns of 13% on its property portfolio with its continental estate generating 18%.

This was nowhere near the 35% made on private equity but out-stepped the returns on US and European equities....

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Slum landlord wants us out say angry tenants

Glasgow Evening Times, 6 March 2001

A slum landlord is under investigation amid claims his tenants have been subjected to threats, bungled repairs and illegal evictions.

Ali Reza Taghi is facing possible legal action from Glasgow City Council and tenants over the Grade A-listed Alexander 'Greek' Thomson building he bought for £45,000.

Families still living in the three-storey west end property say he wants them out so he can sell it for more than £240,000.

The tenants have asked the council to help over demands that 72 repairs are carried out, including complaints over flooding, cracked ceilings, rotting floors and smoke alarms not working.

Taghi has seven bedsits and a basement flat in the building, but only the flat and three bedsits are currently occupied.

The landlord admits he wants to sell the building in Great George Street, but said he was not responsible for its state and denied intimidating his tenants.

But lawyers from housing charity Shelter were called in to act for two former tenants who claim they were evicted illegally after Taghi had their bedsit door forced open.

And some of the remaining tenants have stopped paying rent and have taken on a solicitor.

Jaswinder Bhamra, 35, who lives in the basement flat with his partner Lesley Edwards, 33, and their son Jaan, 2, claim they have been regularly harassed by Taghi.

Bank worker Bhamra said: "Nearly two years ago Taghi decided he was selling the house. Since then all he has done is try to get us out.

"He cut two holes in a pipe in the kitchen above us to get rid of a blockage but didn't seal it again and we get flooded and our electricity goes off.

"The electricity was cut off to the floors above us because Taghi didn't pay the bill. A power card meter was put in but it is 10 feet up on the wall. The people upstairs need a ladder to put cards in."

Lawyer Adrian Stalker from Shelter has written to Taghi about the complaints.

He has also written to Partick police station complaining generally about the presence of officers at "illegal evictions".

Officials from the houses in multiple occupancy unit at Glasgow City Council are preparing to issue notices on Taghi for failing to comply with requests regarding repairs and fire safety concerns.

A spokesman said: "One notice refers to the electricity supply to the upstairs tenants, another to the means of escape from fire and a third regarding general repairs and cleanliness."

Taghi claims he is no longer able to carry on as a landlord after sustaining a head injury. He blamed his tenants for not paying bills.

When confronted at his £250,000 home in Pollokshields, Taghi said: "I have told the tenants the building has to be refurbished but they are not willing to move out or pay rent.

"We have renewed all the doors and smoke alarms and rewired the whole house. My intention is not to ruin the building.

"I am going to keep maintaining it until the people move out. I can't refurbish or sell it while the people are there."

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Glasgow lifestyle called into question in survey of cities

Jill Stevenson, The Scotsman, 26 February 2001

Glaswegians have long since prided themselves that their city is miles better but now a new international quality of life survey has called that accolade into question.

In fact, the research suggests that Glasgow is no better than Birmingham as a place to live and prosper, ranking them in joint 59th place out of 215 cities around the world.

The results of the global poll by personnel consultants William M Mercer, found that the best places to live are Vancouver, Zurich, Vienna or Copenhagen.

It is a rating that many prominent Glaswegians feel is less than fair considering the city's restaurants boast some of the finest chefs in Britain, its designers are regularly viewed on the top Parisian catwalks and its architecture is amongst the finest in Europe. In addition it is aiming to outdo Venice as the best place for romance with its forthcoming love weekends.

Former Glasgow Lord Provost and the man responsible for the city's Miles Better Slogan, Michael Kelly said: "I do not place much faith in these surveys. I know a lot of people who would agree that Glasgow is a much better city to live in today than it ever was. It really got a grip of its image in the 1980s and since then has never looked back.

"For a start more people are living within the city centre, adding to its vibrant image. We have great restaurants, architecture, impressive entertainment venues and a large availability of museums. Then there are the physical improvements within our parks and landscape in general."

Mr Kelly conceded that various traffic management strategies had resulted in increased congestion within the city centre and that a lot of work had still to be done on peripheral housing estates.

He added: "These things are relative though. Helsinki may have a good transport system but you wouldn't want to live there because it is so dark most of the time. And most people would jump at the chance to live in Paris despite its traffic congestion and high crime rate for the benefits would far outweigh these disadvantages."

Top restaurateur Gordon Yuill whose newly-opened premises are aimed at the culinary cultivated said: "Glasgow has fabulous culinary offerings to rival any European city of its size from French to Spanish and a range of ethnic establishments. Equally as important it has a loyal and sophisticated clientele to match."

Current city Lord Provost Alex Mossan said he thought Glasgow had been unfairly positioned in the survey.

"Glasgow should figure far higher up than it has done," he said. "We have facilities that would make our European counterparts envious. The Armadillo and £75 million Science Centre are outstanding. Then there are our football stadiums which are amongst the best in the world, not to mention the architecture and our two famous sons Rennie Mackintosh and Alexander "Greek" Thomson. We have excellent universities and a world-rated School of Art.

"Glasgow can also be proud of its conference venues and outstanding hotels such as the Hilton, Moat House and unrivalled One Devonshire Gardens. In 2002 we will host the International Irish Dance Championships which is a real coup as it is the first time the competition has been held outside Ireland."

