Tollcross Winter Gardens restoration approved

Glasgow City Council has given the go-ahead for a project to restore Tollcross Winter Gardens in the city’s East End.

The B-listed conservatory, which is on the Buildings at Risk register, is currently in a “dilapidated condition”.

The Tollcross Park site will not be returned to horticultural use but will be designated for assembly and leisure purposes, including pop-up cafes, artisan and farmers’ markets, displays, and community events.

The neighbouring derelict Millennium Building is to be demolished to make way for a new pre-five centre.



A document submitted to the planning department stated: “The primary focus of the project is to address the dilapidated condition of the conservatory through a comprehensive programme of repair and conservation.

“The completed project will provide an opportunity to bring the structure back into active re-use as part of a wider project to re-develop the adjacent site as an early learning and childcare facility for Glasgow City Council education services.

“At present, the new use of the conservatory is not fixed, rather it is envisaged that the building will provide a range of possible uses that will benefit the local community and specifically users of Tollcross Park.”

The statement continues: “Temporary cafe facilities with indoor seating accessible to park users are central to the re-purposing proposals, however the conservatory also lends itself as a place of assembly for events, display and/or educational and community purposes.



“The current imperative is to progress with repair proposals and secure the long-term future of the conservatory.

“Thereafter the building will be managed to allow a sustainable programme of new activities to evolve and develop over a longer period of time.”

The design and delivery team intend that both projects will commence within weeks of each other in early 2021 and will be undertaken concurrently by the same main contractor, and be completed by the end of the year.


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