Record number of historic Scottish buildings added to 'at risk' list

A UK charity says it has added a record number of neglected and threatened historic buildings in Scotland to its heritage risk list.

Save Britain's Heritage has put 42 properties on its Buildings at Risk register, a move that almost doubles the number of Scottish entries.

The charity said the fire and subsequent demolition of Glasgow's Victorian-era Union Corner "graphically illustrated" a wider crisis in protecting historic buildings.

The new entries include the early 20th Century Metering House at Lower Glendevon Dam in Perth and Kinross, East Dunbartonshire's A-listed Lennox Castle Hospital - where pop singer Lulu was born - and Aberdeen's Woolmanhill Hospital.

Save's conservation officer Lydia Franklin said Scotland was famous for its architects Charles Rennie Mackintosh, from Glasgow, and Kirkcaldy-born Robert Adam, and its heritage deserved "fierce protection".

"Yet threats to Scotland's built environment persist – from emergency works that risk flattening more than necessary, to the slower but just as deadly issues of neglect and decay," she added.

Heritage engagement manager Amy Popham, who is in charge of the volunteer effort behind the register, said: "As the record number of nominations we've received this year demonstrate, these buildings are held in huge affection by the people whose lives they enhance.

"They believe these buildings are worth fighting for and so do we."

She said the charity hoped people would come forward with creative ideas to save and reuse the properties.

From elsewhere in the UK, nine properties in Northern Ireland have been added to the register, along with 14 from Wales and 143 from England.

They join about 1,500 properties from across the UK already listed.

Some of the more than 40 new entries have fallen into ruin, while others are empty and in a state of decay, according to Save.

They were nominated by the public, conservation professionals and local authorities.

The new additions to the register include the former Odeon Cinema in Edinburgh's Clerk Street.

It was designed by cinema architect WE Trent and opened in 1930. It has been described as the best surviving Art Deco-style cinema in Scotland.

Save said Glasgow's 1960s Scottish Ambulance Service Building was a "rare and striking" example of British modernist architecture designed by architects Skinner, Bailey and Lubetkin.

The charity said Berthold Lubetkin pioneered the modernist movement in Britain and was responsible for some of the country's most famous 20th Century projects, including London Zoo's Penguin Pool.

Aberdeen's Woolmanhill Hospital was originally founded in 1742, but the building on the site today followed rebuilds and extensions between the 1830s and 1880s.

The Metering House at Lower Glendevon Dam was built in the early 20th Century and had housed electricity meters.

Save said the "charming" property looked small from the outside but felt much larger inside.

It added that its meters were apparently stolen in 2016.

Lennox Castle Hospital began life as a mansion, built between 1837-41 in Scottish Baronial style by architect David Hamilton.

In the 20th Century it was used as a hospital and maternity unit, but it has been empty and deteriorating since 2002.

Inverness' former Eastgate Hostel and Rosehall House in Lairg are also on the updated list.

Save said there were also "fantastic examples" of buildings being rescued and reused by community groups, preservation trusts and businesses.

They include The Briggait, Glasgow's fish market for a century, being restored and transformed into a home for creative businesses and events.

Edinburgh's once-empty Granton Railway Station has been "painstakingly" restored and adapted into a creative workspace.

Save said North East Scotland Preservation Trust was working to restore maritime and industrial buildings at Portsoy's Old Harbour, while Friends of Tarlair had restored a seawater lido's Art Deco cafe in Macduff.