Latest news with #ScottishCatholic
STV News
8 hours ago
- Business
- STV News
Rennie Mackintosh building to be sold and turned into museum
A Charles Rennie Mackintosh-designed former school in Townhead is set to be sold by Glasgow City Council and turned into a Scottish Catholic museum. The Bishops' Conference of Scotland are expected to take over the old Martyrs' School on Parson Street if a £250,000 deal is backed by councillors this week. It is planning to invest £1.75m in the A-listed property to create a 'public museum of Scottish Catholic archives to house artefacts and artworks', a council report reveals. While not the highest bid received, council officials have recommended it for approval 'given the overall merits'. They add the unconditional offer of £250,000 has the 'benefit of certainty, being a cash offer and not being subject to any suspensive conditions'. Two other bids met the same criteria but were for commercial letting of workshop space, with some public exhibition space, and their occupation was 'not guaranteed'. Cllr Ruairi Kelly, SNP, the council's convener for housing and development, said the plan was 'great news for an important piece of Glasgow's built heritage'. 'Without marketing this building, we would not have found such a positive outcome that not only secures investment but opens it to the public,' he said on social media. The three-storey school building was designed for the School Board of Glasgow by Charles Rennie Mackintosh while he was an assistant at architectural firm Honeyman and Keppie and completed in 1898. It is of 'considerable architectural and cultural significance, being one of the earlier buildings attributed to Mackintosh', the council report adds. Used as a school and college until the early 1970s, the building has since been an arts centre and then council offices. The Bishops' Conference of Scotland's plan for the property also includes some office space, and 'proposes to link the subject to their existing ownership on the opposite side of the street'. Marketing of the building began in October last year after it had sat empty for 'a considerable time'. Five compliant bids were received by the closing date in March this year. The council report adds: 'It is proposed the subject will undergo a sensitive restoration and will have the prospect of a meaningful future as part of its local community.' Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
The Herald Scotland
3 days ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Landmark building by renowned Scottish architect sold
When Glasgow City Council put the Martyrs School on the market for sale last year, it had to move to reassure heritage experts concerned over its future in a city struggling with its difficult-to-keep heritage. External features are in view. (Image: Newsquest) The A-listed Martyrs' School, completed in 1898 and named after Church of Scotland Covenanters executed in 1684 at Townhead, is one of the earliest buildings attributed to Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Now, in an exclusive article by Craig Williams, it is revealed the building that last operated as a school in the 1970s and was most recently used as offices, is to be sold to the Bishops' Conference of Scotland and will become a public museum of Scottish Catholic archives, housing artworks and artefacts. The sale is set to be approved by a committee within days. Also building will be sensitively refurbished through a £1.75 million works programme, funded by the Bishops' Conference of Scotland, who will pay £250,000 in the sale. The Bishops' Conference of Scotland also owns St Mungo's Church and retreat on the opposite side of Parson Street. READ MORE: Craig also pointed to the negotiations over the use of another Mackintosh building - the Lighthouse, which was home to The Herald for 112 years - as a location to help climate tech firms grow after a committee gave the green light to the proposal. The council said it was to begin talks with Sustainable Ventures (Scotland) Limited on a long-term. The Lighthouse is one of Mackintosh's most celebrated architectural gems. Stuart Robertson, director of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society, said that "on paper, this sale looks a good fit for Martyrs' School and being used as a public museum'. He also told The Herald: "I am delighted to see that it will be sensitively refurbished through a £1.75 million works programme, funded by the purchaser. It would be good to see more details of this and the planned timescale." Dominic d'Angelo, chair of the Alexander Thomson Society, celebrating another renowned Scottish designer, raised an interesting idea when he wrote in The Herald last month that: 'Maintenance, especially for listed properties, comes at a cost, as the council has identified in recent discussions in Westminster, identifying some 60-plus properties that could benefit if the requirement for repairs to be subject to VAT could be lifted. 'Doing so could enable re-purposing older buildings to address Glasgow's – and other cities' – urgent housing needs and to repopulate the city centre, as well as benefiting organisations such as ours seeking to ensure a positive outcome for buildings by the many talented architects that have contributed so much to Glasgow's urban environment and streetscape.' He also said: 'As a society, we have consistently raised concerns with the council over the church's condition and future, alongside that of other buildings, including planned development next to Grecian Chambers in Sauchiehall Street and current repairs to the Buck's Head Building in Argyle Street.' Maintaining public buildings brings its own set of challenges for councils. So, the new arrangement for the former Martyrs' School building looks like a positive long-term move.
