ABERDEEN CIVIC SOCIETY
Newsletter No. 45: March 2004
Coming Events
Wednesday 25th February: Topical Transport Issues, by Dr David Gray, of the Robert
Gordon University. Atholl Hotel, 7.30 for 8 pm.
Saturday 20th March: The Civic Society’s Annual Dinner, at the Royal Northern &
University Club, No. 9 Albyn Place, 7.30 for 8 pm. See form at the end of this Newsletter.
Wednesday 24th March: Kepplestone House: Alexander Macdonald and George Reid;
illustrated talk by Dr Jennifer Melville, Aberdeen Art Gallery. Atholl Hotel, 7.30 for 8 pm.
Wednesday 28th April: Annual General Meeting, followed by a presentation of topical
interest. Atholl Hotel, 7.30 pm prompt.
Planning Matters
No. 158 King’s Gate: application for demolition of No. 158, a handsome property which
does not need replacing, and the erection of a flatted development for C. Ekin per the William
Cowie Partnership. No. 158 is one of the large houses on the north side of King’s Gate, just
west of Moray Place. Its replacement is to be a very large H-plan block of three storeys with
a very high attic floor. This part of King’s Gate comprises several large houses on extensive
sites, two of the ‘bungalows’ unique to Aberdeen and two terraces of detached houses. The
whole ambience of the area is of big single houses on generous sites. The current proposal is
for a block of flats of a disciplined but wholly alien design, much higher than anything else,
taking up a much larger proportion of the site than any nearby development and featuring a
pitch of roof which might be acceptable in some low-lying European country but which is
employed here simply in order to allow more flats to be squeezed in. The sides of the H-
block have tiered windows overlooking the private gardens of nearby properties. The finish,
in this area of granite-built houses, is of granite chips. The garden area is to be occupied by
car parking. We have, once again, a clear case of over-development; too many flats being
crammed into a given site. The proposed development, by its area, height, siting, plot ratio,
character and materials - in addition to the fact that it is to replace a fine traditional granite-
built property which is in no need of replacement – would be severely detrimental to the
residential amenity of all the neighbouring properties and to the visual amenity of this area of
high township value. This application must be refused.
No. 69 Riverside Drive, Deeford House: proposal for alterations and extension to comprise
18 flats, the new building being along the adjacent Riverside Terrace and in the back garden
area. The scale and design are not completely unsympathetic, but the new buildings and car
park will take up a large part of the existing site. (We hear that local residents have been
approached by the developers in an attempt to buy them out.) A lesser number of flats would
be more in keeping with Deeford House, a prominent and handsome Category B listed
building.
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No. 73a Bon Accord St: proposal for demolition of the existing shop and building of three
new flats. This involves the insertion of a wholly inappropriate infill into this early 19th
century terrace. The proposed height, relationship to existing buildings at eaves level, use of
timber panels and proportions of windows would all be detrimental to the visual amenity of
adjoining listed buildings and of the Conservation Area.
No. 269 Union St: proposal to convert the present Waterstone’s (formerly Dillon’s)
bookshop, next to the Langstane Kirk, into a bar/pub and retail complex. This is a modern
building occupying a prominent site at the corner of Union St/Bon Accord St. We feel that
the ground floor should remain a shop, possibly a supermarket or food store, of some use to
local residents, e.g., of the huge number of flats recently built in Union Glen and off the
Hardgate, rather than become yet another alcohol-outlet.
No. 447 Great Western Rd; the Great Western Hotel, opposite the Amatola Hotel (as was):
proposal for alterations and extension to form two maisonettes and four flats. The materials
proposed – grey cement, some granite and slate – are not appropriate for this prominent
corner site.
Polmuir Rd; former British Rail goods yard: a proposal for 35 houses and 16 flats.
Langstane Kirk: proposal for an all-glass coffee shop and gallery in the forecourt, adjoining
the west door of the Kirk and the brick wall.
Shiprow: Kenmore Ltd now has planning permission to create a £9 million leisure complex
on the NCP car park site, to include a 110-bedroom budget hotel and a mix of restaurants and
nightspots. Bound to be an improvement?
Chanonry/St Machar Drive: proposal by the University of Aberdeen for a new research
building in the ground of the Cruickshank Botanical Garden; 3-storey, polished granite, lead
& glass, top floor recessed with a louvred canopy.
