George Square statues on the move while out of sight
April 25 2025
Rainton Construction are in line to deliver a major redesign of George Square, now shrouded in hoarding, ahead of a site start in June.
Subject to a pending committee hearing the contractor will deliver the centrepiece of the broader Avenues plan in a £20.5m contract to pave the public space in stone and introduce informal 'play’ areas for children in sensory gardens in the east. A raised lawn platform, trees, seating and lighting will also be introduced to designs by John McAslan & Partners.
Encompassing North Hanover Street (between Cathedral Street and George Square); George Street (between Montrose Street and George Square); West George Street (between Nelson Mandela Place and George Square); Cochrane Street and St Vincent Place, the works will be delivered over two phases with the square reopening in August 2026 ahead of the full project wrapping up in spring 2027.
As part of this process 11 bronze statues will be removed from the square next month for conservation and restoration.
25 Comments
£20.5mill spend for a very light refresh of the square when we have the DIY waste tips on Lochend Road and Commonhead Road.
£20.5mill spend on re-surfacing a perfectly adequate public space when street cleaning and road repairs have been reduced to a performance art level -- high days and holidays -- instead of the public service that we need.
And now it is going to take 24 months to complete -- this is student level politics at its worst.
This is just spending other peoples money just for the sake of it.
And we have another! Perhaps you and FBOT could go into the cost project management biz together. :)
Please share your proposed program for the works. :)
2.5 'Whilst there was an aspiration in early design stages to include a water feature
as part of the redevelopment plans, this was removed from the tender
documents to ensure that there was sufficient project budget to undertake the
core works. Given the value of the landed tender for the Block C project, there
is insufficient project budget remaining to include the water feature and it no
longer forms part of the project scope.'
Many folk, myself included, rather hoped that this meant that the square's days of use as a theme park were numbered - ie the western half of the square becomes a feature that is open but is no longer appropriate for these kind of events. Without the water feature, it is just an open flat piece of square available again to the highest bidder. I thought this iteration of the square would mean that last of that. Over and above this, it seems that a promised and supposedly integral part of the design is now lost because somehow they undercooked the budget (or over-promised on the design).
I expect the local press will pick up on this fairly quickly (they will if they read this) and they can add it to their repertoire of Sauchiehall St bashing. This is something of an own-goal given that spades are about to go in the ground. The recent outside exhibition boards in the square did well to bury this - or - at least to ensure zero mention of this exclusion from the blue network. Poor, poor form... :(
https://onlineservices.glasgow.gov.uk/councillorsandcommittees/viewDoc.asp?c=P62AFQDN81ZL0GUTDN
Also interestling the council seemingly were warning in 2023 that the water feature was planned “subject to serviceability and site conditions”.
https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/scottish-news/23969325.fresh-images-show-george-square-transformed/
Quite why this is so - given that site conditions are only usually established on-site and serviceability can easily be gleaned from systems deployed elsewhere - seems to be setting the proposal up to be removed. ie hedging their bets.
It all seems very...erm...odd.
Yeah - it may well divide opinion, but the point is/was that it was part of the agreed scheme that had been put out to consultation, given backing and incorporated into finalised drawings. The fact that it has been pulled at such a late stage is, well, as I've said earlier, a real own goal on the part of the council. Can you point to where the council has acknowledeged this aversion to private uses and the potential damage? I am willing to put money on it hosting private/tented/ events or exhibitions within the year of its opening.
Anyone know what the wee orange box at the foot of the Scott mounument that looks like a 1940's news stand?
This part of the square is now a large, unrelieved open plaza with little in the way of the spatial or material definition that the water feature would have provided. Notice too how Victoria and Albert just get unceremoniously dumped ( in effect just left where they are) on the edge of the plaza with little or no rhyme or reason.Presumably as another cost-cutting excercise. Creates a kind of imbalance and goes against the really intricate narrative of the positioning of the statuary. Looks odd.
Whether you like it or not, it seems to have pulled the rug from under the McAslan's design narrative given that it was meant to be the centrepiece of essentially one half of the square. The council are clearly trying to deflect from this and I think awkward questions need to be asked. One of those questions should be - has the current design been future proofed so that the square COULD be retro-fitted with a water feature in the future ?
