Bungo Mission hall will rise from the ashes

Strathbungo’s tiny Thomsonesque temple in Nithsdale Drive will be saved, despite being badly damaged by fire over the summer.

It’s thought suggestions for its restoration might include a community-based arts project of some sort.

According to the Heritage and Design Team at Glasgow Regeneration Services, the roof was burned off and the interior extensively damaged in the blaze on 21 July, but the Grade B listed facade was not affected.

Building Control confirmed on 9 August that the building was not dangerous and the Council has since put in support scaffolding to retain the walls.

Senior Planning Officer Mike Fraser said: ‘The Council is confident that a suitable community use can be found and discussions are taking place to determine its future. In short, the building is in no danger of being demolished.’

It was designed by Alexander Skirving in 1887 as a mission hall for Queens Park United Presbyterian Church. Skirving (c1846-1919) is best known for the Battlefield Memorial at Langside (with sculptor James Young). Nearby Skirving Street was named after him.

Just as Skirving would never achieve the stature of his mentor Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson, the wee hall was on a decidedly more modest scale than its illustrious mother church. Behind its classic sandstone front, gates and railings was a tiny structure made of humble brick — no doubt the elders of the kirk felt that would do for feeding and proselytising the urban poor!

Sadly, Queens Park Church, considered one of Thomson’s masterpieces, was destroyed by a German incendiary bomb in 1942. The Nithsdale Drive hall escaped that fate but fell derelict over time and eventually came into Council ownership.

Small and quirky, it’s latterly been surrounded by the modern sprawl of the Arnold Clark organisation.