Rennie Mackintosh-designed Glasgow school's £250,000 sale approved
Councillors, who backed the proposal at a meeting last week, were told the purchasers intend to invest £1.75m into the restoration of the A-listed property.
This will help to create a 'public museum of Scottish Catholic archives to house artifacts and artworks'. Cllr Ruairi Kelly, SNP, convener for housing and development, said the deal showed the council has the 'best will and intentions' for heritage buildings in the city.
READ MORE: Scottish college unveils Oasis masterclass for fans ahead of reunion tour
It also has 'the ability to find uses for these buildings that help to preserve them for future generations of Glasgow', Cllr Kelly added.
Approving the sale to the Bishops' Conference of Scotland was recommended despite it not being the highest offer received.
Cllr Kelly said: 'Understandably the heritage of Glasgow is really important to all of us, and lots of other people in the city. There was a bit of consternation around this when it was first mooted that it was going to be marketed.
'The intention of the council was always to find a custodian for the building who could give it the care and attention it required and, most importantly, find a productive use for it.
'If we were just looking to make a quick buck, the recommendations in this paper would have been different.
'It would have resulted in a slightly higher capital receipt for the council, but this is the one we believe best served the purpose of maintaining public access and doing the best for the building.'
A council report added the unconditional offer of £250,000 has the 'benefit of certainty, being a cash offer and not being subject to any suspensive conditions'.
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. It was completed in 1898.
It is of 'considerable architectural and cultural significance, being one of the earlier buildings attributed to Mackintosh', the council report added. 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' (St Mungo's RC Church).
A council official said the museum, understood to be on the ground floor, would be open to the public while the rest of the building will house the archive and offices for the Bishops' Conference.
Marketing of the building began in October last year after it had sat empty for 'a considerable time'.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The National
3 hours ago
- The National
If I was John Swinney, here's what I would say to Donald Trump
You might expect me to want the First Minister to boycott a meeting with the current US president. I personally would not have actively sought out a meeting, but heads of state meet heads of state and talking to people you don't like is part of geopolitics. That does not mean prostrating yourself, or complying – but it also doesn't mean grandstanding. This is not a serious meeting and there is nothing at stake. Talk about the weather for a bit and smile for the camera. It won't change US policy. READ MORE: Donald Trump protest planned near mother's birthplace during Scotland visit Of course most of us want to see someone put Donald Trump in his place, but posing is meaningless – it is what you do that counts. So Scotland's First Minister should courteously welcome Donald Trump back to Scotland and otherwise do his best to say as little as possible – while the rest of us make boaking gestures in the background. That does not mean Scotland should treat this current incarnation of the USA passively. The US has not only become an unreliable partner, it is much less important to us than it was. In reality the British establishment is clinging to the US almost wholly because we have degraded our defence capabilities to the extent that we are entirely reliant on the US for defence. There are also sectors of the Scottish economy that heavily export to the US (notably whisky and textiles) and in turn the US supplies us with a number of software systems on which we rely. In terms of access to markets, however, it is China that is manufacturing cost-effective batteries, solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles. We need those more than we need Oreos. And yes the US still controls the global reserve currency, but Scotland is less exposed to 'dollar bullying' since we don't have our own distinct currency. This gives us some leeway to insulate ourselves from the erratic behaviour of the US. First, we should be tasking our economic development agencies to work with producers to diversify their markets. If China, India, Brazil, Mexico and others aren't buying enough whisky then we need to help them because they're clearly missing out. In the turbulent world in which we currently live, any exporter overly reliant on a single nation state is vulnerable. Second, we need to start to develop direct trading relationships with what used to be known as the Brics counties – because they are dominant among the emerging economic players and all of them have large-scale production capacity that links to our needs. We assume that US corporations will always act as go-betweens and we need to stop assuming that. Third, we should look at areas of vulnerability which could be exposed if the US's behaviour gets more erratic still (we're only one eighth of the way through Trump's term and it isn't clear what is coming next). If a nation state has indicated a willingness to use economic blackmail as a policy tool then you should look at where you might have exposure. One example of this is in software. Think of the public sector's ability to operate and now ask what would happen if a technology boycott was ever enacted – it has already been used against China. How would we cope?Other nations are quietly already addressing this weakness. Denmark has dropped public sector use of all Microsoft Office products and is exploring dropping Microsoft more generally. It has shifted to using open source applications such as OpenOffice (which is what we use in Common Weal). France has also shifted much of its public sector IT to OpenOffice (or rather a version known as LibreOffice) and Germany has just announced it is doing the same. Extending this to a logical conclusion it is simply mad that Scotland is relying solely on US corporate AI. Other nations are training bespoke, public-good AI systems which they then own. Scotland should do the same. Fourth, we should start to move our soft power diplomacy. There is almost a reflex reaction that 'overseas' means 'US'. How much more might we get tapping in to diaspora in Canada, Australia and New Zealand? Might a Tartan Week in Bejing achieve more than one in New York? Does the average Indian policy-maker know we exist? We are moving rapidly into a multipolar world and Scotland must adapt. Insulting the US President is frankly a stupid way to do business – but pretending he isn't a threat to our national interests is unrealistic and being inactive in the face of that risk is really dangerous. Scotland shouldn't stand on the steps and waggle its bare bum at Trump even if it makes us feel better. We should suck up the reality of global diplomacy, do what is needed to get Trump out the country without having developed one of his crazy grudge matches – and then we should roll up our sleeves and take concrete action to make sure no nation can ever bully us like this again.
