Beco Building

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Beco Building

Postby Schiehallion » Fri Feb 23, 2007 12:35 pm

Main story in today's (23rd Feb) Evening Times. A £300m development of Tradeston into flats and shops is threatened because Historic Scotland say the B-listed building on Kingston St must be preserved as part of Glasgow's riverside warehouses heritage.

Good on you Historic Scotland. The Evening Times is raging because the regeneration of Tradeston is threatened. Regeneration my arse. For regeneration read "throw up yuppy flats then throw up traffic barriers to restrict people's movements in the area."

Anyone else fed up with this Emperor's New Clothes-type of 'regeneration'. Once I see pubs, shops and restaurants littering the Clydeside I'll believe it is regenerated. It needs a whole lot more than yuppy flats and posh HQ's.
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Postby Pgcc93 » Fri Feb 23, 2007 12:53 pm

you can almost smell the scent of a freshly struck match in the vicinty of the Beco building! 8O

There was an artist's impression of the Tradeston regeneration over on SSC ages ago and it doesn't require much of an imagination to guess what it looked like either :roll:
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Postby Schiehallion » Fri Feb 23, 2007 1:55 pm

Pgcc93 wrote:There was an artist's impression of the Tradeston regeneration over on SSC ages ago and it doesn't require much of an imagination to guess what it looked like either :roll:


Aye that's in The Times too. The usual Benidorm-style flats, people out strolling with wee dugs, luxury yachts on the Clyde and not a hoody in sight. And I bet the Royal's special care unit is empty too!
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Re: Beco Building

Postby Fat Cat » Fri Feb 23, 2007 3:42 pm

Schiehallion wrote:Anyone else fed up with this Emperor's New Clothes-type of 'regeneration'. Once I see pubs, shops and restaurants littering the Clydeside I'll believe it is regenerated. It needs a whole lot more than yuppy flats and posh HQ's.


completely and utterly fed up. Almost as fed up with that as with the Times's "clean up Glasgow" campaign by which they mean the city centre. Perhaps if GCC employed some street sweepers instead of having those shitty wee litter lorries (what are they called anyway?), the streets might actually look a bit better.
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Re: Beco Building

Postby dazza » Fri Feb 23, 2007 4:30 pm

Fat Cat wrote:Perhaps if GCC employed some street sweepers instead of having those shitty wee litter lorries (what are they called anyway?)


Hoovers
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Postby glasgowken » Fri Feb 23, 2007 5:09 pm

GK
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Postby mr moto » Fri Feb 23, 2007 5:17 pm

an eyesore !!! the evening times should go have a wander around glasgow and look at the real eyesores , overpriced shoddily built designer glass f*****g boxes EVERYWHERE . it seems that we, or do i mean the cooncil are hell bent on repeating the mistakes of our not so distant past , i truly despair at the mess we are making of our city . :evil: :evil: :evil:
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Postby gap74 » Fri Feb 23, 2007 8:04 pm

This truly is rich coming from the paper which criticised the demolition of Partick Station the other week, yet this week they're demanding that an old building be swept away?

It's possibly one of the most uncritical, pro-developer pieces I've read for quite some time, there was no comment from anyone who might be in a position to defend the building. Are they really trying to convince us that this massive project will suddenly be rendered financially unviable just because this one building can't be demolished? To me, the whole threat that this might mean the project won't go ahead smacks of a developer throwing a hissy fit, and shame on Glasgow City Council for siding with them on it - if any of us were still in any doubt whatsoever about the council's attitude to our built heritage, this should finally confirm the worst.

I can't believe that they really think that a totally new, sterile and, frankly, bland development is preferable to one which incorporates older structures which have a bit of character and history behind them. I'm no architect or structural engineer, but the building looks both solid and easily adaptable to me. They knew a B-listed building was there when they undertook the plans, why did they just presume that they would be allowed to flatten it instead of designing a scheme that incorporated it from the start? Wouldn't be because there's a larger profit to be made in a newbuild, would it, or am I being cynical in thinking that developers might be greedy sods?

Good on HS for insisting it stays too, had demolition been permitted, then it really would just pose the question of why bother to list buildings at all?

Rant over, this really annoyed me when I picked up the ET at lunchtime today!

