Southside fury over demolition of towers at Glasgow hospital

Sanctuary Scotland, which is building around 130 homes in a first phase of regeneration on the site, lodged retrospective planning permission in 2020 to take down an additional ward block to make way for a carpark.

When approached by the Glasgow Times, the social landlord said it had sought feedback from community councils and received no objections to the plans.

But, as the sandstone cupolas on the 1888 building were finally demolished at the weekend, locals responded with disgust to the decision.

MSP Paul Sweeney said the move made him “sick to his stomach” and said he and conservationists had tried to have the building listed in order to save it. Only the Administration Block section of the building was listed so the rest is without statutory protection.

Paul said: “I felt sick to my stomach when I witnessed the beautiful sandstone cupolas on James Sellars’ original 1888 ward pavilion at the Victoria Infirmary being ­brutally torn down on Saturday morning.

“It was a flagrant and unnecessary act of architectural vandalism that has opened a gaping wound in the historic skyline of Battlefield and Queen’s Park that has given it a sense of place for 133 years.

“Sanctuary Housing has acted in bad faith throughout the planning process for this development, shutting down efforts by the local community to save more of the historic hospital complex, such as the Private Patients’ Annexe that faced onto Battlefield Rest, and now they have gone back on their original commitment to save this building, by reneging on their original planning consent and seeking to demolish even more of the complex, in this case simply flattening the ward building for car parking, but barely engaged the local community when sought to do so, hiding behind the obscure planning process.

“The level of public upset at what they have done reveals the gross power imbalance in our planning system, and the lack of proper democratic oversight of decisions that are agreed in private with unelected council officers using commercially confidential information that cannot be scrutinised.”

The politician said Sanctuary could and should have salvaged the cupolas to rebuild them as landscape features – and that to do so would be a step towards rebuilding its “shattered reputation”.

Paul added: “It’s hard not to feel despondent about the constant battle of wills to preserve our heritage after this week, but I hope councillors on the Planning Committee will make a statement this week by refusing consent to demolish the listed art deco Temple Sawmill on Bearsden Road, which developers want to completely demolish to build yet more generic-looking flats.”

The imposing historic building was opened on February 14, 1890, by the Duke of Argyll and finally closed in 2015.

At the time, the Glasgow Times was given exclusive access to the site for a final look round before demolition and rebuilding began.

The plans for the site proved controversial and a group, the Victoria Forum, formed of local community councils, was set up to try to ensure the scheme was appropriate for the surrounding area.

On Twitter, South Glasgow Heritage & Environment Trust wrote: “It’s almost as if there is still no genuine understanding at policy level of the historic environment and landscape, nor of embodied carbon, and demolition and construction’s huge role in carbon emissions... just some gestures and a dying world.”

The Glasgow Times asked Sanctuary Scotland twice for comment on the removal of the cupolas and whether they had been preserved.

A spokesperson for the social landlord eventually said that it “recognises and shares the public’s fondness for the cupolas”.

But, he said, the structures at the rear of the building were in too poor a condition to be salvaged and pointed instead to the work being done on the Nightingale wards on the Battlefield Road side of the building. He added: “This improvement includes the recreating of the well-known and well-loved balconies on these buildings.

“We’re proud to be investing more than £100 million in much-needed new social housing and homes for sale in Glasgow, securing and creating new jobs and helping to regenerate this iconic site. These plans were subject to a comprehensive planning and consultation process lasting more than 18 months, and the site is progressing in accordance with these approvals.”