Scotsman
4 hours ago
- Scotsman
Scotland bucks UK manufacturing decline, grows 31% in last decade
A new report from Austin Consultants, an industrial systems integrator, reveals that Scotland's manufacturing community has defied the overall decline in UK manufacturing over the last decade, delivering a 31% increase in combined turnover and a 4% increase in employment. Sign up to our Scotsman Money newsletter, covering all you need to know to help manage your money. Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... While official figures show an 8% real-term decrease in UK manufacturing output since 2014, Austin Consultants' analysis indicates that Scotland is one of four parts of the UK to have achieved growth in the turnover of their manufacturing economies over the last decade. The UK's other manufacturing growth hotspots, where the combined turnover of manufacturing businesses has increased faster than inflation, were the West Midlands, Northern Ireland and Yorkshire & Humber. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Manufacturing employment increased in each of these regions, while factories here also achieved combined productivity improvements of between 9% and 25%. Scottish manufacturers achieved the largest increase in per-worker productivity across the UK, with a 25% rise, resulting in an output of £260,000 per employee in 2024. Chris Thoroughgood, Director at Austin Consultants Austin Consultants' report challenges the narrative of decline in UK manufacturing and highlights multiple pockets of growth where adaptability and innovation have led to significant success. Five out of 16 main manufacturing sectors – food & beverage, medical, wood & paper, fabricated metal, and non-metallic mineral products – have experienced real-term growth in turnover since 2014. Most of these growth sectors have also boosted labour productivity, with manufacturers of non-metallic mineral products achieving the most significant improvements. Across this sector, manufacturers are now 32% more productive per worker than a decade ago. Austin Consultants' report links these productivity gains to digital transformation initiatives, which have accelerated in recent years. The adoption of industrial IoT, robotics, and other technologies has enabled many manufacturers to achieve cost reductions, improve throughput and boost labour productivity by up to 30%. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The report highlights critical challenges to digital transformation, including legacy systems, high initial costs, ROI uncertainty, vendor lock-in, and data management issues, that limit manufacturers' ability to adopt new technologies successfully and outlines a pragmatic, problem-focused approach to help overcome these hurdles. UK manufacturing performance by region since 2014
Daily Mirror
5 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Huge sporting event faces TV blackout for first time in 70 years with no BBC deal agreed
One of the big events in the sporting calendar could end up not being shown on television next year despite its long history with the BBC, with no broadcasting agreement reached yet The Commonwealth Games faces a potential television blackout in the UK. The competition, which started in 1930, is still yet to secure a broadcasting agreement, despite there being a year until its start date. Glasgow will be playing host to the competition in the summer of 2026, 12 years after hosting the event in 2014. The BBC has served as the main broadcaster of the sporting spectacle since 1954, but discussions about an arrangement for next year are still being had. It's been reported that certain BBC executives harbour doubts about the event's ongoing significance, given the declining number of nations prepared to host it. Glasgow was previously confirmed as emergency replacement hosts in September last year, after multiple cities withdrew from hosting, due to financial concerns. Before Glasgow hosted the games in 2014, chiefs at the BBC agreed a broadcasting deal in 2011. When the event was in Birmingham in 2020, an agreement was wrapped up two years prior. According to The Sun, sources close to the BBC claimed "an agreement is still some way off", with other officials at the Beeb also feeling that there is a "waning appetite" for the event. The overwhelming majority of the event's funding now stems from the £100million compensation the Australian state of Victoria provided to Commonwealth organisers following their withdrawal. Both the UK and Scottish Governments declined to guarantee the expenses of staging the event, pointing to broader strains on public spending. Phil Batty, chief executive of Glasgow 2026, offered a brighter picture of the current situation, saying: "This week we have just announced Sky New Zealand as one of our broadcast partners. We also have Channel 7 in Australia, and there will be news on a UK broadcaster later this year." A spokeswoman for the Games also told the Daily Record: "We're in positive discussions with broadcasters across the Commonwealth, including the UK, and further announcements will be made in the months ahead." Scotland First Minister John Swinney has declared his confidence that Glasgow is "well-organised and well-prepared" for a revamped Games that will spark the public's enthusiasm. He said: "All of our experience tells us that, on major events, the people of Scotland – and especially in Glasgow – get engaged." Swinney also supported Glasgow's choice to rescue an event which has faced criticism in certain circles as being an antiquated connection to Britain's colonial history. He told the BBC: "The Commonwealth is still a very important forum for international co-operation and partnership between countries. And, frankly, we need more international co-operation and friendship and collective endeavour in a world that is becoming increasingly fractured." The competition has been dramatically reduced due to financial concerns, with only 11 sports taking place across four locations. Track and field will be hosted at Scotstoun Stadium, rather than Hampden Park, whilst aquatic competitions will return to the current Tollcross facility. The total expenditure for the 2014 competition reached £543m, but this occasion will see just £114-130m allocated. Petria Thomas, chief of the Australian Commonwealth commission, said: "We're incredibly grateful and fortunate that the Scottish have stepped up to the mark here. "It was obviously highly disappointing that the Victorian government pulled out and it left the Commonwealth sport movement in a very difficult position. It's fantastic that the Games will be on in Glasgow. "Obviously a little bit of a different look to them this time with fewer sports which is a shame. But it's the reality of the position that the Commonwealth sport movement was put in, unfortunately."