High crime rates proved a problem for London which dropped five places from last year to 40. That left the 35th position clear for Dublin which enjoyed the accolade of highest-rated British city overall. London did however redeem itself as far as entertainment was concerned with a European top ranking alongside Paris.

World leaders in this field were New York, Los Angeles, Washington DC and Sydney. Results were based on quality and availability of restaurants, theatrical performances, cinemas and leisure facilities.

City dwellers might disagree, but according to the poll Glasgow did not fare too badly on transport systems, coming in joint 37th with Dublin and yes, Birmingham.

"The best performing cities have reliable, integrated transport systems that run efficiently and on time," said Yvonne Traber, senior researcher at Mercers.

"Many of the smaller, compact cities, including a number in northern Europe, have been successful at managing their transport networks and containing traffic congestion.

"The larger conurbations have generally struggled to maintain the same degree of efficiency despite their extensive metro, rail and bus networks. Peak-time congestion in particular has tended to lower their scores."

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Unholy row over Glasgow eyesore

Jill Stevenson, The Scotsman, 24 February 2001

One of Glasgow's notorious eyesores is about to given a £25 million facelift. But the proposal has resulted in a headache for the city's leading architectural historians.

Earlier this week city planners agreed that Heron House, the former 1970s Habitat and BT office block in St Vincent Street, could be converted into a trendy leisure and residential complex.

Proposals for The Pinnacle - which will involve recladding with silver-coloured aluminium panels, include a 74-bedroom hotel, 95 homes, a restaurant, bar, shops, and offices.

However, its neighbour, the architecturally-significant 'Greek' Thomson church, is dwarfed by the 20-storey building and its devotees want a rather more radical alteration to the landscape.

Architectural historian and chair of the Alexander Thomson Society, Gavin Stamp, said: "I would much rather the building was demolished. It is a terrible eyesore - far too high and does immense damage to the setting of the St Vincent Street Church. I am not averse to this type of building in principle but where it is located is a disaster."

The church, built in 1859, is one of three [Ed: actually four, including Ballater St Church] in the city designed by Thomson. The remaining two are no longer in use. The architect's Queen's Park project was bombed in 1945 [Ed: actually in 1942] and, following an extensive fire, all that remains of Caledonia Road in the city's Gorbals area is a shell of the former church.

The secretary of the Alexander Thomson Trust, Neil Baxter agreed with Mr Stamp that the best course of action for Heron House would be to knock it down.

He said: "St Vincent Street is Greek Thomson's most impressive church project. It is technically brilliant and amongst Glasgow's top three buildings. Its neighbour is of no aesthetic quality whatsoever."

But architect Jeremy Armitage whose company Armitage Associates were responsible for the city's 1960s Fleming House development, said: "As an example of its type Heron House is not a bad building."

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Royal Fine Art Commission on St Vincent Street tower block plan

Case 010209, February 2001

For the website report, go here. For the complete text of the Commission's comments, email plan@royfinartcomforsco.gov.uk

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Purists' anger over £14m hotel plan

Jim McLean, Arts correspondent, The Herald, 24 February 2001

Admirers of the work of architect Alexander Greek Thomson have joined the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland in criticising plans for a £14m hotel and housing development next to a famous landmark.

St Vincent Street Church, in Glasgow, is listed by the World Monuments Trust as one of its 100 most endangered sites and, despite objections, Glasgow City Council has granted planning permission, with conditions attached, to FM Developments of Edinburgh.

It wants to convert nearby Heron House into a mix of 91 modern residential flats, a 74-bedroom hotel, shops, offices and a restaurant bar on the terrace between the hotel and church.

The RFACS, which advises the government and local authorities, attacked proposals to clad the former Habitat building with silver coloured panels. It says the 1970s structure should be demolished and a new building - more sympathetic to the genius of Greek Thomson's 1859-built church - be designed in its place.

In a letter to the council, Charles Prosser, RFACS secretary, said: "Heron House, now standing empty, presents a construction failure with the ingress of rainwater a serious problem.

"It is not difficult to understand the practical arguments for giving the building a waterproof cladding. Against these arguments, however, must be weighed the overwhelming priority to protect the church and to give it an appropriate setting."

Gavin Stamp, of the Greek Thomson Society and a lecturer in architecture at Glasgow School of Art, last night said he hoped the cladding option would be a "short-lived alternative".

A spokesman for the council confirmed permission for the building had been granted, adding: "So much of architecture is subjective and open to debate."

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£14m hotel next to 'Greek' Thomson church brings 'shame' to Glasgow

Christine Ferguson, Business a.m., 23 February 2001

Planning permission has been granted for a £14m hotel and housing development next to one of the city Glasgow's architectural jewels, despite stinging criticism from a leading heritage group.

An Edinburgh company, FM Developments, has been told it can go ahead with proposals to convert Heron House into a development including 91 flats, a 74-bedroom hotel, a restaurant, bar, shops, offices, and leisure facilities.

The project has been widely criticised, because Heron House is situated next to the historic Alexander "Greek" Thomson St Vincent Street Church in the city centre.

It is listed by the World Monuments Trust as one of its 100 most endangered sites.

The Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland, which gives advice to the government and local authorities, slated the plan for Heron House, which will see the building's walls overclad with silver-coloured aluminium panels.

