A local historian is researching the intriguing century-long story of a building which is set to make way for a new supermarket and retail development.
The warehouse on Carlisle Road in Airdrie was most recently used as a whisky blending and storage facility by Distell International, before the firm relocated operations earlier this year to their new £15 million facility in East Kilbride.
Now the site is being sold to Lidl, who gained planning permission in January for a 1900 square-metre store, as well as a drive-through restaurant and a further retail unit on the land beside Airdrieonians’ stadium.
Community historian Dr Ann Glen has been finding out about the building’s varied uses – which include a period producing aircraft parts during World War II, while its original purpose was as a bus garage in the 1920s and it was also used as a post-war telecommunications factory.
She told Lanarkshire Live: “It was originally the Scottish Motor Traction garage, one of the early depots for the bus industry; and then in the 1930s it was converted for production of aircraft parts.
“It produced frames for aircraft which were used during World War II and employed around 300 people. The bus garage was converted as a substantial premises which was level and spacious.
“There may be descendants of people who worked there during wartime, and it would be interesting to hear from their about their relatives’ experiences and that phase of the building’s use.
“After the war, it was no longer required so the building went on to be used as a telecoms facility, producing phones, before being used for the whisky warehouse.”
She added: “It would be nice to see something like a plaque or a piece of art commemorating the site’s history, from its start as a bus garage all the way through the years.”
The Carlisle Road warehouse was used as a distillery site for more than three decades and was formerly known as Burn Stewart before being purchased by most recent owners Distell in 2013.
Lidl said on receiving planning permission that their new Airdrie store will open “in the not too distant future” and will create up to 40 jobs; with details of the other two developments to be confirmed at a later stage.
