Coplawhill Works falling down

[Flash_Andy]

Was passing in the car today and saw the road was taped off by police, another part of old Glasgow disappears. The rest is to be demolished tonight.

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[glasgowken]

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST

I am totally gutted at seeing that.
The Glasgow way, neglect a listed building until it falls down Bastards.

[Flash_Andy]

Yeah it's a shame..... but hopefully the main part of the Tramway Theatre is unaffected.

[crusty_bint]

What a fukking shame! I guess Scottish Ballet have just gotten thier consent for the site then

[Flash_Andy]

very funny.... they can dance around the rubble

[glasgowken]

That was the original front of the depot building, the arches on Albert Drive were built a few years later.

Forgive me if my sympathies are not with the Tramway Theatre, or GCC, at this time.

[Closet Classicist]

Hello all,

Thank you for posting those images Flash Andy. Though much appreciated it is extremely depressing news as the organisation I am chair of has been conducting a low key (and about to heat up) campaign to save the Tramway Pollokshaws Road facade from intended demolition to pave the way for Scottish Ballet's new HQ.

None of us were particularly convinced of the merits of the new HQ's appearance especially in relation to the neighbouring church. We did not feel it was a good fit with the remainder of the Tramway or that it was worth the loss of this modest, but for the area, urbanistically important building. And as glasgowken states this was in fact the original front of the Coplawhill workshops.

Sadly because the designer William Clark chose to elevate his building in a scottish vernacular many people including Prospect magazine have written it off as unremarkable. Indeed the architects of the new Scottish Ballet HQ unkindly state that it is/was 'halfhearted'. They seem to forget it was noted as worthy when the building was B listed. Or that the Tramway, as a key part of the Glasgow tram network, is a fragment of a time when Glasgow was one of the world's most innovative cities. Or the tremendous social and cultural history (for instance Glasgow Corporation's tramway workers signed up for the trenches in the Coplawhill Workshops and many died at the Somme) that occured in the building. Or that this part of the southside was completely trashed by the urban clearances of the 70's and early 80's and is about to be further undermined by the M74 extension.

Given just how fragmented this whole stretch of the southside, from Govanhill back to the Clyde is, perhaps we should be doing our utmost to save the examples of the built heritage we have left instead of consigning it to the dustbin? There are plenty of gap sites along that route for new build cutting edge design. And anyway as a national body it should never have been contary to Scottish Ballet's aims to utilise a fragment of our cultural past as a basis for building our cultural future. Given how much it gave Glasgow the building did not deserve the contempt it had been treated with of late.

Cheers

Niall

[glasgowken]

The sufficating snobs who wrote off this building haven't the slightest interest in it's history, only the end which suits them personally. I've nothing but contempt for them.

And only a short time after the reopening of Kelvingrove. No doubt the GCC are patting themselves on the back, for being such fine guardians of the city's history.

[scallopboy]

That's a new and novel twist on the Glasgow approach to redevelopment of neglect it until you can get a demolition order; this time it wasn't torched first.

[Closet Classicist]

Yeah since Tramway was refurbished it's been a long stated aim of GCC to find a use for the unoccupied bays. Scottish Ballet seemed to fit that bill but despite having conducted a through search of nearly 200 locations for their potential new HQ and then selecting Tramway as the best one, Scottish Ballet have had a weirdly ambigious relationship to, if not downright contempt for, it.

The current proposed HQ is their second attempt to move to Tramway. The first ended in tears as they tried and failed to evict the contemporary artists from one of Europe's best exhibition spaces. They had no interest then in the unrefurbished part of the building and instead came up with the stunningly imaginative proposal to turn Tramway 2 into their scene workshops presumably on the grounds that someone else had done all the hard work to refurbish it and therefore it made life easy for them.

This time around Scottish Ballet had no option but to go for the unoccupied bays and surprise surprise suddenly the accomodation was not fit for their purposes. Bizarre really when you consider just how robust Tramway's simple and elegant industrial architecture has been for so many other cultural purposes. I didn't hear Andy Goldsworthy, or Peter Brook, or DV8 complaining. Or Scottish Ballet propsing to demolish the refurbished section when they were wanting to nab that. Instead they unequivocally and uncompromisingly stated that these parts of Tramway had to be demolished or else, gun held to head, they weren't coming to the southside. I'm sure this option couldn't have had anything to do with them being in a listed building with maintenance problems in the west end for years, or that they'd have to pay 17.5%VAT for the refurb whereas new build is zero rated. Utterly cynical. Really this national body seems to have forgotten whom its there to serve.

[Flash_Andy]

Sorry depress you guys but here are some more pictures......of the demolition

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[glasgowken]

What a pity those responsible for it's neglect, weren't in it at the time. I'd throw Scottish Ballet in as well, for being such contemptible bastards.

Is the whole facade coming down, is there even a tiny hope that the damaged bit can be rebuilt, and the rest made sound ? (Of course not, but I have to ask)

[Flash_Andy]

I think the chanes are ZERO, The wall had become totally detached from the roof and the roof looked as though it was about to collapse as well.

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Look at the dip in that roof

[red_kola]

What a pity those responsible for it's neglect, weren't in it at the time.

As it's a part of the Tramway site, one would presume that that would be GCC neglecting its own buildings until they fall down. TOTAL FUCKING CUNTS!

[glasgowken]

If the will was there, it could be saved, of course the will isn't there.

They did spend a pretty penny on that pouncy garden out the back. Common sense would suggest that your roof, is more important than the back green