A last-minute attempt has been made to save a former Glasgow cinema.
Glasgow City Council have revealed that a building preservation notice has been served to halt the demolition process on the historic Vogue cinema on Balmore Road in Possilpark.
The move means that Historic Scotland will have a six-month period in which to consider listing the building.
Historic Environment Scotland (HES) will then conduct a review and a public consultation on listing the building. The decision will be subject to appeal to the Scottish Government.
A Glasgow City Council spokesperson said that on December 20, 2023, the council’s planning service was made aware that a demolition warrant application had been submitted to the Building Standards Service.
The council’s planning service was notified in July 2023 that Historic Environment Scotland had received an application to designate the site as a listed building and had initiated their assessment of the property.
On January 12, 2024, Historic Environment Scotland (HES) then advised that they consider that the site does meet the criteria for listing as a building of special architectural or historic interest (Category C), but have declined to list it due to the demolition warrant granted recently constituting ‘advanced development proposals’ for their procedural purposes.
A spokesperson added: "Our planning officers have served a Building Preservation Notice on this property, which has stopped the demolition process and will allow Historic Scotland a six-month period in which to consider listing the building."
The move comes after a proposal to list the building was submitted by campaigners in June 2023 to HES in a bid to save it from demolition, with Glasgow MSP Paul Sweeney joining calls to save the building.
Despite this, the demolition plans were granted by the council in December and demolition work on the ceiling started last week.
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A spokesperson for Historic Environment Scotland said: “We published a report on this building on Friday 12 January, which is available to view on our portal.
"The report concluded that the building meets the criteria for listing, but that we would not list the building given the development context.
“Glasgow City Council has asked us to consider the listing of the building afresh in the context of a building preservation notice, and we are now progressing that case.
"A building preservation notice is akin to a temporary listing, and we are now required to decide whether it should be formally listed within 6 months.
"If we are proposing a listing we will carry out a consultation before making a decision.”
The former cinema was designed by James McKissack and opened in August 1933.
The building ceased to trade as a cinema and in April 1968 was converted to a commercial bingo hall.
The bingo hall closed in the 1990s and the auditorium has not been in use since this date.
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