Culter House Rd: proposal to erect five ‘executive’ villas. These are large, single-storey-
and-three-quarters Disneyland structures on a site just off the roadway to Culter House. The
location is within the Green Belt and would affect the amenity of Culter House, a listed
building. This application should be refused.
Berryden: proposal by the developer Standard Life to create a new retail park of some 17
fashion stores on the older part of the Royal Cornhill Hospital site, which lies within the
proposed new Rosemount/Westburn Conservation Area. The Aberdeen City Centre
Partnership argues that the retail park scheme contradicts national planning guidelines, e.g.,
that out-of-town sites should not be released for retail purposes when city-centre sites are
available, as at present, and that the Cornhill site certainly does not itself qualify as ‘city-
centre’. They fear that the development proposed would draw shoppers away from the city
centre and would increase the number of empty premises on Union St. A residential
development might be more appropriate.
Elmhill House: the Scottish Executive recently approved plans by SMH for a residential
development on the Elmhill House NHS site, thereby overturning ACC’s vote against it on
the grounds of the loss of some 200 mature trees and the ‘secret garden’. It is to be hoped
that proposed changes to planning law will increase the weighting given to local opinion as
expressed through elected representatives relative to that of civil servants in Edinburgh.
Broadford Works, Maberly St: the Works, dating from 1808 and latterly operated by
Richards & Co., is soon to be converted into a retail complex and residential apartments.
This scheme is central to ACC’s plans to regenerate the George St. area. The new plans refer
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to the northern block, a handsome granite warehouse facing Maberly St., itself named after
the original owners of the Works. The southern block, dating from 1912, is the huge red-
brick former warehouse which was converted for residential use in 1995 and since known as
The Bastille. Massive and castellated, it resembles a medieval city wall when viewed from
Union Bridge. The name ‘Broadford’ refers back to the ‘broad ford’ across the former Loch,
hence also the Lochlands, Loch St. and the Lochside Bar.
Retail Versus Arts-Led Growth
Five minutes out of the railway station, visitors to Aberdeen can tunnel their way through no
fewer than three covered shopping centres, shoehorned into the city centre. Aberdeen’s rich
oil economy and its position of regional capital of the north-east have fuelled a greater
concentration of retailing activity than in other cities of comparable size. Whilst this has
brought economic benefits, there are signs that other aspects of the city’s culture now need
attention.
The city’s arts scene is expanding rapidly, but physical evidence of this is scarce and hard to
find. Such arts venues as we possess are scattered and dispersed around the city. They
would be better-attended if they were clustered around an identifiable focus or epicentre, such
as the Belmont St. area.
Arts-led regeneration is something of a buzz-phrase in 21st century town planning. Dundee is
fast becoming a ‘city of culture’ and is undergoing a fundamental arts-led renaissance.
Aberdeen, too, is showing signs of an increasingly vibrant arts scene. The recent exhibition
of fashion designs by the late Bob Gibb at Aberdeen Art Gallery attracted over 45,000
visitors. In May 2003, the Word 03 International Writers’ Festival attracted huge audiences
to King’s College to meet authors such as Louis de Bernieres, Michel Faber and Janice
Galloway. The Festival Director, Alan Spence, has called for a permanent centre of culture
to be established in Aberdeen.
Aberdeen City Centre Partnership favours retail-led development to attract tourists and
visitors. The proposed Union Square retail and leisure development, around the railway and
bus stations, indicates that retail-led regeneration is still high on the Council’s agenda. One
positive interpretation of this is that Union Square may take some of the shop-till-you-drop
pressure off the immediate vicinity of Union St., and open it up for other uses and purposes.
The down-side of Aberdeen’s oil boom has been that low- or zero-profit enterprises and
activities have been unable to afford Aberdeen property prices and rents, and have been
driven out or excluded from the city centre. This has also been the experience of other
economically successful and booming cities like Edinburgh and Cambridge.
The immediate problem facing the arts community in Aberdeen is the need to improve the
infrastructure of arts facilities. The Council has outlined a commitment to develop a new
cultural centre in the Better Cities Project Plan, which proposes a new multi-disciplinary,
multi-economy centre that would become a hub of creative activity. The difficulty is one of
finding suitable and affordable venues. Aberdeen, unlike cities such as Glasgow, Newcastle
and Liverpool, does not have a profusion of redundant warehouses, factories and textile mills,
readily available at low rents for new occupants and uses. Residential accommodation is also
expensive here – a disincentive to creative artists subsisting on low and irregular incomes.
