THE façade and towers of a historical building in Glasgow’s Dennistoun area will be saved under a new plan to bring new housing to the east end of the city.
The B-listed Golfhill School, close to Glasgow Royal infirmary, is at the heart of a new development by locally-based Spectrum Properties.
The proposal, which has been given Listed Building Approval and which has been unopposed by Historic Environment Scotland, envisages 18 flats built within the shell of the old school, which was in danger of requiring complete demolition.
The development will see a total of 133 flats on the school grounds complete with car parking, plus green spaces, including orchards, and paths across the site which will connect adjacent roads.
Golfhill Primary School was designed by Alexander Nisbet Paterson and opened in 1902.
Spectrum Properties said the work involved to save the building would be subsidised by the new build elements of the proposed plans. Director William Roddie explained, “The plans will create areas which are desirable to both new and existing residents to pass through and linger in, an improvement on the overgrown and unsafe areas which currently exist on site.”
Although Spectrum has moved into residential development in the last 10 years, its primary focus remains commercial property. The business owns some 700 commercial properties across the city.
Mr Roddie added, “The Golfhill School site had been closed because of subsidence and had lain unused for some 12 years before we bought it nearly four years ago. It is a substantial task to retain what can be salvaged of the building, including expensive and technically challenging façade retention but, as a local company, we feel an obligation to the people of Dennistoun to maintain a link to a history which means so much to so many people.”
