Elgin Place Congregational Church Destruction

[JamesMc]

Dem-Master has just about completed the dirty work

[Bruce]

It is funny how they feal they have to remove all traces of the building.

I remember going out to Graham Square to look at the site of the Richard Murphy's scheme (which was to incorporate the facade of the former Hotel) - Anyway Building Control had declared it unsafe & pulled it down, It was completely leveled - I could only just make out the line of it on the ground. Murphy ended up putting back a pastiche of the fascade as part of his scheme.



I suppose if the left the podium - someone might might trip over & hurt themselves.

[Closet Classicist]

Really Bruce?! Didn't realise that but it does explain some sarcastic comments from Alan Dunlop directed towards Richard Murphy. Bit bizzare though. Rebuild something old so you can show off your modern interventions? Bit fetishistic!

Problem with Elgin Place is that, unlike the Graham Square hotel, the portico was simply too massive to be able to economically reproduce it.

[Bruce]

I wasn't suggesting Elgin Place could (or should) be reproduced - Simply commenting on the council's obsession with demolishing things until there absolutely nothing left - Or maybe it's the demolition contractors idea of doing a good job?

I would have thought that if the gable wall looked unsafe - then you would just take down the gable wall. Seems a bit of jump from that, to eradicating all traces of the building.

It's like going to the doctor with a broken wrist & the being told that you should be "put-down", and that your remains should be cremated and scattered to the wind!

[Pgcc93]

I would have thought that if the gable wall looked unsafe - then you would just take down the gable wall. Seems a bit of jump from that, to eradicating all traces of the building.!

Certainly a case of throwing the baby out with the bath water if ever there was one.

[Closet Classicist]

I wasn't suggesting Elgin Place could (or should) be reproduced - Simply commenting on the council's obsession with demolishing things until there absolutely nothing left - Or maybe it's the demolition contractors idea of doing a good job?

I would have thought that if the gable wall looked unsafe - then you would just take down the gable wall. Seems a bit of jump from that, to eradicating all traces of the building.

It's like going to the doctor with a broken wrist & the being told that you should be "put-down", and that your remains should be cremated and scattered to the wind!

:) ha ha ha Bruce! Absolutely! Annoys me even more as the contractors were clambering over the gable wall on Christmas eve without shoring it up and lo and behold it partially collapsed which became a instant pretext for declaring it unsafe. Hey presto demolition. Given how structurally sound the portico was (as demonstrated by it damaging the dem-master rig), the time of year, and how hastily the demolition took place was it any surprise people are thinking this rather suspect? Also why did they have to go through the portico to get to the gable that was on the other side of the building?

[Closet Classicist]

Pgcc93 you were asking the following:

Anyone know the location of the landfill site these once exquisite peices of stonework now lie discarded and broken?
I'd like to grab some images for posterity of this diabolical outrage in their final resting place.

Or as I suspect they have been hurriedly buried in a shallow grave and covered over to save the Heid Yin's any embarrassment not that they have any shame whatsoever

Well there is no landfill site. They are simply backfilling into the basement. A cheapskate approach which means whomever develops the site will have to cart this debris off to a landfill site anyway as there will inevitably be a new basement to form! Anyway what this means is that there are bits and pieces just lying about on top of the spoil. If you walk up Pitt Street from Sauchiehall street you will see a good section of cast iron railing right behind the fence. Also looks like no one wants the Trash sign as its just sitting there forlornly! Doubt site access is easy but you could maybe talk to the contractor about retriving something if they were amenable?

Cheers

CC

[Apollo]

Looks like yet another case of 'Good Governmental Environmental Policy' lumping a further costs on to the last mug in in the chain.

Anyone who dumps commercially in a landfill site has to pay for it, and they pay more now than they used to as there is a landfill tax levied on each deposit. I found this out a while back when the cost of hiring a skip rocketed over the period of a few months.

I'm not saying it's right, but the stuff will probably be dumped at some point, only difference now is folk try and shuffle it around so it's not their responsibility/cost.

[trudger]

a a a

[Apollo]

You have to wonder at the sense of the listing procedure, and just what it is meant to achieve. Examples from some recent documentaries are statements that building owners can't touch their building unless they carry out approved work, which the approvers themsleves say are so expensive that the owners simply can't be expected to foot the massive bill, so the place falls apart. Then there was a renovated castle on the other night, where the owners had to hide the mains sockets in the new floorboards because theey weren't allowed to alter the walls, and for the same reason, they had to suspend curtains for the windows from the new ceiling tha had installed.

The lisiting control process needs to be revised to be more active in allowing building to be preserved, albeit using modern techniques (provided they are sympathetic) rather than being the present 'all or nothing' process that is clearly causing buildings to be lost.

[gap74]

Was talking to someone who is in charge of a B-listed place of entertainment recently, which I'll leave unnamed!

He said that they had a plan to demolish and rebuild it behind a retained facade, and that Historic Scotland had pretty much told them they could do what they want if they chose this route.

On the other hand, if they simply refurbished the building as was, they faced obstacles such as having to retain the period radiators, which he had discovered were only 40% efficient, and vastly inflated the heating bills, in an operation which only just struggled to break even year after year.

Gary

[scotia47]

That is seriously fecked up.

[Closet Classicist]

This weeks Nooks and Corners in the latest issue of Private Eye has a whole chunk devoted to the destruction Elgin Place Congregational Church. Piloti, better known as Gavin Stamp, does not pull his punches. Here are some excerpts though if someone could scan it and get it on line it would be appreciated.

'Such prodigality with its diminishing stock of listed buildings merely confirms that Glasgow's commitment to culture is a sham.'

'all the council cares about is new development and more shops - forgetting that tourists don't come to see modern Glasgow architecture'

'the council now has the impudence to to apply for world heritage status on account of the handful of Mackintosh buildings it failed to destroy in the 1960s and 1970s. For the Philistine councillors, of course, Mackintosh only means tourism and money'

You go girl!

It would be mistake to think that this issue is over folks. There may not be ripples on the surface at the moment, but there are strong currents underneath. It's not going to bring the church back but we might yet get some answers as to events surrounding its demise.

Cheers

CC

[escotregen]

Wow! it just might be that this type of coverage damages Glasgow's prospects of baubles such as World Heritage - and that might be short-term damage, but wee provincial 'cooncilors' love their baubles and this just might make them realise the costs of short changing the citie's heritage

[Bruce]

Oh! I have a feeling this one is going to run & run - and I can't see the council getting away with it scot-free.

It looks like a listed building application has been submitted for the retrospective demolition of the building on West Nile St (the bay horse).

Could be interesting if they have to do the same thing for Elgin Place?