The commission wanted the 1970s complex demolished and a new, more complementary building constructed in its place.

However, despite the outcry, the city council granted planning approval, subject to conditions, and work is due to start on the site in April.

The secretary of the fine art commission, Charles Prosser, said: "Glasgow should be ashamed.

"On one hand, you have a Greek Thomson church of world importance and on the other a wreck of a building which should have been demolished and now is being reclad."

He added: "This is an attack on the reputation of Glasgow as a civilized city."

Heron House, which used to house a Habitat store on its ground floor, has been vacant for some time.

Kevin Donaldson, an architect with Gilbert Associates in Edinburgh, which designed the capital's Apex Hotel and will be involved in the Glasgow project, said they planned to give the eyesore building a more modern appearance.

He said: "The buildings have lain empty for years and I'm sure the new development will bring life back to this part of the town, 24 hours a day."

No tenants have been earmarked for the development, but it is in the heart of Glasgow's hotel district, close to the Hilton, Malmaison and Forte Posthouse.

Alan Baxter, of selling agent Slater Hogg and Howison, said: "Glasgow is following other post-industrial cities such as Leeds, Nottingham and Sheffield and reclaiming the city centre for residential use."

Nobody from FM Developments was available to comment on the plans.

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Hidden treasure on Sauchiehall Street

Jim Mclean, Arts correspondent, The Herald, 21 February 2001

A Georgian villa is emerging after being entombed in a busy city centre street for more than 140 years.

Architects refurbishing the £10.7m Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow have revealed the house within the more familiar Grecian Buildings that were created by Alexander "Greek" Thomson in about 1860.

Probably owned by a wealthy merchant and built around 1820, the villa was one of several that once lined Sauchiehall Street.

The Grecian Building was built within the gardens of the villa, which has been rediscovered by architects Page and Park hidden behind decades of plasterwork and false ceilings.

Office staff at CCA, who say they had caught glimpses of the hidden villa in the past, have watched in amazement as the full scale of the house became clear.

The substantial two-tier sandstone villa, now covered by a glass roof, stands about 15ft high on iron stilts that were put in place at some time in the past to allow underground excavations.

Two handsome pillars frame the front door, which would have had a flight of steps leading to the garden and on to Sauchiehall Street.

Karen Pickering, project manager with Page and Park, based at the Italian Centre in Cochrane Street, Glasgow, said: "It really is quite exciting to see the villa being revealed after it was entombed within the Grecian Building for so long.

"It must have been a fairly wealthy merchant who owned such a property around the time of the industrial revolution. We don't know who they were and finding such records is very difficult.

"As the city continued to grow, this area became less residential and more commercial. Perhaps this family then moved out to a similar or larger property in the west end."

After two-and-a-half years of renovation work costing £10.7m, the CCA plans to reopen the arts venue in October.

The villa, transformed with the help of £7m lottery money from the Scottish Arts Council, will become the central performance area, and a courtyard cafe will allow visitors to relax in the former gardens. Two new gallery spaces are being created, with state-of-the-art technical facilities, as well as a shop and offices.

Morag Hendry, the CCA marketing manager, said: "The architects have brought together seven different buildings and established one unit under the same roof. By stripping away old walls and ceilings, the beauty and rawness of the original stonework has been revealed.

"The idea will be to come into the CCA, have a stroll around this wonderful old villa, use its garden space, go inside and take a walk overhead on specially built walkways."

In an image taken in the first half of the nineteenth century, an extension to the villa can be viewed "end on", on Scott Street, just up from Sauchiehall Street, near Glasgow School of Art.

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Collapse closes off A-listed building

The Herald, 16 February 2001

A warehouse building in Glasgow designed by the renowned architect Alexander "Greek" Thomson was cordoned off last night after the collapse of some internal walls and flooring.

The A-listed building in Watson Street, near Glasgow Cross, was built in the late nineteenth century and is known as one of Thomson's posthumous buildings because both the plans and construction were probably completed after his death in 1875.

It has been disused for many years and is scheduled for major redevelopment as a mixture of commercial and residential property.

Glasgow City Council yesterday received a report of the collapse and the building was inspected by officers from the building control department.

A council spokesman said: "The building and part of Watson Street have been cordoned off. We were concerned about the safety of the public.

"Our discussions with the technical advisers to the building's owners will continue today in order that a speedy resolution to this problem can be found."

The warehouse was one of a pair - the other has been demolished - completed around 1880 and noted for their giant pilasters, superimposed on subsidiary ones, as well as Greek key incised carving.

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For a return to former glories

Philip Cowan, The Herald, 7 February 2001

Burrell House was undoubtedly once a magnificent home, full of rich architectural detail, but today it lies empty, having suffered years of neglect.

The great shipping magnate William Burrell lived there from 1902 until 1927. However, before he moved in, he had many of the original fittings removed. This was partly to allow him the space to display some of the contents of his vast collection of antiques and works of art from all around the world.

Sadly, it was the cornicing, plasterwork and other Victorian features designed by Alexander "Greek" Thomson that were torn out and lost to posterity.

Thomson's talent has been rediscovered in recent years and his memory is kept alive by a society in his name. All of Great Western Terrace was designed by Thomson around 1867, although it was not completed until a decade later.