Plans to create a centre for the visual arts in the Salvation Army’s Citadel building were
stalled when the Sally-Ann decided to stay put. But it may be that a new visual arts centre
would do better in the semi-derelict Triple Kirks building at the corner of Belmont
St/Rosemount Viaduct.
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A great opportunity will be presented by the proposed demolition of St Nicholas House,
which will open up the whole area from Broad St. westwards to Flourmill Lane and from
Upperkirkgate southwards to Netherkirkgate. There is a case for the creation of a
pedestrianised post-medieval streetscape of 3-4 storey buildings, centred on the 16th century
Provost Skene’s House, such as could accommodate small specialist shops, arts venues,
galleries, café-bars etc, with residential accommodation on the upper floors. Since the
Council would be the landlord, rents could be held at sub-market levels for appropriate
enterprises, organisations and tenants.
There are under-used parts of Aberdeen not far from the city-centre; Bridge St., Queen St.,
Gallowgate, East & West North St., Justice St. and the town end of King St. all jump to mind.
The fast-expanding student population, in the new flats around the old King St. Fire Station
and in Mealmarket St., is well-placed relative to the Lemon Tree, the Arts Centre and venues
in the Castlegate, so, hopefully, the supply of cultural activities will rise to match demand.
In Search of Aberdeen Deco
Art Deco: a style in the decorative arts as defined by a major international exhibition, the
Exposition International
des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes, which was held in Paris in 1925. The exhibition
had been planned to take place in 1915, but was postponed because of the First World War.
It was a celebration of modernity, of modern materials and techniques. The expression ‘Art
Deco’ describes the style which predominated there; a jazzy application of a visual
vocabulary derived from Cubism, Futurism, Functionalism and other recent movements to a
variety of decorative, fashionable and commercial ends.
There was a shift in emphasis from the Fine Arts to the Arts Decoratifs. Artists now applied
their aesthetic skills to all areas of design, ranging from architecture and interior decoration to
fashion and jewellery. Art Deco was the theme of a recent and hugely successful exhibition
at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Oddly enough, the expression ‘Art Deco’ did
not come into use until an earlier exhibition in 1968. In its own time, the style was generally
referred to as moderne (not to be confused with’modernist’) and sometimes as ‘jazz’ or ‘jazz-
style’.
Although it applies to the decorative arts and interior design of the 1920s and 1930s, the
description ‘Art Deco’ can be extended to analogous styles in architecture, where it is
characterised by smooth, sleek, aerodynamic or ‘streamlined’ motifs, reflecting the
contemporary preoccupation with speed and the setting of new land, sea and air speed
records. Sunbursts, sunbeams and sunrays are another very characteristic Deco motif,
reflecting the new fashion for sunbathing and the perceived benefits of natural light and fresh
air. The ‘Deco’ style created clean simple shapes suitable for mass production in factories
using modern materials such as plastic, chrome and aluminium. Even mundane objects like
vacuum cleaners and radios were given the Deco treatment, adorned with smooth, streamlined
surfaces and sleek lines resembling those of racing cars and aircraft.
Following its revival in the 1960s, Art Deco has been seen as the natural sequel to the Art
Nouveau of the 1890s, of which the early work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928)
provides several examples, e.g., the Willow Tea Rooms in Glasgow. Art Nouveau drew
much of its inspiration from the natural world of plants and flowers and is characterised by a
sinuous, curvilinear style. A local example of Art Nouveau is the cast-iron Ventilator at the
Holburn St. end of Justice Mill Lane. But Art Deco is more a product of the machine age,
and is characterised by flat, geometric shapes. Mackintosh at first incorporated a significant
degree of Art Nouveau ornamentation in his work, but he later pared down these decorative
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elements in favour of a starkly elegant and geometrical aesthetic, e.g., the vertical emphasis of
his notorious ladder-backed chairs.
Art Deco and other aspects of Modernism as applied to architecture were in conscious
rebellion against pre-1914 styles such as Victorian Gothic, Scottish Baronial and Edwardian
Baroque, which came to be seen as dark, stuffy, cluttered, over-decorated, pompous and
impractical. It was now felt that design should reflect function, that buildings serving
modern purposes such as railway stations or schools should not be disguised so as to resemble
medieval cathedrals or castles. Modernism came to favour asymmetrical compositions,
unrelievedly cubic shapes, metal and glass framework often resulting in large windows in
horizontal bands, and a marked absence of decorative mouldings or ornamentation. The
pendulum of fashion had swung from the one extreme to the other; from Gothic extravagance
and whimsy to a style, or absence of style, often described as ‘Brutalist’, if not as ‘Stalinist’.
