Glasgow's Needs Much More Than A 'Wee Spruce Up' (June 04, 2023)
Here's an interesting article from Philip Rodney who is keen to inspire a reboot of Glasgow - starting with the famous Sauchiehall Street which is tired, shabby and rundown.
Quite rightly Philip says this requires more imagination from the City Council which up till now has been very defensive with its political leaders arguing that all Glasgow needs is a 'wee spruce up'.
Shabby Sauchiehall Street must spur city to act
A year on from my call for a Glasgow reboot, the city council needs to show more imagination to inspire a civic revival, writes Philip Rodney
The street is awash with empty units - Photo ALAMY
By Philip Rodney - The Times
A year ago, under the headline “It’s time to admit that Glasgow is a dump — but we can reboot it”, The Times published an essay in which I argued that Sauchiehall Street was dying, and that the city was in danger of going down with it. Denial wouldn’t help. It would take courage and imagination to pull the city back from the brink.
I could say that I was surprised by the response, but really I wasn’t. There were 250 comments online (almost universally concurring) and my inbox was swamped with emails from citizens, expat Glaswegians and visitors corroborating this view, often underlined with anger and frustration.
Perhaps it was conceit on my part, but what did surprise me was that the city council did not engage. Rather, the response came in the form of an article by Brian Evans, the respected city urbanist, published the following week, “A city must never grow tired of regeneration”, in which he referred to those who wrote in “manufactured sorrow” and “smugness of tone”. (Ouch!) Constructively, however, he said that Glasgow was making progress and if we could keep going, the city could achieve “dynamic equilibrium”.
A year on, are there any tangible signs of this progress? I walked the length of Sauchiehall Street this week from the Buchanan Galleries to Charing Cross and counted 38 empty units. I’m not including gap sites, nor commenting on the largely abandoned tenement properties above. I’ll also leave it to others to speculate on the odds that the Mackintosh will be rebuilt or if the site will remain sterilised indefinitely.
Many of the occupied shops appear to be on short-term lets to retailers selling vaping products, American candy and tacky souvenirs. In fairness, there are a few exceptions, including an excellent new record store and a couple of cafés. But the overall impression is that what was once Glasgow’s most important high street is now pound-shop paradise. For the purposes of this piece, I’ll restrict my comments to Sauchiehall Street, but Hope Street, Renfield Street and Argyle Street are not far behind in the sleaze stakes. The excuse of the pandemic doesn’t wash. Recent visits to London, Manchester, Leeds and Bradford suggest a strong recovery in play elsewhere. The problems are clearly more fundamental.
• Philip Rodney: It’s time to admit that Glasgow is a dump — but we can reboot it
Of course, it’s not all bad news. The enterprise zones to the east and west reflect a confidence that mirrors the aspirations of both Strathclyde and Glasgow universities. Shawlands and Finnieston are buzzing. However, without the beating heart of a confident, fit-for-purpose centre, how can Scotland’s largest city prosper in the longer term? Over the past 12 months, I have had unsolicited approaches from an array of people with different interests. Architects who have visions of Sauchiehall Street reimagined, not as a conventional retail high street, but rather as an edgy, exciting thoroughfare with low-cost or no-cost workshops, studios and apartments that would attract a new generation of creative talent.
Others have suggested that it could act as a showcase for the performing arts, given the proximity of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Scottish Opera and the Theatre Royal. Developers have told me how — if chunks of Sauchiehall Street were the subject of compulsory purchase orders — they would be prepared to invest in and implement bold plans. But entrepreneurs have explained how various initiatives had been suffocated by the council. Millennials and Gen Z-ers have said that while they love the city, its tawdriness and lack of vision have caused them to reflect on whether their futures lie here. Even local politicians have shared off-the-record frustration. The common thread is that each wanted Glasgow to succeed, but all felt that their views were not being heard by a local authority that thought it knew better.
The area has turned into a poundshop paradise - Photo EMILY MACINNES/GETTY IMAGES
Photo - SNS GROUP
Over the past few months, Glasgow city council has launched its Golden Z initiative with residents “getting a say” on the future of our main shopping streets. But the process moves at a glacial pace. There need to be tangible signs of the city’s reimagination to keep us motivated. The council’s energies seem to have been focused on the future of the Buchanan Galleries. While that’s valid, realisation of these plans is probably a decade away. We can’t wait for that to happen while Sauchiehall Street just gets worse. I’m not a politician or a planner. I’m just a passionate Glaswegian attempting to draw together strands from the conversations that I’ve heard. So, as I did a year ago, let me end with some suggestions:
Put party politics to one side. The council must be prepared to fight Holyrood for a fair deal for the city while simultaneously looking to Westminster for levelling-up funds. A listening project that just ticks the box is not enough. The city needs actively to engage with its stakeholders. Let’s have an initiative (perhaps a conference) that both celebrates our considerable assets and involves us in a shared vision. Good ideas are not the sole preserve of the council. In particular, working with business rather than against it will pay dividends. Given the enormity of the issue, consideration has to be given to public-private partnerships, harnessing the resources available so as to enable change to be effected.