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Postby Osiris » Fri Feb 23, 2007 10:27 pm

It always makes me laugh when i hear the term 'yuppy flats' being thrown around, are we still living in the eighties? Most of the new developments are occupied by students or dss tennants (ok maybe not owner-occupied).

as for the beco building... tear it down, its not exactly of architectural merit, reclaim the bricks if needs be and use them on something more interesting. what other purpose can the building serve in this day and age?

don't mean to be cynical, but the area is in dire need of regeneration of any kind. Lets face it, its the first impression a lot of people have when entering glasgow central on train and its pretty grim.

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Postby Pgcc93 » Sat Feb 24, 2007 12:45 am

Osiris wrote:
don't mean to be cynical, but the area is in dire need of regeneration of any kind. Lets face it, its the first impression a lot of people have when entering glasgow central on train and its pretty grim.

J


have to agree that regeneration is long overdue to rid it of all those souless Cash & Carry sheds that predominate the area.
The surviving buildings like Beco and that other one that's situated near the old Euroyachts premises that was turned into flats a few years back are the only redeeming features in that locale.

Have you actually seen the proposals for Tradeston? I have.
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Postby Schiehallion » Sat Feb 24, 2007 8:51 am

Osiris wrote:It always makes me laugh when i hear the term 'yuppy flats' being thrown around, are we still living in the eighties? Most of the new developments are occupied by students or dss tennants (ok maybe not owner-occupied).


Most of the yuppy flats? I'd never have guessed that. So what are the figures?

With all due respect to those mentioned (in other words someone's about to get slagged), filling yuppy flats with those you mention, if that is indeed the case, still hardly qualifies as regeneration.

By the way, the word 'yuppy' is in the dictionary, it can be used outwith the eighties. In fact most of the words you used in your sentence are older than the 1980's!
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Re: Beco Building

Postby Schiehallion » Sat Feb 24, 2007 8:53 am

Fat Cat wrote:Almost as fed up with that as with the Times's "clean up Glasgow" campaign by which they mean the city centre. Perhaps if GCC employed some street sweepers instead of having those shitty wee litter lorries (what are they called anyway?), the streets might actually look a bit better.


Excellent point. Sometimes I think we forget the best way of doing a job is often the simple way. It worked for years.
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Postby Osiris » Sat Feb 24, 2007 3:21 pm

Schiehallion, I can't produce figures for my argument but I do live in the area and from what I can tell there is a significant population of young students living in the 'yuppy' flats. Plus my SO happens to work for GCC Housing Benefits and they do pay out on quiet a lot of new flats.

Regeneration has to start somewhere and your not going to attract restraunts and bars if there is no-one living in the area.

I walked past the beco building earlier today and its in a right state, anyone know who owns it?

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Postby Schiehallion » Sat Feb 24, 2007 7:15 pm

Osiris wrote:Regeneration has to start somewhere and your not going to attract restraunts and bars if there is no-one living in the area.


I hope you're right but I'm pessimistic about it. All I see nowadays in new housing developments are barriers, retractable bollards, residents only parking signs, controlled entries, 'exclusive' names like 'The Grove' or 'The Willows' which have nothing to do with the surrounding community. (What's the latest one I saw, oh aye 'Parklands'. Parklands my arse, it's South Nitshill!) I just see people scurrying home with not even a need for a corner shop because whatever isn't in the boot of the Astra can be bought online later.

And the saddest part is, if anyone dares to seek to build pubs and restaurants then my bet is that nimbyism will kick in big time.

As I say, I hope you're right. I'd love to see a Clydeside like say the Liffey in Dublin with people criss-crossing bridges to get from one pub to another or the riverside cafes of Prague's River Vltava. I tried to park my car on the south side of the river near the squinty bridge when going to a gig in the SECC last month. It was a ghost town. A cold, shiny, sodium lamp ghost town. I didn't leave my car because it was too bloody quiet and obvious. Some regeneration that when your car's safer with the neds in the town!
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Postby gap74 » Sat Feb 24, 2007 8:13 pm

A follow-up article in the weekend edition of the Evening Times today, this quote from Steven Purcell, leader of Glasgow City Council, particularly tickled me:

"We have a good record of preserving our heritage in important buildings but I don't believe the Beco building is a significant example of that."

Good record, ha-ha, that's a good one...!
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