It seems it's defenders are slowly coming in from the cold as the designs are further reduced and the time frame further extended but still can't admit it to their FAT BOT nemesis.
If only these avalanches of warm words could be translated into positive logical physical actions.
Then we might live in a dynamic forward thinking city rather than a ham-strung, colonial backwater rapidly headed for deeper transport chaos, dereliction and ongoing ruination of sustainable local small businesses.
'Timeframe further extended' - you must know something that we don't, perhaps even the project team don't know. Don't be shy, please expand.
N'est-ce pas?
Cue new torrent of warm words from then some pointless questioning and he said she said whataboutery that changes none of the cold hard facts of failure and waste.
We can all do a lot better than this.
For the avoidance of doubt - there are 2 contracts which the 2nd image above shows very clearly and which the article makes abundantly clear. Note also, if you read the committee report that there is no mention of the number of months of the contract duration rather that:
• Phase 1 - which includes the whole of the square , St Vincent Place and West George Street (completion Aug 2026) I make that 15 months
• Phase 2- which includes Cochrane St, George St and North Hanover Street (completion spring 2027). In the abscence of a start date, this is impossible to determine contract length. However, if you choose to infer that it starts when Phase 1 works are complete, then it could be 7 months (to March 20th) or 10 months ( to June 21st)
It helps to read the article n'est-ce pas?
Second rule of holes -- When you stop remember you are still in a hole.
Third Rule of Holes -- Better to be quiet and crawl out with dignity than shout from the bottom and attract a crowd.
George Square is the poster child of Council waste / lack of energy / public sector laziness for our generation.
The bill remains the same but we get less and less with every passing review / report / redesign.
Currently £20mill plus for a few statues tarted up / some new paving / some grass borders.
No matter the limited workload George Square plus part of the adjacent roads will be out of bounds for 18 months and will be followed by 9 months of further carnage in nearby streets.
The centre of town will be a warzone for the next two years and some suggest we should be grateful -- aye right ya zoomer / yer da sells Avon / away oot and play tig with the buses.
Even by SEG / GCC / Nat student politics standards this is a shocking waste of money -- too much white collar effort and all too little blue collar involvement.
I wonder if statue maintenance is very specialised / high margin work?
FBOT was the first paragraph here your opening remarks in your proposed accelerated project program preamble ? :)
We will look to these remarks with increasing regret as the project moves forward and the fact your sage-like wisdom and observations didn't win the day. Ultimately we are all in the shadow of such dizzying intellect.
Alas.
P.S.
Can you enlighten us as to what a reasonable project budget should be? :)
Apples for apples comparisons are usually for the better.
George Square project timings -- I wish some people would save the smugness for its completion.
Many a slip between cup and lip ...
You know the script -- waking up in the morning and the water feature was gone.
It is just too meek, weak, slow, wasteful, disorganised and generally way below par for a once great city's main square and environs.
Avenues projects have already failed so why keep banging your head off the same brick wall?
Och come on FBOT - don't be so modest - let's hear your figure - with or without or both - you choose. Your previous posts seem to assert an excessive budget and project program. All we're asking is for you to share your inside track on costings and timescale.
Don't be shy now...
In other news -- Screwfix has a flash sale on ladders.
The discount code is "Riddy50%".
Batter in.
Your really are a modest fellow. Stop hiding your light under a bushel and let us know what the real costs are - or perhaps go get that dicounted ladder and pull yourself out of that hole you dug for yourself. :) :)
A bit like George Square where slow motion indolence is the work vibe on offer.
Joke of a project from start to finish.
New paving a few trees being treated like was a new pyramid in Giza.
Low energy stuff getting the full AI inspired press release treatment.
Not good.
Funny nevertheless. We're lucky he is commenting here and not in comments section of the Evening Times.
'slow motion indolence' is a keeper...:) :) :)
Handy for escaping the very deep rabbit holes of whataboutery denial of time/cost logic?
Or more likely, for a dignified descent from the ivory towers of virtue signalling nonsense erected around the failed avenues projects and George Square's stunningly modest, costly and slow paving rethink?
Post your comments
Back to April 2025
Like us on Facebook
Become a fan and share
Alas, these public authorities and their major public realm projects are a fickle and short-sighted bunch...:)