PLANS to sell a Charles Rennie Mackintosh-designed school in Townhead for use as a public museum of Scottish Catholic archives have been given the go ahead.
The Bishops’ Conference of Scotland will now be able to buy the old Martyrs’ School on Parson Street in a deal worth £250,000.
Councillors, who backed the proposal at a meeting last week, were told the purchasers intend to invest £1.75m into the restoration of the A-listed property.
This will help to create a “public museum of Scottish Catholic archives to house artifacts and artworks”. Cllr Ruairi Kelly, SNP, convener for housing and development, said the deal showed the council has the “best will and intentions” for heritage buildings in the city.
It also has “the ability to find uses for these buildings that help to preserve them for future generations of Glasgow”, Cllr Kelly added.
Approving the sale to the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland was recommended despite it not being the highest offer received.
Cllr Kelly said: “Understandably the heritage of Glasgow is really important to all of us, and lots of other people in the city. There was a bit of consternation around this when it was first mooted that it was going to be marketed.
“The intention of the council was always to find a custodian for the building who could give it the care and attention it required and, most importantly, find a productive use for it.
“If we were just looking to make a quick buck, the recommendations in this paper would have been different.
“It would have resulted in a slightly higher capital receipt for the council, but this is the one we believe best served the purpose of maintaining public access and doing the best for the building.”
A council report added the unconditional offer of £250,000 has the “benefit of certainty, being a cash offer and not being subject to any suspensive conditions”.
The three-storey school building was designed for the School Board of Glasgow by Charles Rennie Mackintosh while he was an assistant at architectural firm Honeyman and Keppie. It was completed in 1898.
It is of “considerable architectural and cultural significance, being one of the earlier buildings attributed to Mackintosh”, the council report added. Used as a school and college until the early 1970s, the building has since been an arts centre and then council offices.
The Bishops’ Conference of Scotland’s plan for the property also includes some office space, and “proposes to link the subject to their existing ownership on the opposite side of the street” (St Mungo’s RC Church).
A council official said the museum, understood to be on the ground floor, would be open to the public while the rest of the building will house the archive and offices for the Bishops’ Conference.
Marketing of the building began in October last year after it had sat empty for “a considerable time”.
