Five projects to restore historic buildings in Scotland have been awarded £1.7 million in funding.
The newly restored historic buildings will be used for community facilities, and have been awarded the funding as part of Historic Environment Scotland’s Building Repair Grants Scheme.
Buildings to be restored include the Edwardian Govan Hill Baths, which will play host to three community pools, the Old Achintore School, which will act as a Civic Centre for the town and offices for Highland Council staff, and the Dumbarton Academy, which will be used as the new West Dunbarton Council HQ. The former Davidson Cottage Hospital will be converted to an Enterprise Centre, whilst the former British Linen Bank will provide additional social housing units.
Jane Ryder OBE, chair of Historic Environment Scotland commented on the new scheme: “As the new lead body in Scotland’s historic environment, one of our key drivers is to facilitate and enable others to help protect the country’s built heritage. These five grant recipients are a fine example of that collaboration working in practice, where the building owners are drawing on finance and expertise from us, as well as working with partners – which usually include local authorities, community groups, and other investment bodies – in order to bring these important historic buildings back into reuse.
“The scheme isn’t just about repairing old buildings which have fallen into disrepair though: the end use of each of these projects is something which will greatly benefit the communities living around it. Not only directly by using the buildings for their new purpose, whether that be leisure, business, education or the arts, but by the impact which high-quality conservation and restoration works can have in the regeneration of an area.”
Restoration on heritage sites and historic buildings must be sympathetic, with technologies such as electricity, which wouldn’t have been around when the buildings were first built, being difficult to integrate with respect for the building’s original character.
Bespoke electrical installations
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