Campaigners fear council delay will put former Glasgow school in further jeopardy

The Sir John Maxwell school in the city’s Southside has lain empty for the past 12 years and is in need of urgent repairs before an alternative use for the site can go ahead.

At a meeting of Glasgow City Council City Administration in June a decision on whether to demolish or carry out repair work to the Christian Street school was postponed to allow officers to engage with campaigners. It would cost £270,000 to demolish and £830,000 to carry out repairs.

The Sir John Maxwell School Trust has ambitious plans to convert the building into a £6.3million environmental hub and prepared a full report which they understood would be heard at a meeting later this month. However, the trust has now been told that the matter won’t be brought back to the council until next May.

How the Maxwell Centre would look. Picture credit: New Practice Architects

A spokesperson for the trust said: “The City Administration in June postponed a decision on repairing the roof of the school and asked officers to work with the trust to develop the idea of an Environmental Learning Centre plus workspaces.

“We produced a 20 page report with detailed costings in September and forwarded it to the council. This shows how the project can be a major contributor to Glasgow’s environmental objectives.

“We understood that a recommendation of some sort it would go to the next Committee on November 18. However, we have been informed that the officers do not propose to do this but postpone any consideration until after the May 2022 elections.”

The former Sir John Maxwell primary school in Pollokshaws, Glasgow. Photograph by Colin Mearns.

Trust members are concerned the delay will result in further deterioration of the building, possibly putting it in jeopardy beyond saving.

Their plans include retro-fitting the school to accommodate activities which address Glasgow’s and Scotland’s 21st century challenges by a combination of an Environmental Demonstration and Learning Centre and related workspaces.

A key objective will be to demonstrate and promote the principles and techniques of sustainable reuse at every step of the project design and retro-fitting process.

This will cover new heating and energy systems, materials reuse, reducing waste, sustainable food production and consumption and a model ecoflat/ecohouse.

In their report to the council they added: “The adjacent Pollok Park will be used for outdoor learning experiences such as understanding the carbon absorption of trees. No other available building in Glasgow has this locational advantage. As a visitor attraction it will complement the Pollok Stables project and the Burrell Collection.”

Their project would cost £6.3m after roof repairs while demolition and new build would be £7.2m.

Bob Marshall, left and Douglas McCreath, of the Sir John Maxwell School Trust pictured outside the former primary school in Pollokshaws, Glasgow. Photograph by Colin Mearns.

The trust has also taken into account the environmental impact on whether the building is saved or demolished. They say studies show that demolition and new build rather than retro-fit releases 2.5 times more captured carbon and it wastes materials and believe retro-fitting is the best course of action in this case.

The spokesperson added: “We accept that a further independent viability study is needed but think that this should be commissioned now to avoid a wasted year. We have stated that if such an independent study concludes that no options for retro-fit are viable then we will accept the result. After all the work that has gone in this is a disappointing impasse and we hope the council will reconsider.”

The school was named after Sir John Stirling Maxwell, the Glasgow laird whose family owned much of the land that the south side was built on and gifted the grounds of Old Pollok estate to the city which became Pollok Country Park.

Boarded up and cordoned off to the public, a partial roof collapse in March has left the future of the building uncertain.

Built between 1906 to 1907, the Maxwell family paid for the school which opened in 1909. However, it closed in 2011 as part of the overall development of the education estate of the council and pupils moving into more modern schools.

A spokesperson for Glasgow City Council said: “We will continue to make the building safe through physical interventions before further consideration is given and a decision made on the future of the former school.”