With two main storeys, as well as an attic and a basement, Burrell House has a total of 18 main rooms plus a kitchen, and six bathrooms.

Vacant for the past three years, the building was previously used by the social work department as a care home.

Two pillars stand guard at the entrance, while the reception hall has extensive carved wooden panelling designed by Sir Robert Lorimer for Burrell. Much of this is in a poor state of repair, only hinting how impressive the house would have been at one time.

In most of the other rooms there is little more than tired fitted furniture and flimsy doors dating from the 1960s and 1970s that do not enhance the quality of the building.

However, a wide staircase divides to create a gallery landing on the first floor. Some of the balustrades dating from Burrell's stay in the house still remain and these have carvings with an oriental appearance.

Above the gallery landing, a ceiling has been put in. Previously, this would have been open to the cupola, which would have made the gallery a dramatic centrepiece of the house.

There is some rot in the top floor and the basement while the roof has had a few leaks.

Some of Burrell's doors remain and on them there are brass fittings which could be copied to recreate some of the glory of the house.

To the rear of the house is a large fire escape enclosed in a fibreglass construction, which the council insists will have to be removed.

There is also a small garden to the rear of the house, enclosed by a brick wall.

Glasgow council and Historic Scotland would prefer a bid from an individual intending to live in the house themselves. However, the council realise that to make the extensive renovation economical, it may have to be sold to a developer for conversion to a number of apartments.

Eric Curran, a partner with the chartered surveyors DM Hall, says: "From a developer's point of view, the difficulty is the A listing. Anyone considering buying it to renovate and sell will have to do their sums carefully.

"If it were converted into four duplexes, for instance, you could perhaps sell them for about £300,000 each, if they are good apartments with good architectural features.

"However, in addition to the costs of buying the building, you have to add the cost of the renovation, marketing and any profit."

A point against the individual is the prospect of having to do the work quickly.

Curran says: "Private buyers will rarely come in and do it all at once, but a developer will start from day one. For him, time is money."

In the schedule for the building, the council stipulate that they expect the work to begin within six weeks of planning consent being granted and for all the renovation to be completed within a year of the date of entry.

Another possible use would be as an official residence or a combined residential and business use, such as a consulate.

David Simpson of the development and regeneration services department of Glasgow council says: "I think that Burrell House would lend itself well to being some kind of official residence. It is rather big for a single person to live in, but you could successfully combine an office use with a residential use."

A closing date of February 28 has been set for the sale of Burrell House. Offers in excess of £350,000 are invited. For further details, contact the development and regeneration services of Glasgow City Council on 0141 287 8611.

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Bring Glasgow's past to life

Philip Cowan, Sunday Herald, 4 February 2001

It's not often that a Greek Thomson home comes up for sale - even rarer that it's a council house. Philip Cowan takes a look

For those with a strong sense of history and a yearning for some grandeur, Sir William I's first marital home in Great Western Terrace, Glasgow is for sale.

Unlike most of the houses Glasgow City Council sells, it is A listed and was built by the famous Alexander "Greek" Thomson.

Vacated by the social work department nearly three years ago, 8 Great Western Terrace is a magnificent example of the architect's work. It was designed around 1867, although it was not completed until a decade later.

Some have argued that the famous shipping magnate and art collector failed to appreciate what he had bought and spoilt it to an extent after moving in around 1901. Cornices were removed and other alterations were made but the house nevertheless remains an important part of the city's heritage.

With two main storeys, as well as an attic and a basement, the townhouse comprises 18 main rooms plus a kitchen, and six bathrooms.

The council have said that they would prefer a single occupant and Historic Scotland vetoed a developer's plan to convert it into apartments.

An A listing does restrict what a new owner could do, but someone wishing to restore the house to its former glory is sure to get all the help and advice possible.

Thomson's reputation has been revived in recent years and a society has been formed to honour and remember his work.

However, with an asking price of offers over £350,000, the house will require at least the same again to bring it up to a reasonable condition, although the prestigious address, history and design mean there is little doubt that someone will take on this major project.

Further enquiries for 8 Great Western Terrace should be made through Glasgow City Council, call them on 0141-287 8417.

Despite the huge number of Victorian properties in the area, Glasgow's west end remains popular and new developers are finding every possible corner on which to build.

As a result, new developments are still appearing.

In Hillhead, there is one apartment left for sale in the first release of homes at 7 & 8 Alfred Terrace. The three-bedroom flat will have two bathrooms, one en suite to the master bedroom, living room and kitchen. Two further flats are still to be released for sale and will have the same fixed price of £152,000. The first residents are expected to be able to move in this summer.

For further details, call Clyde Property on 0141 576 1777.

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Cash threat to monument plan

Alastair Dalton, The Scotsman, 29 January 2001

Plans to build a memorial to one of Glasgow's most under-rated architects are at risk after a poor response to an appeal for cash.

Fans of Alexander "Greek" Thomson - whose reputation has been largely eclipsed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh - want to replace his original gravestone with a new 6ft monument. But with days to go until a funding deadline, less than of half the £25,000 needed for the scheme has been raised.

The polished black marble monument would replace Thomson's original gravestone at the Southern Necropolis in the Gorbals, which was removed because of vandalism 50 years ago. It would mark the lair where Thomson, his wife and four of their children are buried.