The Herald Scotland
4 days ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
£60m proposals for over 500 student flats backed by planners
Glasgow City Council is 'minded to grant' the new purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) development at the disused site at Carrick Street in the Broomielaw regeneration area. The development will retain the adjacent Glasgow Mission building, which "has been woven into the PBSA design concept to complete the city block". The plans are for around 21 storeys. (Image: LIV) The Carrick Street development will deliver 'high-quality accommodation designed to meet the needs of Glasgow's growing student population, while contributing to the wider regeneration of the Broomielaw and River Clyde Waterfront'. The proposal is located to promote bus, cycle and pedestrian use. Sustainability and low carbon credentials will also help Glasgow City Council and the Scottish Government meet its net zero and climate emergency ambitions, the developer said. Located just north of the River Clyde and within easy reach of key university campuses, the site sits in an area that has seen significant investment and transformation in recent years. The development is expected to enhance local vibrancy and further support Broomielaw's emergence as a dynamic, mixed-use neighbourhood, with improved east-west pedestrian links through the site, a south facing landscaped courtyard with seating and active ground floor commercial frontage. David Saunders, managing director, Valeo Management Europe, said: 'We're proud to have secured this key step forward in delivering our first LIV Student development in Scotland. 'This milestone follows a collaborative design and planning process with Glasgow City Council, and we're grateful for the constructive iterative engagement that has helped shape a scheme we believe will make a positive and lasting contribution to the city. 'Broomielaw and the wider River Clyde Waterfront are undergoing an exciting period of regeneration, and we're proud that our development will support that transformation - not only by helping to meet the growing demand for high-quality student accommodation, but also by contributing to placemaking and acting as a catalyst for further investment in the area.' Construction is anticipated to begin in March 2026, with the first students expected to move in by September 2028. Mackintosh building to be sold by council for use as museum One of the earliest buildings attributed to Charles Rennie Mackintosh is to be sold for use as a museum, The Herald can exclusively reveal. The Martyrs' School in Glasgow's Townhead is to be sold by Glasgow City Council to the Bishops' Conference of Scotland to be used as a public museum of Scottish Catholic archives, housing artworks and artefacts. The sale is due to be approved by the council's Contracts & Property committee next week. The Herald understands that the category A-listed building will be sensitively refurbished through a £1.75 million works programme, funded by the Bishops' Conference of Scotland, who will pay £250,000 in the sale. AROUND THE GREENS ⛳ Scotland's first indoor golf facility still going strong This article appears as part of Kristy Dorsey's Around the Greens series Indoor golf dates back to 1896, when famed Scottish professional Willie Dunn started an indoor golf school on 42nd Street in New York City as a wintertime instructional activity for women in athletic clubs.
The Herald Scotland
4 days ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Mackintosh building to be sold by council for use as museum
The sale is due to be approved by the council's Contracts & Property committee next week. The Herald understands that the category A-listed building will be sensitively refurbished through a £1.75 million works programme, funded by the Bishops' Conference of Scotland, who will pay £250,000 in the sale. In addition to becoming a public museum, The Martyrs' School will also feature office space - meaning the vacant heritage building will become fully occupied once more. READ MORE: Council will seek Martyrs' School condition assurances from buyer The three-storey former board school is located on Parson Street in Townhead, on the same street where Mackintosh was born in 1868. It was designed by Mackintosh for the School Board of Glasgow when he was an assistant at Honeyman and Keppie architectural firm. Completed in 1898, The Martyrs' School is one of a group of important buildings by Honeyman and Keppie dating from the mid 1890s - others are the Glasgow Herald buildings and Queen's Cross Church - in which Mackintosh's distinctive contribution to the work of the firm can first be clearly seen. The design includes some unorthodox features, particularly the roof timbers, which suggest that Mackintosh took a leading role in the project. The Martyrs' School was given statutory protection as a listed building in December 1970. The threat of demolition in 1973–4, for a road scheme, galvanised opposition, not least from the newly-founded Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society, a pressure group established to raise awareness of the Mackintosh legacy and campaign for its preservation. Interior of Martyrs' School in Glasgow's Townhead (Image: Colin Mearns) After closing as a school in 1973, it has since served as a museum, offices for staff displaced during the restoration of Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, and, latterly, the home of Glasgow City Council's Social Work Leaving Care Services. In June last year it was declared surplus by the council, who said it could find no use for the building. A marketing exercise for the disposal of the building was then carried out between October 2024 and March 2025. The Herald understands that three bids for The Martyrs' School met the necessary criteria, with the other two bids being for commercial letting of workshop space with some public exhibition space. The Bishops' Conference of Scotland also owns property on the opposite side of Parson Street – St Mungo's Church and retreat. Commenting on the news, director of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society (CRMS) told The Herald: "On paper this sale looks a good fit for Martyrs' School and being used as a Public Museum of Scottish Catholic archive, housing artworks and artefacts, there might be an opportunity for some public access to the building. "I am delighted to see that it will be sensitively refurbished through a £1.75million works programme, funded by the purchaser. It would be good to see more details of this and the planned timescale." In February, the council revealed that negotiations were set to begin over the use of another Mackintosh building - the Lighthouse - as a location to help climate tech firms grow after a committee gave the green light to the proposal. The council said it was to begin talks with Sustainable Ventures (Scotland) Limited on a long-term lease for the 88% (5,424 sq ft) of the floorspace in the building that the council owns. Sustainable Ventures (Scotland) Limited have 130 climate tech startups co-located at their HQ workspace in London, and support over 700 climate tech SMEs across the UK. The Lighthouse – which was home to The Herald for 112 years - is one of Mackintosh's most celebrated architectural gems, and was formerly Scotland's centre for architecture, design and the city. However, it closed temporarily at the start of the pandemic and never fully reopened. A council review of the use of the building failed to find a long-term, sustainable use of the building for council purposes. Speaking at the time, Councillor Ruairi Kelly, Convener for Built Heritage and Development at Glasgow City Council, said: "I'm delighted that negotiations on bringing the Lighthouse back to full life have been given the go-ahead. This is a Charles Rennie Mackintosh classic which has been seeking a new purpose over a number of years. Plans to use this architectural gem to provide space for hi-tech start-ups is exactly the type of project which can revitalise this great building."