Art Deco may be seen, at its best, as a via media, a happy medium between the over-
ornamentation of the Victorian-Edwardian era and the stark, totalitarian style too often
characteristic of the 20th century.
Art Deco emphasised stylishness attuned to domestic use and popular consumption, and was
characterised by geometric patterning, sharp edges and flat, bright colours, often involving the
use of enamel, bronze and highly polished chrome. The simplicity of the style can be seen as
Classical in spirit, apparent in the extensive use of Egyptian, Aztec and Greek motifs. This
reflected the widespread interest in the discovery of the tomb of the Egyptian boy-king
Tutankhamun in 1922. The subsequent unwrapping and dissection of the ancient mummies
engendered a morbid popular fascination and gave rise to the pervasive notion of ‘The Curse
Of The Mummy’s Tomb’, itself given substance by the mysterious and early deaths of many
of the explorers involved. Egyptology is a recurring theme in the novels of Agatha Christie,
whose husband was an archaeologist much involved in the exploration of the Egyptian tombs
and pyramids.
The opening titles of the television ‘Poirot’ series, based on the novels by Agatha Christie,
made very effective use of a whole series of Art Deco images of elegant buildings, stylish
interiors, fast cars, express trains, notably the Orient Express, aeroplanes and transatlantic
ocean liners such as the Queen Mary, launched in 1934 and itself one of the great symbols of
the Jazz Age; a contemporary icon of speed, wealth and style. The penultimate (to date) of
the ITV ‘Poirot’ series, being Evil Under The Sun, made good locational use of the Burgh
Island Hotel, just off the south Devon coast, near Sidmouth. It was built in 1929 as a
‘Temple of Art Deco’, and Agatha Christie was so taken with it that she set two of her books
there. The Deco style seems to suit sunny coastal resorts. Miami Beach, Florida, has a
parade of Art Deco hotels and other 1930s buildings in attractive candy-striped pastel shades.
The craze for all things Egyptian coincided with the spate of cinema construction in the 1920s
and 1930s, and was often incorporated into both exterior and interior designs, being very
apparent in Odeon, Gaumont and other chain-cinemas of the period. These ‘palaces for the
masses’ were lavishly and exotically decorated to create the impression of escape from
everyday realities. Egyptian motifs were combined with Aztec and African art and modern
elements to create an influential and distinctive idiom which epitomises the inter-war period
and the Jazz Age in particular. Factories were designed in the Egyptian Revival style, e.g.,
the Hoover Factory in West London. Egyptian and Aztec stepped pyramids provided the
inspiration for any number of small manufactured products like clocks and radios as well as
for huge New York skyscrapers such as the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building,
which had to be ‘tapered in’ by law so as to allow daylight in to the streets down below.
Sumptuous picture-palaces were built in Aberdeen during the inter-war period, the ‘Age of
Deco’, including:
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The Palace Cinema; the old Palace Theatre was substantially extended in 1931 to create its
impressive Rubislaw granite frontage on Bridge Place, which itself stands on a ridge
extending from Holburn St. to Crown Terrace. The ridge slopes steeply down to the harbour,
forming a natural amphitheatre which was used in medieval times for the presentation of
entertainments. Along this ridge were fought the battles of the Craibstane, the Langstane and
the Justice Mills. The Palace became a dance-hall in 1960. The building was owned by
Scottish & Newcastle Breweries from 1993 until recently, and its shabby and neglected
condition did them no credit. It is now a nightclub, operated by Luminar, who have tidied it
up considerably.
The Regent Cinema in 1927, by Tommy Scott Sutherland (1899-1963), was built on the site
of the Upper Justice Mill, at the Holburn St. end of the ridge described above. The Lower
Justice Mill was down the brae in Union Glen; its mill-pond lay between the two buildings.