A year ago, under the headline “It’s time to admit that Glasgow is a dump — but we can reboot it”, The Times published an essay in which I argued that Sauchiehall Street was dying, and that the city was in danger of going down with it. Denial wouldn’t help. It would take courage and imagination to pull the city back from the brink.
I could say that I was surprised by the response, but really I wasn’t. There were 250 comments online (almost universally concurring) and my inbox was swamped with emails from citizens, expat Glaswegians and visitors corroborating this view, often underlined with anger and frustration.
Perhaps it was conceit on my part, but what did surprise me was that the city council did not engage. Rather, the response came in the form of an article by Brian Evans, the respected city urbanist, published the following week, “A city must never grow tired of regeneration”, in which he referred to those who wrote in “manufactured sorrow” and “smugness of tone”. (Ouch!) Constructively, however, he said that Glasgow was making progress and if we could keep going, the city could achieve “dynamic equilibrium”.
A year on, are there any tangible signs of this progress? I walked the length of Sauchiehall Street this week from the Buchanan Galleries to Charing Cross and counted 38 empty units. I’m not including gap sites, nor commenting on the largely abandoned tenement properties above. I’ll also leave it to others to speculate on the odds that the Mackintosh will be rebuilt or if the site will remain sterilised indefinitely.
Many of the occupied shops appear to be on short-term lets to retailers selling vaping products, American candy and tacky souvenirs. In fairness, there are a few exceptions, including an excellent new record store and a couple of cafés. But the overall impression is that what was once Glasgow’s most important high street is now pound-shop paradise. For the purposes of this piece, I’ll restrict my comments to Sauchiehall Street, but Hope Street, Renfield Street and Argyle Street are not far behind in the sleaze stakes. The excuse of the pandemic doesn’t wash. Recent visits to London, Manchester, Leeds and Bradford suggest a strong recovery in play elsewhere. The problems are clearly more fundamental.
• Philip Rodney: It’s time to admit that Glasgow is a dump — but we can reboot it
Of course, it’s not all bad news. The enterprise zones to the east and west reflect a confidence that mirrors the aspirations of both Strathclyde and Glasgow universities. Shawlands and Finnieston are buzzing. However, without the beating heart of a confident, fit-for-purpose centre, how can Scotland’s largest city prosper in the longer term? Over the past 12 months, I have had unsolicited approaches from an array of people with different interests. Architects who have visions of Sauchiehall Street reimagined, not as a conventional retail high street, but rather as an edgy, exciting thoroughfare with low-cost or no-cost workshops, studios and apartments that would attract a new generation of creative talent.
Others have suggested that it could act as a showcase for the performing arts, given the proximity of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Scottish Opera and the Theatre Royal. Developers have told me how — if chunks of Sauchiehall Street were the subject of compulsory purchase orders — they would be prepared to invest in and implement bold plans. But entrepreneurs have explained how various initiatives had been suffocated by the council. Millennials and Gen Z-ers have said that while they love the city, its tawdriness and lack of vision have caused them to reflect on whether their futures lie here. Even local politicians have shared off-the-record frustration. The common thread is that each wanted Glasgow to succeed, but all felt that their views were not being heard by a local authority that thought it knew better.
The area has turned into a poundshop paradise - Photo EMILY MACINNES/GETTY IMAGES
Photo - SNS GROUP
Over the past few months, Glasgow city council has launched its Golden Z initiative with residents “getting a say” on the future of our main shopping streets. But the process moves at a glacial pace. There need to be tangible signs of the city’s reimagination to keep us motivated. The council’s energies seem to have been focused on the future of the Buchanan Galleries. While that’s valid, realisation of these plans is probably a decade away. We can’t wait for that to happen while Sauchiehall Street just gets worse. I’m not a politician or a planner. I’m just a passionate Glaswegian attempting to draw together strands from the conversations that I’ve heard. So, as I did a year ago, let me end with some suggestions:
Put party politics to one side. The council must be prepared to fight Holyrood for a fair deal for the city while simultaneously looking to Westminster for levelling-up funds. A listening project that just ticks the box is not enough. The city needs actively to engage with its stakeholders. Let’s have an initiative (perhaps a conference) that both celebrates our considerable assets and involves us in a shared vision. Good ideas are not the sole preserve of the council. In particular, working with business rather than against it will pay dividends. Given the enormity of the issue, consideration has to be given to public-private partnerships, harnessing the resources available so as to enable change to be effected.
We have to convert aspiration into reality with some quick wins. That requires an implementation team. Let’s create a Glasgow Reimagined task force bringing in talent, energy and wisdom to supplement the skills that the council has. Importantly, as well as those with a track record of success, it must include those who will live and work in the city for decades to come. And it needs a leader who can join us in common cause. The success of the Glasgow’s Miles Better campaign, 40 years ago, was in its power to share ownership of the city’s ambitions with all of us. Time to put the kettle on and get the custard creams out.
