Scottish Awards for Quality in Planning 2000
Commendation for development on the ground
31. REDEVELOPMENT OF ST ANDREWS SQUARE GLASGOW THROUGH HISTORIC BUILDINGS GRANT AID
nominated by Glasgow City Council & Scottish Enterprise Glasgow.
St Andrew's Square lies to the south east of Glasgow Cross, the historic heart of the City. Through the commitment of the City Council to save and restore a major historic building, a remarkable transformation has taken place in a rundown area of the city. Not only has a whole square been rejuvenated, but the standard and quality of the project serves as an inspiration to other flagging historic inner city areas. The increased confidence in this area, as a result of the St Andrew's Square development, inspired Glasgow's 1999 Homes for the Future to be located on an adjacent site. All this from a promise by Glasgow City Council to save and financially back the restoration and reuse of an 18th century former church.
This was achieved by use of the Council's Historic Building Grant Aid scheme which helps to raise the standard of historic building restoration and to lever funding from other sources. Although the budget for the scheme is small, by careful targeting it achieves a remarkable leverage rate of 1:15 by attracting other funding towards historic buildings in the City. The restoration of the church attracted the largest single amount of Historic Building Grant from Glasgow City Council, on the understanding and knowledge that this would generate substantial external funding for the restoration of the church building, which would in turn be the focus for the regeneration of the whole square and beyond. The comfort of being able to supply funding from this budget allowed the City Council to make an early commitment to save the church. In turn this gave increased confidence to all the other parties involved to make a commitment to the whole development.
The square surrounds the category "A" listed former St Andrew's Church near the historic centre of the City of Glasgow. The church was begun in 1739 in an area of green fields and completed in 1756. It was modelled on London's famous St Martin's-in-the-Fields and was the city's first totally new church since the Reformation. In 1745 Prince Charles' army encamped around the rising walls of the church on the way back from its disastrous invasion of England. The square itself was laid out in 1787 and quickly became the fashionable residence for the tobacco lords and merchants before the expansion of the city and the westward movement of the wealthier citizens in the 1800s. Although the church continued to serve the needs of the local population the area sadly degenerated and in the 1900s the once fine residences became gap sites and poorly maintained workshops and warehouses. After almost 240 years of continuous use as a church, the last service was held in June 1993 when the congregation merged and the building, which was described as one of the top six classical churches in the UK, was then considered to be at risk. Its ownership was transferred to Glasgow Building Preservation Trust in the hope that a new use could be found as the prospect at that time of creating St Andrew's Square with a new housing development would be non-existent if steps were not taken to secure a future for the building.
After a century of decline, the tide of change has brought new life back into this historic part of the city. The decision to retain and restore the former St Andrew's Parish Church into a venue for Traditional Scottish and Early Classical Music was the catalyst for the total redevelopment of St Andrew's Square. Where possible existing listed buildings were retained and restored back to residential use and new dwellings developed behind retained facades together with completely new terraces with Georgian style elevations built to the rear and sides of the church on the original historic building line. The completed terraces now form a remarkable frame for the church which, after almost two years of work on site, is now ready to welcome visitors back through its portals.
The redevelopment and restoration of the church building itself is an amazing achievement by Glasgow Building Preservation Trust and its Architects. Due to the constrains of the site and in order to retain its excellent acoustics, the existing floor of the church was excavated and a new undercroft created to provide space for a café/bar, rehearsal rooms, dressing rooms and toilets. The survival of the church building and its restoration have been vital in providing an element of historical and architectural quality to boost the regeneration of this run down area. It has helped to set a higher standard of design for the surrounding new housing developments. Only some internal fitting out and external landscaping remain to be attended to before the work to complete this final part of the regeneration will be finished in time for the opening date on 30 November, St Andrew's Day.
The planning process: Based on a study commissioned by Glasgow Development Agency, Glasgow District Council adopted a planning framework in 1985 to encourage the comprehensive revitalisation of the square and its immediate environs for residential development, and also indicated its willingness, in principle, to provide a package of financial and administrative support in the form of housing improvement grants, assistance with land assembly and historic building grant aid for the restoration of the former church. A steering group was formed to co-ordinate progress. It consisted of Council Officials from Planning, Housing and Estates Departments assisting the SDA, their Managing Developer (City-Link (Development) Company), and the design team to prepare a detailed scheme for the area's renewal.
The success of the Council's initiative for the Merchant City, allied to the steady progress in the East End, made it opportune to re-introduce appropriate housing of a high quality. This was a major six phased programme involving restoration and change of use of existing historic buildings, new housing developments and landscaping with finally the £3.5 million restoration of the church. Timescales for discussions and planning approvals were extremely important to ensure the best quality of materials, especially stone, to the front elevations of the new terraces. This was tied into grants being available from the Glasgow Development Agency City of Stone Budget.
The area required to be landscaped as the housing progress and was occupied, therefore decisions on appropriate hard landscaping needed to incorporate a degree of flexibility to accommodate the proposals for the church. Two remaining Listed Buildings, the Tannery and the Orphanage, formed pavilions at either end of the terraces. The new build terraced housing retains the Georgian scale and elegance, as it was felt important not to lose the effect of the piano nobile, although this was only accepted by the developer after much discussion. It was also important to retain an elegant window pattern of Georgian proportions although the requirements of the Building Standards with respect to windows was conceded by installing tilt and turn instead of sliding sash and casements.
The need to accommodate the requirements of modern living standards in harmony with the style and the elegance of Georgian grandeur was an implicit part of the planning process. Continuing dialogue between the Developer and Local Authority Planning Officers, including the specialist conservation and landscape officers, extended to railing design, entrance doorways and street furniture, including lighting.
To sum up: the commitment of Glasgow City Council, the significant contribution from its planning service and the desire for the reuse of a major historic building to act as the starting point of a chain reaction, were instrumental in turning the fortunes of this rundown area. All this was made possible through the small but very significant financial contribution from the City Council's Historic Buildings Grant Aid budget which not only assisted with the actual restoration costs of the church, but gave enough confidence to the developers and the other funders to back the larger vision for the whole square.
The judges visited the newly-completed redevelopment in December. They were impressed by the quality of the space created, and asked detailed questions about the development plan context, the timescale and key stages in the process. They recognise that here is a case where a planning authority has set out to rescue a valuable piece of built heritage and with determination and patience used it as the focus for the regeneration of a wider area, halting a process of urban decay and decline in the vicinity. This kind of planning work, as the judges have noted on many other occasions, requires tenacity and imagination, and the ability to make good use of mechanisms like Historic Buildings Grant Aid to lever additional resources. Here planners and the architects designing the church conversion and its surrounding buildings have succeeded in creating interesting inside and outside space and given positive inspiration to this part of the city. Achieving long term benefits often depends on long term planning and implementation efforts over many years to reverse perceptions and provide the support needed for investment. The judges warmly congratulate Glasgow City Council and Scottish Enterprise Glasgow and recommend the St Andrew's Square redevelopment for commendation in this category.