Glasgow council wants more mixed-use development in the city centre, but it is finding that residential and leisure schemes can be uncomfortable bedfellows. Adrian Morrison reports
Since time immemorial, revellers and sophisticates have made the weekly pilgrimage into Glasgow’s core to part with their hard-earned cash in its restaurants, bars and clubs.
Recently, in line with government guidelines, the city council has encouraged residential development in central areas so that people can work, rest, and play in the epicentre. The aim is to generate sustainable schemes and create a 24-hour culture with not a car in sight.
But the increasing residential activity and the continuing leisure flurry are coming into conflict. Consequently, the council is tightening up on planning consent, and increasing pressure is being brought to bear on licensing authorities to restrict the number of new permits.
Making licences more difficult to obtain could, however, kill the cash cow on which Glasgow’s regeneration has largely depended.
As more leisure comes into the centre, residents’ groups are resisting potentially noisy schemes on their doorsteps. Trade associations, representing restaurateurs and licensees, are also exerting force to restrict the number of new operations.
The council, however, is trying to utilise the city’s central brownfield sites and promote mixed-use schemes with a residential element. It seems caught between a rock and a hard place.
Montagu Evans’s Bill O’Hara believes that the guidelines on what developers can and cannot do are clearer than ever. Developers are aware that they need to locate schemes near transport interchanges and generally follow government planning policy.
Nevertheless, he says: “There is a perception that planners are being more pernickety about everything and applications are taking longer.” He adds: “It will be more difficult for [nightclub] applicants to get licences in the future.”
Some agents cite the closure of the Shed nightclub, on the city’s south side, as a warning of what could happen in some of the newer leisure circuits. People living near the club complained about noise levels, and eventually it lost its licence.
Some believe that the Merchant City could become a potential problem area, if residents turn against the rapid expansion of leisure outlets there.
Chorian has experienced some problems gaining a licence to roll out its Tiger Tiger concept in Glassford Street because of resistance from residents’ groups.
When regeneration of the Merchant City started in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was launched on the back of residential schemes. But development ceased during the slump and it was not until more recently that leisure amenities were rolled out.
CB Hillier Parker’s Raymond Gormley says: “Some people who bought residential back in the early days have experienced a bit of a time lag, and the recent activity might be interpreted as an intrusion by them.
“But if you make a conscious decision to live in the city, you are making a lifestyle choice and want to be close to the action,” he adds.
Gormley remains incredulous about the action taken by residents’ groups over Chorian’s Glassford Street scheme, because there is no nearby housing and the street is a noisy bus route. Perhaps the residents’ real concern is that a high-profile operation such as Tiger Tiger could prompt further schemes.
The number of licences granted for upmarket bars and restaurants has not fallen, but the council has put in place a number of rules to control development. It has said, for example, that no consent for a bar will be granted on the ground floor of commercial or residential premises where one has not historically existed. This is to prevent noise transfer to upper levels.
While this restriction may appear not unreasonable, it could dramatically limit the number of new schemes, given the high proportion of tenement buildings in the centre.
Blanket ban not necessary
Alan Creevy of Creevy LLH believes such a blanket ban is unwarranted. He says: “It depends on the level of residential. People tend to live in the Merchant City or the West End, but not right in the core. I think you should let the market run its course: it will sort itself out in the end.”
Although the prediction, from a variety of sources, is that leisure spending will continue to rise in coming years, some commentators agree with the trade associations that the market is becoming saturated.
John Murray, of law firm Shepherd & Wedderburn WS, says from his St Vincent Street office: “There have been too many, too quickly. Within four or five blocks of here you can find half a dozen bars that have opened in the past year. What started out as a good use of older buildings has been taken to an extreme.”
O’Hara agrees, thinking the national phenomenon of leisure expansion, which is particularly exemplified in Glasgow, must sooner or later hit a brick wall. “It is very, very difficult to see that change and diversity continue in the long term,” he says.
Property professionals can only hope that the concerns of residents and trade associations will not interfere too greatly with proposals for the new local plan. The final draft came out in the spring – to agents’ approbation, because it recognises further potential for leisure expansion in the core.
“The council’s key concern,” says Philip Neaves of Chesterton, “is to try to juggle all the balls: its worry is that it will reach a compromise that will satisfy no-one.
“But you can design out those kinds of problems, with features such as double glazing.”
The new plan seeks to encourage further migration into the centre, through the residential use of older buildings. A further aim is to see more older buildings converted to leisure use, which has additional benefits.
Neaves says: “The council sees scope for further leisure operators to come in. They see leisure, and particularly theme pubs, as a way of saving some historic buildings in the city.”
He cites Crystal Palace bar in the Waterfront area as an example of a Grade A listed building that has been brought back into public use with its structural integrity maintained.
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Recent and new large-scale licensed developments in Glasgow |
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Glasgow city council is tightening up on new licensed premises |
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Outlet |
Address |
Scale |
Developer/Operator |
Date |
|
Arta |
Merchant City |
Bar/restaurant/club |
Stephan King |
2000 |
|
Quigley’s |
Bath Street |
Bar/restaurant |
Unknown |
2001 |
|
Esquire House |
Anniesland |
Complete redevelopment and extension |
JD Wetherspoons |
2001 |
|
Crystal Palace |
Jamaica Street |
New bar |
JD Wetherspoons |
2000 |
|
Henglers Circus |
Sauchiehall Street |
Redevelopment of former Shenanigans |
JD Wetherspoons |
2001 |
|
Bar Ha Ha |
Hope Street |
New bar operation |
Yates |
2001 |
|
Milton Hotel |
Argyle Street/Washington Street |
128 rooms plus 12 luxury apartments |
Milton Hotels |
2001 |
|
Novotel & Ibis |
Pitt Street |
253 bedrooms |
Novotel |
2001 |
|
Bewleys |
Bath Street |
100 bedrooms |
Bewleys Hotels |
2000 |
|
Langs Port |
Dundas Place |
100 bedrooms |
Prestwick Hotels |
2000 |
|
Tiger Tiger |
Glassford Street |
New bar/club venue |
Chorion |
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No 1 Glasgow |
George Square |
New deluxe 128-bedroom hotel |
Stephan King |
|
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Radisson |
Argyle Street |
250 bedrooms |
MWB |
|
|
Grosvenor Cinema |
Ashton Lane |
New bar/restaurant/ cinema operation |
Stephan King |
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La Scala |
Vinicolm Street |
Former Littlejohns being refurbished |
Stephan King |
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Campanile SECC |
Glasgow |
New hotel @ rotunda |
Campanile |
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ABC Leisure |
Sauchiehall Street |
Bar/restaurant/club development |
Pilton Developments |
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Edwards café-bar |
Renfield Street/West George Street |
New bar |
Six Continents (Bass) |
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Source: Creevy LLH |
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