The monument's design, chosen in a competition, won a £7,000 grant last year as part of the Glasgow Lord Provost's Millennium Awards scheme. But work must start on the project by next month to qualify for the cash, and a public appeal has raised less than £2,000.

The Rothschild Foundation has donated £1,000 but only a few other £100 donations have been received.

Fiona Sinclair, secretary of the Glasgow Institute of Architects (GIA), which is organising the project, said it was now faced with a last-minute dash for funding.

She said: "It has been much more difficult than we anticipated. We have tried to get cash from stone contractors and the construction industry but without success.

"We are running out of time. The Lord Provost's awards fund was supposed to have been used during 2000 and they really want us to start by February." Ms Sinclair said the lack of response was ironic considering the major projects under way to restore two of Thomson's major buildings, Caledonia Road Church, near the Southern Necropolis, and the St Vincent Street Church in the city centre.

However, she said the choice of black granite, which will come from Ireland because it is not found in Scotland, may have reduced interest among the building trade.

The Scottish Stone Liaison Group has campaigned for the use of Scottish granite in the new Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh.

However, Ms Sinclair said the grey granite produced here was already commonplace in graveyards and black granite had been chosen because Thomson had used it as a material.

Ms Sinclair said another snag was that Thomson is buried in a less prestigious graveyard than the main Necropolis, beside Glasgow Cathedral.

She said: "If he was in the principal Necropolis, we would not have had a problem."

Ms Sinclair said savings could be made to reduced the memorial cost to £19,000 and the last president of the GIA, Gordon Murray, had offered to underwrite its cost, but this was not a satisfactory long-term solution.

The monument's designers, Ed Taylor, a student at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, and Graeme Andrew, an architect at Page & Park in Glasgow, are working with sculptor Alexander Stoddart on a limited edition plaster medal of Thomson as part of the fund-raising.

Gavin Stamp, the chairman of the Alexander Thomson Society, said: "It's a scandal that Thomson has had his grave left unmarked for so long. Glasgow ought to look after the memory of arguably its greatest architect."

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Architecture: Not all country houses are old

Hugh Pearman, The Sunday Times, 28 January 2001

Robert Adam, the 21st-century classical architect, may not exactly be the commercial equivalent of his 18th-century namesake - the earlier Adam and his great rival, Sir William Chambers, were the Rogers and Foster of their day - but he is doing better than fine. He runs a big office in Winchester and another in London's Savile Row. He employs about 50 staff, has a full order book of commissions and has just won rare government backing to build a new country mansion at Ashley, in Hampshire.

Nor is this Adam, despite the evidence of his conservatively tailored suits and the affectation of gold pince-nez, an architectural throwback. He may be an excellent old-fashioned draughtsman and a noted scholar, but he also deploys computers and mobile phones, has a website, drives the sportier kind of Volvo, and - where other niche-market classicists tend to stick together - he likes to mix it with the modernists. "Architects," he likes to observe, "always have more things in common than they have differences." At the public inquiry into his Hampshire house proposal, he was supported by both Michael Manser, a veteran arch-modernist architect, and by Professor David Watkin, a noted Cambridge architectural historian of the traditionalist variety.

The house - for a wealthy young local farming and landowning family, the Everetts, who live in an existing farmhouse on their huge estate - is inevitably grand, with its Bath stone main block housing the main living rooms and bedrooms, and a subservient, more domestic brick-built wing for the children and nannies.

There is also a separate but linked copper-domed tower - with the main bedroom on top and the estate management office beneath. What with all that and a garage block with servants' quarters over, swimming pool in a large conservatory, tennis court and so forth, it will cost at least £3m to build, and maybe much more. But in investment terms, it's a winner. Arable farmland is worth very little on its own: but landscaped as a 50-acre park with a big house on it, and near affluent Winchester, it will probably be worth £9m or £10m, should its owners ever find themselves strapped for cash. Not that they anticipate this: Tim and Grace Everett, both still in their thirties, say they are building their home for life.

So it may be sumptuous in terms of accommodation, but in design it is, in contrast, rather restrained, scarcely ostentatious in its calm, orderly way. There is no looming power colonnade, no monster pediment, no encrustation of ornament. You get plain pilasters, shallow roofs concealed behind balustrades, large areas of glass, and a little pediment, surmounting the central entrance bay, that is so understated as to be almost unnecessary.

Adam sometimes designs by implication: the proportions of his buildings can suggest an underlying classical order rather than flaunting it. The Hampshire house possesses the slightly stripped, erased quality that you find, for instance, in the houses of the great mid-19th-century Scottish classicist Alexander "Greek" Thomson, or the 20th-century classical work of Sir Albert Richardson. Thomson's Glasgow buildings were startlingly advanced for their time.

"It's a glass box, really," says Adam, in jovial mood. "This is recognising that the classical tradition has to progress, so it takes up where Thomson or Richardson left off."

In a more 18th-century tradition, this is not just a house but a house in a landscape, complete with lawns, formal gardens close to the house, a long vista across arable meadows to lakes in the distance, and the odd pavilion dotted about. But the landscape, by Barton Willmore Environmental, is not made in the way it would have been in planner-free Georgian times. "Whereas in those days landowners would shift the land around, make hills, move woods and so on, today you are not even allowed to uproot a hedgerow. So you have to find the geometry within the land itself," says Adam. Consequently, the house is made to fit the landscape, rather than vice versa. This means it faces northwest, so the main lawn and formal gardens are placed behind it to catch the sun.

