Egyptian Halls: New deadline set to save crumbling 153-year-old 'architectural treasure' in Glasgow

The Egyptian Halls on Union Street in Glasgow was put up for sale in March last year after being on the buildings at risk register since 1990.

The 153-year-old A-listing building, designed by famed Glasgow architect Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson, is mostly derelict, with only parts of the ground floor occupied by shopfronts.

Now a Glasgow City Council committee has approved an investigation period for the use of a compulsory purchase order (CPO). The CPO would either legally allow the council to acquire the property for its own use or to allow development of the site by another party.

Any parties interested in developing the building, including Dundee businessman Derek Souter, who owns the upper floors through two private companies, can submit proposals for the "repair, repurposing and future active reuse of the property".

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The deadline for any proposals to be submitted under the council’s decision is October 17. The existing owners have the option of selling the property up until that deadline.

The council said: "No applications for planning permission for reuse have been submitted by the current owners since 2012, and two recent engineering reports state that the continued decline in the overall building fabric has arisen through a prolonged lack of occupation and ongoing maintenance."

Viewings of the 51,529sqft floorspace at the Egyptian Halls cannot take place, the BBC has reported, due to the existing private ownership.

A previous attempt to use a CPO was carried out in 1996. Mr Souter said he was working on a pre-application for development and argued the new CPO would "wipe out 27 years of private sector investment".

Built in 1872 as a commercial premises for an iron manufacturer, the Egyptian Halls has had a controversial past, having been hidden by scaffolding since 2008.

The council has previously claimed the scaffolding is causing an “environmental, social and economic blight” as it is not being used to facilitate repairs, conversion or maintenance or serving any structural need.

Mr Souter has previously said the scaffolding has cost more than £700,000 since it was first installed and was there to protect the public.

The building, designed by architect Thomson from 1870 to 1872, is considered to be the pinnacle of the renowned architect’s work.