The two mills had been in operation well before 1320, when they were granted to the Burgh
of Aberdeen by King Robert I, Robert the Bruce, and were still in operation 600 years later in
the 1920s. The Lower Mill pond was drained and filled, the three streams diverted and
covered and the site was levelled by excavating it back towards Justice Mill Lane. The
Regent cinema occupied the eastern part of the site formerly occupied by the Upper Mill; the
western part of the site is occupied by the McClymont Hall. The frontage of the Regent
Cinema (latterly the Odeon) was of Rubislaw granite, decorated with bands of red terracotta,
with a polished black granite base. The vertical central windows, giving the impression of
height, became something of a Sutherland trade-mark, later deployed to useful effect in the
Astoria and the Majestic. The Regent opened on Saturday 27 February 1932, a few months
after the Palace. The building is now occupied by the Cannon sports centre and health club.
The new owners have renovated the exterior to a high standard, extending to the rear of the
car park, where it abuts Union Glen.
The Capitol in Union St. in 1932, by A. G. R. Mackenzie, had a sparkling dressed granite
frontage, slightly asymmetrical in layout. Above the entrance were three tall windows with
two shorter windows to the left and three such to the right. The frontage was/is surmounted
by a plain but elegant pediment which had the effect of concealing from street view the high,
steeply pitched roof of the auditorium. The Capitol had the most remarkable interior of all
the Aberdeen cinemas, which included a Compton theatre pipe organ, and it was also the most
influenced by Art Deco, both inside and out, e.g., the outer doors with their stainless-steel
semi-circular hand plates, forming full circles when the doors were closed. The Capitol
opened on Saturday 4 February 1933. Its recent conversion for Luminar has involved the
horizontal division of the auditorium into two complementary night-clubs, one upstairs, one
downstairs. We are unable to say how this affects the Crompton organ, or just what remains
of the Art Deco interior.
Tommy Scott Sutherland went on to design the Astoria Cinema in Clifton Rd., Kittybrewster,
which opened on Saturday 8 December 1934, followed by the Majestic in Union St.,
(opposite the Langstane Kirk), which he regarded as his finest creation. It had a fairly plain
and austere frontage of Kemnay granite in the style by now known as Sutherland
Perpendicular. It opened on Thursday 10 December 1936. By then, Aberdeen could boast
one cinema seat per seven inhabitants, more than double the ratio in London.
Other Deco-influenced buildings in Aberdeen are:
Jackson’s Garage in Bon-Accord St/Justice Mill Lane of 1933, by A. G. R. Mackenzie. This
is a rare example of excellent commercial architecture of the inter-war period in Aberdeen,
and has many Deco characteristics. It incorporates the distinctive horizontal banding of
windows and glazing, curving around the corner to Justice Mill Lane. The Bon-Accord St.
frontage has an impressive central section with three very tall vertical windows surmounted
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by a distinctive 1930s clock. The building is now occupied by Slater’s Menswear; the JML
side is in very tatty condition.
The Bon-Accord Baths in Justice Mill Lane, of 1937, is one of the most characteristically
1930s buildings in Aberdeen, being a giant buttressed granite box. Inside, there is an
abundance of curved blond wood and shiny metal; the swimming pool roof is supported on
concrete arches. The window glazing is distinctively ‘Deco’.
Amicable House, Nos. 250-252 Union St., of 1933, by Tommy Scott Sutherland, built just
west of his Majestic Cinema, embodies some Art Deco motifs and characteristics. The
Majestic was demolished in the early 1970s and replaced by the present bland, characterless
block. Waterstone’s bookshop skulks under an ugly and pointless canopy.
The 1930s Medical School at Foresterhill.
The King’s College Sports Pavilion of 1939-41, by A. G. R. Mackenzie; one of the few
Modernist buildings in Aberdeen before World War Two.
Tullos Primary School, begun 1937, but not completed until 1950, by J. Ogg Allan; one of the
best 1930s buildings in the city.
I should mention the Carron Tea-room in Stonehaven, built 1937 and recently fully
refurbished; it may be the finest Art Deco building in the north of Scotland. It is currently up
for sale; Wetherspoon’s, the pub chain, are said to be interested.
Finally, the Northern Hotel, Kittybrewster, of 1937, by A. G. R. Mackenzie. Its curved
frontage is dominated by broad horizontal banding of windows and glazing. The Northern
Hotel is the most distinctively ‘Deco’ building in Aberdeen, and has recently been fully
restored. The interiors are well worth seeing.