Now in his early fifties, Adam has a shock of unruly hair of the kind that, unattended, tends to stick up vertically. He can get noisy, even belligerent, when he senses he is being patronised by the modernists or misunderstood by planners. He does not toady to royalty. He is good company. And - this is where he becomes more difficult for the modernist establishment to pigeonhole - he is not a classical fundamentalist. He sees innovation as the way forward for the style, prefers not to live in a supposed golden age of 18th-century English palladianism.

I have seen a house of his that has slender steel columns, abstract, stainless-steel quasi-Corinthian capitals, and glass balustrades. His Sackler Library, next to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, opening later this year, is an exercise in circular geometry reminiscent of the Swedish early-modern master Erik Gunnar Asplund. In scholarly fashion, Adam gives the library a cylindrical gatehouse based on the Temple of Apollo at Bassae, a building originally excavated by CR Cockerell, architect of the Ashmolean. But in the past he has also designed - just for the fun of it, with no hope of ever seeing them built - classical high-rise housing blocks, linked by high-level bridges, to be dropped into the urban wasteland of Spaghetti Junction in Birmingham. As he points out, classicism readily adapted itself to the dawn of the skyscraper age in America, so why not here? The influences are plain to see, and Adam is as prepared to borrow from modernism as he is from the ancients.

He is very self-aware and knows that the modernist establishment likes and tolerates him but does not subscribe to or even understand his views. Classicism is still a fringe movement, building mostly - as in Hampshire - for the moneyed country set. In a lecture he is due to give in America next week, Adam argues that classical architecture is at present defined and therefore shackled by the modernists, and that it needs to break free of this yoke.

With so many classicists content to live in the past - in other words, on a reservation pegged out for them by the modernists - this is a brave stance to adopt. But Adam knows what will happen if innovation is stifled in his chosen style. "New classicists have painted themselves into a corner, and classicism now carries with it the seeds of its own destruction. There seems only the option of doing the same thing, without progress, a way forward or a future." But in the past, he points out, classicism went through many phases of being new and shocking and always embraced technology as it did so.

Adam wants to revive that progressive, radical attitude. So it is paradoxical that he is growing wealthy principally on commissions from conservative clients who are only too happy to live in the past. He needs a new kind of client to achieve his 21st-century vision. He needs to build commercial office blocks, shopping centres, airports. It sounds highly unlikely, but you never know: if anyone can make it happen, Adam will. And if he does, chances are he will do it in America.

www.robertadamarchitects.com

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Former Burrell home put back on market

The Scotsman, 27 January 2001

It has been one of the most desirable addresses in Glasgow's west end for more than 130 years.

Now the former home of the art collector and shipping magnate Sir William Burrell is back on the market.

Designed by that other favourite son of Glasgow, the architect Alexander "Greek" Thomson, 4 Great Western Terrace, in Hyndland, has a price tag of £350,000. However, it is thought the buyer will need to spend as much again on repairs.

The building, which was formerly used by Strathclyde Regional Council's social work department, was vacated in spring 1998 and put on the market the following year.

Nine offers were received for the 18-room home provided the building could be sub-divided into six or eight flats. But when Historic Scotland blocked the division, the offers came to nothing.

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Burrell mansion back on market

Vivienne Nicoll, Glasgow Evening Times, 26 January 2001

Art collector's plush west end home for sale but new owner will need deep pockets

It was the plush west end townhouse that was home to famous Glasgow art collector Sir William Burrell and his family.

When the family sold the two-storey Greek Thomson house, it went through several changes of use before eventually becoming a Strathclyde Region social work department home for the disabled.

Now Glasgow City Council, who inherited Burrell House in fashionable Great Western Terrace two years ago, are advertising it for sale, and hope it will become a family home again.

All you need to buy it is at least £350,000 - plus another estimated £350,000 to get it back into the condition it was when the Burrells lived there.

The home is where Sir William lovingly displayed some of the priceless art treasures which went on to form part of the Burrell Collection.

Alexander "Greek" Thomson was responsible for the design of the property and Sir William commissioned Robert Lorimer to make extensive alterations.

In the past, the council has received offers in excess of £450,000 from developers who wanted to divide it into luxury flats.

However, Historic Scotland refused to give their backing to the move and said the property had to be retained as a single house.

As a result, the 18-room home is on the market for offers over £350,000.

Council chiefs believe they will have no problem selling the historic property but warn it will cost another £350,000 to return the building to its original condition.

Development and regeneration spokesman Jim Lindsay said: "Burrell House has been lying empty for a couple of years and needs a fair amount of work to bring it back into shape, although Historic Scotland have said they might give grants towards the renovation.

"It will be a stunning place if someone has the finance to do it properly.

"There has already been considerable interest."

Gary Thomson, managing director of Glasgow-based Clyde Property, said: "There will be a lot of interest in this property because it is ranked as one of the top addresses in the west end."

