(Image: Google)
WORK to restore some of Paisley town centre’s historic architecture has been completed at several prominent sites around the town’s High Street.
The £4.5 million townscape heritage/conservation area regeneration scheme (TH.CARS2) has been delivering a programme of building and outdoor streetscape improvements since 2017 and will run until 2022.
The project is being funded and delivered by Renfrewshire Council, with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic Environment Scotland. It covers a defined area within Paisley town centre around the High Street, New Street and Shuttle Street.
The initiative includes grants for building owners to part-fund the costs of restoring and improving the town’s unique architecture. Work completed in 2020 includes:
- A building repair project on the upper floors of the C-listed 41 High Street (above Right Way Credit Union), with major stone repair. A separate project will start in the new year and will improve the ground-floor shopfront.
- Extensive improvements to the town’s much-loved Sma’ Shot Cottages – the volunteer-run museum and visitor attraction in Shuttle Street – recently repainted with conservation-grade paint along with repointing works, stone repairs, new doors and repairs to the windows, gutters and roof.
- A transformation of the outside of the Print and Copy It shop at 61c High Street, which replaced the previous shopfront with a new and much improved traditional-style one.
Renfrewshire Council leader, Iain Nicolson, said, “Paisley town centre’s architectural legacy is one of the finest to be found anywhere in the country, with Scotland’s second-highest concentration of listed buildings.
“The TH.CARS2 scheme has been doing great work to preserve that by helping owners bring historic buildings which have fallen into disrepair back into use, while improving the look of others by restoring original architectural features.
“That investment has two more years to run and will help make the town centre a more attractive place to live, work and invest during what we know has been a challenging time for traders.
“It is great to see a number of projects have been completed in recent months and I look forward to seeing more go on site over the next year.”
