Look at it now: girders stripped of stone, gaping windows, doors to nowhere. Every now and then someone stops to take a look but most people are heads-down, eyes-on-phones. The wind has caught a sheet of corrugated iron and the sound of it is accompaniment to the busker down the road having a stab at Flower of Scotland. And it’s Sunday morning as well: the optimum time for feeling sad.
Couple of reasons for the sadness. First: the building that used to be here, the cinema/music venue O2 ABC, is home to quite a few happy memories for me, especially Adam Ant: best gig ever (after Morrissey, Barras, ’94). Louise and I danced to Stand and Deliver and Antmusic and Puss ’n’ Boots and all the rest, and it was a happy, happy night, and you’re always trying to get back to the happy nights again in a way aren’t you?
Second reason: the front of the old ABC may not have been the most beautiful building in Glasgow, but it had been there since the 1890s and its demolition and destruction is part of a melancholy story we know now: the disappearance, bit by bit, of large parts of the city’s built heritage. Sometimes it’s deliberate; sometimes it’s neglect; often, as with the ABC, it’s by fire.
What makes it worse, frequently, is the new buildings we get to replace the old ones and in the case of the ABC, we got the first idea this week of what might rise from the ruins. It’s called House of Social and it would include – but of course – student accommodation, as well as a food hall, public courtyard, bar and gym. The drawings show a warehouse-like structure that’s become familiar in Glasgow because that’s what happens in architecture: trends spread and suddenly it’s everywhere. What do I think of the plan? Meh.
The positives are........