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Licence to print money

Clare Henry, The Scotsman, 17 January 2001

Ral Veroni loves to travel: America, Mexico, Scotland. He arrived in Glasgow by chance and fell for it in a big way. It was an unorthodox odyssey. "I wanted to see the mountains and Glencoe before I returned to South America, so as an excuse said I would visit Glasgow Print Studio for a couple of days as part of my studies," says the Argentinian artist. Three years later, despite working trips to New York, Argentina, Spain and Mexico, he's still there.

Luckily these trips are facilitated by printing money - really. Banknotes form the basis for most of his art - real banknotes gathered from different countries and silk screen overprinted with motifs or texts such as "Run for Your Money". So far he's embellished more than a thousand notes. "I distribute them publicly, swap a 'clean' one for one with a Veroni design, so they circulate by exchange." Now they're circulating in Scotland - and being exhibited at Glasgow School of Art (GSA) as part of a ten-year retrospective.

Tall, dark, articulate and friendly, 35 years old and now lecturing in printmaking at GSA, this avid Partick Thistle fan waxes lyrical about his adopted city.

"For me Glasgow is an exotic place. I find it very inspiring. The architecture is amazing. It's a poet's city. It has a presence. In the evening light the buildings seem to come alive. The rain makes it very elegant, dark and gothic. I've learned a new word, 'foreboding'. That's Glasgow's attraction for me. I want that intensity. Yet people are so talkative and receptive. I feel very welcome here. I've already had a show at Glasgow Print Studio (GPS) and now I'm working on a book set in Glasgow." He's also taking photographs of Glasgow's M8. "It's the new Clyde. The Clyde made Glasgow and Glasgow made the M8."

As artist-in-residence at Glasgow School of Art last year, Veroni had a studio flat perched high up with fabulous views overlooking the city. Here he began a series of Glasgow architectural images, transforming familiar buildings by the addition of huge sculpture.

Veroni also editions his silk-screen prints and monotypes at GPS where he runs a lithography class, paints, writes poems and is the subject of a documentary film by Eduardo Orenstein which has its debut at his GSA exhibition. Its title, Lucha Pro La Vida or Struggle For Life, reflects his reoccupation with money and the complex relationship we all have with it. "Too often we allow money to rule our lives. But it's especially hard for Third World countries like Argentina where inflation is common and a cause of much personal and collective insecurity."

Veroni's banknote oeuvre began in 1991 in response to Argentina's hyper-inflation caused by the political situation. "After the military dictatorships of 1976-83 and the Falklands War, there were terrible atrocities. Then hyper-inflation hit. One day a note would buy a pint of milk; the next half a pint, the following day only a spoonful. You needed a wheelbarrow full of money for a gallon."

But Argentinians, brought up to save, don't throw the notes away. They just lie in drawers or cellars so when Veroni appealed for old banknotes he was inundated. Now he also prints on old 1920s German banknotes plus notes from Croatia and Russia to make his political point. "It's a noble cause. It gives the notes a new life."

Despite his serious mission he uses ironic cartoon characters in eye-catching 1960s extrovert psychedelic colour. "I was aiming to make popular work. The simple message is the one people remember."

Influenced by TV, comics and the rock album covers of his youth, he includes elongated cats, jaguars, cockatoos, foxes and mice-type creatures to comment on corrupt politicians and policies. One image is called Authoritarian Rat; another Ideological Juggling. He sees his animals as beautiful but admits that "many comment on my multicolour monsters, freaks and space Martians."

Professor Jacki Parry of Glasgow Art School explains: "Ral's work is impressive because it's both poetic, personal and political. It's accessible, colourful, humorous and ironic while still being very serious. He's conversant with new and old technologies. The students like him because he has a broad knowledge of the arts: literature, theatre, film, painting, photography - a young Renaissance man."

In a popular Argentinian project called Circus he carried political comment to its ultimate, printing self-adhesive stickers of eyes, horns, mouths and Pinocchio noses, distributing them to people, inviting them to "vote their criticism" by pasting the pink and green, orange and yellow stickers on candidates billboards. This sophisticated version of drawing funny faces on posters proved highly popular as election hopefuls appeared as devils, clowns or lunatics.

Luckily he didn't have to make the jump to Scottish politics all at once. First he received a scholarship to the famous Tamarind Print Workshop in New Mexico, then Bristol University where he made a book called Sophie, in homage to a lost love. Last summer he had a fellowship to New York to make a bilingual book about money, inflation and poverty. "It's called Ave Dollar, looks like a numismatic album and contains 30 original old banknotes." In September he exhibited a money mobile suspended from the ceiling in California. "It looked like it was raining cash," he enthuses. Christmas saw him in Mexico, organising an exchange between Glasgow and two print-workshops there. He says Glasgow students are enthusiastic - perhaps they respond to his gift for grabbing the best out of life. Nowadays, he is working on two art books, one about Buenos Aires, (for which he has funding) the other on Glasgow. They will take the form of a web page as well, with Glasgow's 19th-century architecture, works by Hamilton, Wilson, Mackintosh and his favourite, Greek Thomson, manipulated via digital imagery.

"I want to go beyond traditional printmaking, by combining it with electronic imaging," says Veroni.

These architectural edifices with their sculptural Veroni additions also have a serious side. "They are personifications of good and bad: destiny, time, hope, madness, injustice. There's a great sense of injustice around. You have to consider your audience. I want to find a way to express my ideas for a Scottish public."

