Rennie Mackintosh building in Glasgow to be sold and turned into museum

A Charles Rennie Mackintosh-designed former school in Townhead is set to be sold by Glasgow City Council and turned into a Scottish Catholic museum.

The Bishops’ Conference of Scotland are expected to take over the old Martyrs’ School on Parson Street if a £250,000 deal is backed by councillors this week.

It is planning to invest £1.75m in the A-listed property to create a “public museum of Scottish Catholic archives to house artefacts and artworks”, a council report reveals.

While not the highest bid received, council officials have recommended it for approval “given the overall merits”.

They add the unconditional offer of £250,000 has the “benefit of certainty, being a cash offer and not being subject to any suspensive conditions”.

Two other bids met the same criteria but were for commercial letting of workshop space, with some public exhibition space, and their occupation was “not guaranteed”.

Cllr Ruairi Kelly, SNP, the council’s convener for housing and development, said the plan was “great news for an important piece of Glasgow’s built heritage”.

“Without marketing this building, we would not have found such a positive outcome that not only secures investment but opens it to the public,” he said on social media.

The three-storey school building was designed for the School Board of Glasgow by Charles Rennie Mackintosh while he was an assistant at architectural firm Honeyman and Keppie and completed in 1898.

It is of “considerable architectural and cultural significance, being one of the earlier buildings attributed to Mackintosh”, the council report adds.

Used as a school and college until the early 1970s, the building has since been an arts centre and then council offices.

The Bishops’ Conference of Scotland’s plan for the property also includes some office space, and “proposes to link the subject to their existing ownership on the opposite side of the street”.

Marketing of the building began in October last year after it had sat empty for “a considerable time”. Five compliant bids were received by the closing date in March this year.

The council report adds: “It is proposed the subject will undergo a sensitive restoration and will have the prospect of a meaningful future as part of its local community.”