Students drag a disgusting Glasgow lane from the medieval era to modernity
April 22 2025
A bid to build student housing on a car park bounded by Old Wynd and Osborne Street in Glasgow city centre has been approved by Glasgow's planning applications committee with one objection.
Architect TP Bennett, acting on behalf of Dominus, has big plans for the desolate site, once at the medieval core of the city, by reactivating the city centre lane and improving onward connections to the King Street car park masterplan.
Concerns over the creation of a 'canyon' between the building in question and a sister student block opposite, where the reduced window-to-window distances will be evident over the narrow lane, dominated the discussions but these were dismissed as the hearing progressed.
Lending support to the application councillor Cecilia O'Lone observed that the condition of the current lane was 'disgusting' and that any development couldn't help but to improve the immediate environment.
Anticipating such concerns the applicant had previously conducted a daylight analysis of the project, qualifying any loss of light and privacy with the differing routines of students versus the general population. The applicant noted: "Students do not tend to spend most of the time in their rooms, can make use of communal spaces and generally value a variety of amenities such as access to public transport, libraries and university facilities other than natural light during their transient occupancy of the accommodation.
"As such, natural light is considered to be a less sensitive design matter than it is for dwellings and so a degree of flexibility is necessary..."
Building on a previously consented hotel scheme the current project will introduce an active frontage to the historic site in a setback red brick tower reduced to 13 storeys following earlier consultations.
Future adaptability for mainstream residential has been built into the design
Generous window reveals will further address privacy concerns
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8 Comments
The street trees are a speculation based on the masterplan for the King St car park by Stallan Brand. Not sure if any Section 75 agreements are in place to fund better public realm adjacent. I suspect not.
I think this could be okay - providing something of a counterpoint to the block opposite with its larger Crittal style windows. The expressed lintels here- copying out of Aldo Rossi's jotters. It is not a bad thing, but it would have been nice to vary the modulation just a bit to avoid the shot-gunned-unrelenting-array-of-windows effect.
As for the 'digusting lane', one can only hope that this, alongside its neighbour, will re-activate the route from Trongate to Osbourne Street by creating the passive surveillance that it badly needs. One hopes also the recently opened safe consumption room will help to stop both the anti-social behaviour and the aspects of discarded drugs paraphernalia that has blighted this lane and New Wynd.
One hopes that the King Street masterplan can get up and running soon given the recent positive news about rent caps. But the really intriguing site for me is the old C&A/ TJ Hughes buiding. How can it be re-modelled and re-integrated to address Trongate, Parnie Street and the possibilities of the new emerging masterplan. Perhaps the stalled Candleriggs sites will also get a dunt based on these developments .
1:32:00 Project architect surprised that councillor wishes to refuse.
It is always worth checking out these Planning Committees to see the process by which stuff actually gets consented. What they really show is the entirely disfunctional nature of this aspect of the planning system whereby officers recommend approval ie complies with all/most material considerations (or there is a mitigating balance) and councillors apply their own (non-material) predelictions to the procedure. This scheme was criticised by same councillor for not addressing (or giving a nod to) the Conservation Area and at the same time for not being 'modern' enough. It is kind of ridiculous. The safety net for developers is always the appeal (if refused) to Scottish ministers as happened to the M&S in Sauchiehall Street, but that means more delay and more cost.
The more you watch these webcasts, the more you realise that the system just doesn't work.
Indeed so. It has lost the Rossi-esque expressed lintels. Much more in line with the mainstream paradigm of PBSR. Alas.
I actually think that the 'canyon effect' so bemoaned in the Planning Committee might actually be one of the strengths of the 'new' New Wynd.
There seems to be an obsession with window to window privacy and the oft-quoted 18 metre distance which comes from suburban resi development where the recipe for dispersal and low density is back-to-back gardens of 9m - hence 18m from facade to facade. Could you imagine if this were the case in Barcelona Gothic Quarter or the Marais in Paris or most Italian cities? It is a dictat that is holding places back. There is a sensible approach to proximity - especially in the City Centre and there is clearly a silly that inhibits development.
The architects have missed a trick by not making a virtue of the fact that this is quite an old part of the city and the ghost of the former riggs stretching back from Trongate are still there. A time when it was the most densely occupied part of the city and the riggs host to a myriad of different uses. And the residences; cheek by jowel.
When you are on your uppers you can't quibble about design.
Bit blocky / lacking depth and subtlety but not that bad -- the issue is who will fill it and what kind of education will we be able to provide?
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