Conversant with lithography and silk screen, Veroni's main printmaking medium, however, is artists books - he exhibits a dozen at Glasgow Art School.

He received a good grounding. "My father was an Italian printer who spent his life making artist's books. Like me, he loved literature: Petrarch and TS Eliot, Shelley and Edgar Allan Poe. He got Alzheimer's when I was young so he couldn't teach me everything, but I grew up with the noise of that press and watching him work." His mother is second-generation Spanish. "After the First World War Argentina, like America, was seen as a land of promise. Lots of Europeans emigrated there."

At the moment Scotland is Veroni's own promised land and he's enjoying every minute.

Lucha Pro La Vida is at Glasgow School of Art until 10 February.

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Legends borne out of isolation

The Express, 6 January 2001

Nestling on the edge of the Endrick Water north-west of the Campsie Fells in Stirlingshire, Balfron was a community cut off from the outside world for many centuries.

No doubt due to its isolation until the late 1800s, the village was the subject of many legends, the most spectacular being the periodic disappearance of young children.

Their loss was blamed on wolves who, it was said, came during the night from nearby hills to steal youngsters from their beds. This was why Balfron was subsequently known as "bail-a-bhroin", or "village of mourning". Ever since, a wolf has featured on local emblems.

But the legend seems to have had little affect on the Thomson family of Balfron, who had 24 children - the 17th being Alexander "Greek" Thomson, the Victorian architect.

Balfron's most famous son, Alexander Thomson was known as 'Greek' because of the Grecian influence on his designs which today proliferate throughout Glasgow and the West of Scotland.

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Recently, in a village not so far far away...

Cameron Simpson, The Herald, 6 January 2001

It has a reputation for ferocious, cave-dwelling natives and an inhospitable atmosphere but the infamy has not stopped American tourists confusing the sleepy Stirlingshire village of Balfron with the mythical Star Wars planet of the same name.

In a bid to end the confusion, Balfron Heritage Group has ventured into cyberspace to set up its own website.

Jim Thomson, 50, the chairman of the heritage group, said the group had wanted to promote their village for some time but had been spurred into action by the mix-up.

"I first came across the confusion when I was logging on to the internet to find out more about the village. The first thing I was directed to was a website listing the hundreds of planets in the Star Wars books and movies which featured one called Balfron.

"We get thousands of tourists a year and many of them recognise the name as there are still scores of devoted fans out there.

"I would hate for us to be compared to the planet as it seems a pretty grim place from what I have read. We hope that the new website will encourage people to the much less bleak and far more welcoming Endrick Valley."

As one of the more obscure planets in the original Star Wars trilogy, Balfron features little in movies but is referred to in the second film. Charismatic double-crosser Lando Calrissian is said to have visited a casino there before selling bounty hunter Han Solo to the evil Jabba the Hut.

In an internet guide to the galaxy for fans of the series, the planet is described as being "dark and humid". Bathed in ultraviolet, gamma, and infra-red radiation because of its proximity to the sun, the atmosphere is said to be inhospitable. Its few inhabitants live in underground caves and come out only at night to use their excellent hunting skills.

The planet is a million light years from the village just a few miles from Loch Lomond.

Legend has it that it was called Balfron, which means Bail-a-Bhroin or 'town of mourning', when a number of children from the village were taken away by wolves in the fourteenth century. Local historians now believe they have uncovered evidence the youngsters were killed by Vikings known to be active in the area.

The village, which has a population of 2057, was mentioned briefly in Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped. It remained a small hamlet until 1750, when a cotton mill and weaving business was established by Robert Dunmore, a local landowner.

The village was also where Alexander "Greek" Thomson, the famous architect, had his home.

Carol Murphy, 50, who was involved in setting up the project, said: "I am delighted with the end result. It will hopefully boost tourism and put Balfron on the map.

"We have a lot of Americans and Canadians coming to trace their roots and are curious about the name. Hopefully this will encourage more of the same."

The website is at www.biggar-net.co.uk/balfronheritage

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Millennium Memories: The Grecian Buildings, Sauchiehall Street

Glasgow Evening Times, 2 January 2001

The Grecian Buildings on Sauchiehall Street is one of the most outstanding creations of Glasgow architect Alexander 'Greek' Thomson.

It was one of the few occasions where Thomson was asked to design a building at the corner of a road.

This allowed him to create not only an inspirational front elevation to his work but also to express a depth as well.

Constructed in 1865, the Grecian Buildings, despite its name, is dominated by an Egyptian style.

Built on a modest scale, with only three levels, Thomson chose to use a telescopic effect where each level diminishes in stature as you look upwards.

The large plate-glassed windows of the ground floor were restored in 1988 but still retain an original character while the upper floors contrast well with each other.

The first floor has tall window frames set almost flush with the facade while the uppermost eaves gallery has deeply recessed windows.

The overall effect was considered to be highly experimental and even revolutionary in its day.

The Grecian Buildings indeed helped establish Thomson's reputation as one of the original thinkers in architectural circles during the second half of the 1900s.

And it is the only place in Glasgow where a Thomson creation sits opposite to the city's other famous 19th century architect.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh's masterpiece, the Glasgow School of Art, was built more than 30 years later, further up the Scott Street hill.