'Rebuild, restore' – but recent history doesn't bode well

Everyone in the city appeared to have their own memories of meeting friends and loved ones at Union Corner as the stunning cupola crashed into the flames.

So when the First Minister took to his feet in the parliamentary chamber on Tuesday afternoon he was keen to offer reassurance - and funding.

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"Let me be clear today the Scottish Government will stand with the city of Glasgow as it recovers from this fire, and given the significant costs the city faces, we will back those words with cash to get that work started," he told Holyrood.

"We will rebuild. We will restore, and Glasgow will flourish again."

They were just the words - especially with the Holyrood election just weeks away - to make Glaswegians feel that indeed the government was taking action to address their sense of devastation.

Firefighters on Tuesday continuing to work at the site of the fire on Union Corner (Image: Colin Mearns)

But then answering a question from Glasgow Labour MSP Paul Sweeney, the First Minister gave a reply which indicated that Union Corner may not be rising from the ashes after all.

Mr Sweeney had pushed Mr Swinney on whether the gutted Union Corner building - with just its facade on Gordon Street remaining - would be faithfully restored like its neighbour across the road, the Ca'd'oro building, after a fire in 1987.

Answering Mr Sweeney's question, the First Minister gave no such guarantee.

"We are at the very early stages of that process in working out what can be undertaken and in the short term, there will be particular challenges about the stabilisation of what is a very vulnerable site to enable access to Central Station," he said.

"So if we want to have access at the earliest opportunity to Central Station, which is certainly my priority, there will be difficult decisions to make in relation to the existing site."

Those "difficult decisions" raise concerns to me that Union Corner could well become Glasgow's latest gap site and remain so for some time.

As my colleague Sandra Dick detailed today in her article on Glasgow's gap sites you only need to look at what has happened in the aftermath of previous fires at building's in the city to be a tad sceptical.

Sandra described how across the city centre, "devastating fires over the past two decades have left their mark in the form of stalled redevelopment plans, complex insurance battles, ownership disputes and ugly gap sites that remain stubbornly unfilled years later".

She noted gap sites at the Glasgow School of Art in Renfrew Street, at the nearby shell of the O2 ABC as well as at the site of the former Victoria nightclub on Sauchiehall Street.

Fire ravaged all three buildings in 2018 - the one at Glasgow School of Art took hold while work was underway to restore the famous building designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh after it was severely damaged in a previous fire in 2014.

Yet eight years on from the 2018 fires these sites are still in limbo.

It is a state of affairs which does not bode well for a swift resolution for Union Corner.

But perhaps Sunday's fire should be a wake-up call for a change in approach?

Architect Alan Dunlop told Unspun that despite the complications which can surround ownership and insurance issues relating to historic buildings, a way forward can and should be found so that no more of Scotland's largest city's historic properties are lost in future infernos.

"There has to be a recognition that the Victorian and Georgian architecture in Glasgow is extremely important. It has to be protected," he said.

"What we have is a world asset. We need to take care of it, promote and make sure it is kept safe."

Surely that shouldn't be such a difficult task.