The Herald Scotland
22-04-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
A new Pope needs to visit Scotland and wake up our sleepy bishops
Thank God the Protestant Reformation came along to introduce a bit of order and rectitude to this Roman bacchanal. Following the Reformation in Scotland, it took another three centuries or so for the Scottish Catholic hierarchy to be restored. And, having learned its lesson, the new Scottish Catholic church seemed a bit less inclined towards its old medieval theatricality and corruption For a few decades it would be heavily influenced by Ireland from where many of the missionary priests came across to help us get back on our feet. Read more By the time Pope John Paul II paid us a visit in 1982, the Catholic Church in this country was most decidedly Scottish. Moreover, its prelates were, as one old newspaper journalist put it, 'either punters or the sons of punters'. They were all rooted in the communities which reared them and conveyed the authority of Rome with reassuringly working-class cadences. You could have a drink with them. During that golden age of the Catholic Church in Scotland its main figurehead was Archbishop then Cardinal Thomas Winning before his death in 2001. The Cardinal was a charismatic and no-nonsense son of a Wishaw miner who bore his eminence lightly. He also seemed to take every criticism of the Catholic Church personally. Him and his lugubrious aide de camp, Monsignor Tom Connelly, were regular visitors to every newspaper and broadcast outlet in Scotland where they'd discuss the church's position on the matters of the day with assorted editors and executives. Whisky would be taken. No political and social issue was considered out of bounds by Cardinal Winning. He once phoned me personally on the old Herald news desk to express his fury at what he considered the racist abuse of refugees in the north of Glasgow. 'Can we get this story to ourselves,' I asked him. 'Only if you promise to make it the splash,' he replied. He defended Scotland's Catholic schools as though his very life depended on it, arguing that they were centres of excellence which raised the expectations of families in some of Scotland's most deprived communities. He also rebuked the Labour Party in Scotland for taking its large cohort of Catholic voters for granted and laid the groundwork for their migration to the SNP by courting Alex Salmond. Read more The Scottish Catholic hierarchy's relationship with Rome since then has tended to proceed on a 'steady-as-she-goes' basis. So long as the schools are being protected and the activities of swivel-eyed, Latin Mass fanatics are kept at a safe distance we can all be left in peace to make our daily compromises with the secular state. Lately though, the dynamic has shifted in the hierarchy. As Pope Francis embraced the world and all of its peoples and their human concerns, the Scottish Catholic church has curiously retreated into an exclusive, platinum lounge version of itself. Last year, its widely-respected and long-serving Press Officer departed quietly. There are no current plans to replace him. For the first time in many decades, the Church has no official relationship with the media. There's also been a resurgence of media and political attacks on Catholic schools as some bad actors in civic Scotland seem to have sensed that the bishops are asleep at the wheel. Catholic teachers are desperately seeking guidance on how to maintain authentic Catholic values as they face pressure to succumb to gender ideology. The Scottish Catholic Education Service (SCES) is woefully unfit for purpose. In the university sector, some Catholic academics are beginning to feel heat for upholding their faith-based beliefs. Earlier this year, I attended the annual Cardinal Winning Lecture, organised by the St Andrews teaching foundation for Catholic education. This is normally an opportunity to hear the thoughts of political leaders and global academics on the faith/society interface. This year's event was a depressing affair, featuring eight (or maybe nine) academics and Catholic panjandrums all telling each other how grand life was. The only permitted question from the floor was a long, self-satisfied statement of the obvious from Archbishop Leo Cushley. It was, quite literally, a waste of everyone's time. A few years ago, a group of lay people in the archdiocese of Edinburgh were effectively ordered to cease their activities simply because they'd asked why some recent senior appointments had been filled by priests belonging to a little-known society of Opus Dei types. When Francis' successor is elected, he'd do well to make another visit to Scotland. The Scottish bishops are all good men who have worked hard to restore the church's reputation following its lamentable cover-up of historical, sexual abuse. Right now though, their assorted eminences could be doing with a gentle wake up call.
