How some historic railway buildings are finding a new purpose.
Old railway buildings that had long thought to have passed their sell-by date are being given a new lease of life.
Take Pollokshaws West on Glasgow’s southside. Just 10 minutes walk from both Pollok House and the Burrell Collection, it happens to be the oldest surviving railway station in the city, but the Category B Listed buildings had been “sterilised” – railway terminology for having the interiors stripped out – so that only floors and walls were left.
Following extensive work in 2013, the station’s two buildings – a double-story building and a single story building on the other side of the tracks – are now home to a local community business, South West Community Cycles.
“The community group approached us to ask if we would tackle the building on their behalf,” explains Anne McChlery, Director of the Glasgow Building Preservation Trust. “To enable this to happen and to reduce the cost to the community group, we undertook an Options Appraisal and, on the basis of the proven viability outcome of the proposal, agreed to take a lease of building, raise the funding and pass the completed project on to SWCC.”
GBPT is a charity which operates as “a specialist delivery vehicle” enabling the restoration of historic buildings across Glasgow. It has worked with funders ranging from Historic Scotland and the Heritage Lottery Fund to the Architectural Heritage Fund.
“SWCC’s core business is the repair, sale and and letting out of bicycles for people to hire,” she adds.
“The station seemed an ideal location because it sits very close to the entrance to one of Glasgow’s most important and extensive city park lands.”
Nevertheless, it took more than three years from the original idea to completion of the building works.
“We had to fit out the whole interior from being a shell to becoming a multi-use centre with cycling being the main purpose, so interiors had to be insulated, lined in wood thereafter, with bespoke shutters to keep heat in and for security when closed, all new lighting and all new services.”
So does she think people are at all surprised to discover a bicycle business housed at a railway station?
“No, not anymore,” McChlery insists, “because these old redundant waiting rooms and buildings can be converted to become ideal places for businesses. The by-product of this multi-use is that, in cases where stations are no longer staffed, new uses for buildings like this one can thrive. They brings people though the station and make everyone feel safer and more likely to use the station, so it is a win-win situation!”
Another example of how a building can be repurposed is the new Armed Forces Veterans Association (AFVA) drop-in centre located in Dumbarton Central Station, which was officially opened last August by the Scottish Government’s Keith Brown, Cabinet Secretary with responsibility for veterans issues in Scotland.
The drop-in centre is located in what was formerly a public waiting room on Platform two, which – thanks to funding from the Station Communities Regeneration Fund (SCRF) and money from the Railway Heritage Trust – has been restored to its former glory.
It is just one of many examples across Scotland of redundant railway buildings finding new life thanks to local organisations and businesses, to the benefit of local people.
That said, in this particular case, the veterans’ charity had already been using the building for years.
“We were offered the room ‘as it is’ back in 2011 and I said yes without actually looking at it,” explains Paul Cross of the association.
“I’d originally seen the room in 1962, and it had a nice big roaring fire; when I came back, though, it was all boarded up, so of course, I got the key, let myself in and thought: Oh, what have I let myself in for?! It took us nearly two years to get it to a state where we could let the public back in.”
When it came to the refurbishment, the charity was given just six weeks to get it done, in part because the then-existing ScotRail franchise – and attendant SCRF scheme – run by First Group was coming to an end. “In the end, it’s taken three months to get it completed, and there’s still one or two little bits to tie off. But we’ve now got the beautiful room back into operation; the original woodwork is still here, we’ve got the original stain glass windows restored, so we’re really proud of what we’ve got.”
The new centre is fully staffed by a team of local volunteers who work in partnership with Scotland’s various veterans organisations to provide support and access to health, education, housing and transport services for current and former service personnel.
An important feature of the project was ensuring that it involved local companies; most of the carpentry, for example, was carried out by the joiner who has his workshop in the basement underneath the platform!
“The only thing we couldn’t do locally was the stained glass,” admits Cross. “That was a specialist company, but everything else was done locally.”
Soon after new operator Abellio took over the ScotRail franchise, the company announced a new £1.5 million fund to encourage the repurposing of disused railway properties by local communities and businesses. Grants of between £5,000 and £75,000 – larger sums may be possible – can be used towards the costs of structural repairs and to assist with fitting out station premises for their new use.
“The SCRF under the old franchise was funded through Transport Scotland; it’s now funded as part of the franchise,” explains Andy Savage of the Railway Heritage Trust.
“Although we’re called a Trust, we’re not a charity. We’re a company, and we’re sponsored by the rail industry, primarily Network Rail, with two main objectives,” explains Andy. “One is to improve heritage features on operational buildings, and the second is to find new uses for buildings that are not operational. So in that sense, what happened at Dumbarton Central Station is absolutely in line with out objectives.
“There was quite a lot of work needed in that case; all the windows at the back were boarded up, there were partitions to deal with – it was quite a thorough refurbishment.”
• More information on the SCRF can be found at www.scotrail.co.uk/about-scotrail/scotrail-community/stations-community-regeneration-fund
Article first published in The Scots Magazine, December 2015.