For all that, the Northern Hotel is arguably more a thing of interest than of great beauty. The
Deco style seems to work better in pastel colours and in sunny locales. I used to walk past
the Northern Hotel regularly, and it never occurred to me to think of it as a beautiful building;
striking, yes, beautiful, no. By the time it was built, in the late 1930s, the new architecture of
Aberdeen had perhaps slipped too far down that long descent from Victorian Gothic to
Stalinist Brutalism; all the way from the splendid Flemish-Medieval Town House of 1867 to
the irredeemably awful St Nicholas House of 1967.
These bitter-sounding thoughts were occasioned, quite some years ago, whilst walking from
the Castlegate back to the Brig o’ Dee. It occurred to me that every building I liked along the
way dated from long before I was born, and that almost nothing put up in my own lifetime
was any good at all. I like to think that things bottomed out, perhaps as far back as the 1970s
or ‘80s, and are now on an improving trend, but the evidence is still uncertain.
That said, ‘Deco’ influences are apparent in at least three important new buildings in
Aberdeen, as follows:
The Lighthouse Cinema and the adjacent buildings; I like those sleek glass curves along the
line of the old Shiprow.
The big new block of student flats in Mealmarket St/West North St. is distinctively ‘Deco’ in
style, brightly coloured in pastel shades of blue, white and pink/orange.
Talisman House in Holburn St. is another symphony in tinted glass with its undulating green
roofline, now complemented by Gillie’s new furniture store across the street.
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Talisman House is certainly a big improvement on the old College of Commerce; but is the
Boots building at the Brig o’ Dee an improvement on the former, much-unloved, Dee Motel?
At least the Dee Motel was a low-rise building, set well back and largely obscured by trees
and shrubs. The Boots building might be acceptable somewhere else but, on this prominent
corner site, is too big, too far forward, too close to the historic Brig and it completely
dominates the view all the way down South Anderson Drive and out Holburn St.
Contributed by Alex Mitchell
Lessons From Crown Mansions
Crown Mansions, No. 41-and-a-half Union St., is the very tall, six-storey Category C listed
building towards the Castlegate end of Union St., and which suffered a disastrous fire in
February 1998. At that time the ground floor and basement were owned by Great Universal
Stores, whilst the upper floors were owned by an Aberdeen property developer. The two
owners are thought to have received a total of over £1 million from their insurers. GUS sold
their share of the fire-damaged building on to another developer. The Aberdeen property
developer sold the upper floors to the city’s Langstane Housing Association for over
£250,000 at the end of 2001.
Earlier that year, the Langstane Assoc. had applied for change-of-use permission to convert
the building into flats. On 21st January 2002, three floors of the building suddenly collapsed
and the one workman present was killed. We might wonder just how safe this building was
as regards pedestrians down below on Union St., during the three years it lay empty and
neglected after the Feb. ’98 fire. For example, there was no attempt to board up the
windows, which were left open to the elements. Pigeons and seagulls had taken up
residence. It seems nothing short of tragic that we came close to losing the largest building
on Union St. – and that a good man lost his life – through failure to render the building secure
and to expedite its repair and return to use.
Crown Mansions was one of a dozen buildings in Aberdeen regarded as being ‘at risk’ by the
Scottish Civic Trust, which is calling for new legislation to clamp down on those owners of
buildings who fail to maintain them to an acceptable standard. Fire-gutted buildings like
Crown Mansions are particularly dangerous. Some of our other Conservation Area buildings
are in a fragile condition behind their impressive granite frontages, e.g., structural timbers
may be deteriorating. It will often be the case that only the ground floor is occupied and in
use, as by a shop, restaurant or take-away, with long-vacant offices and flats above.
Such buildings obviously generate little income for their owners and thus have little value on
the open market. It may be the case that the only value the building (potentially) has is that
of the land it stands on. The building itself – especially if it requires expensive repairs –
may be regarded by its owners as a financial liability, rather than as an asset. These
problems are compounded by multiple-ownership, as at Crown Mansions.
It may be that the only solution for such buildings is one of compulsory purchase by the
Council or a trust such as the Langstane Housing Association, by comprehensive top-to-
bottom renovation and upgrading to modern requirements, followed by the leasing-out of the
building, in whole or in part, to suitable tenants. Crown Mansions will soon accommodate
two shops on the ground floor, offices for voluntary organisations on the first floor and 32
flats on the four upper floors. We may hope that this good example will be followed
elsewhere.