Should St Peter’s Cardross ruin be added to the national portfolio of heritage properties in care?

BBC News article

Following the collapse of the project to turn the ruins of St Peter’s Seminary at Cardross into an arts and cultural centre by arts organisation NVA, the future for the site has been looking very uncertain.  The site is still owned and managed (i.e. secured for health and safety) by the Archdiocese of Glasgow, who starkly admitted at the weekend to BBC News that the site is an ‘albatross around our neck’.

The site comes with significant conservation challenges, and it is a great shame that the development plans which had reached an advanced point were unable to proceed.  Love the building or loathe it, it is arguably an iconic site, arguable moreso in its ruined state with so many possible human responses to it. Ruins and their treatment have been back in the spotlight of late – whether via urbex (highlighted by Bradley Garrett); academic consideration such as De Silvey’s ‘Curated Decay‘; or the British Library’s recent consideration of literary responses to ruins.  Much has been written about the Cardross site itself, including a dedicated volume published by Historic Environment Scotland during the time of the most recent rejuvenation proposals.

If ever there was time for serious consideration about the site being an addition to the national portfolio of monuments held in care for the nation either via Guardianship or direct ownership of Scottish Ministers, then this is it.  The state via its national heritage agencies still (I would argue) has a moral duty to act as owner of last resort for important sites such as St Peter’s.   It is understood from the BBC News article that the Scottish Government (I assume via Historic Environment Scotland) is currently considering the site’s potential future. What better and fitting addition to the Historic Scotland catalogue of sites, which includes so many other religious buildings such as the great Border abbeys, than a 20th century building which can currently find no further use than as a ruin but which plays an ongoing role in the public psyche.  Just as English Heritage has been reinventing its approach to the national heritage estate in England, the opportunity in Cardross for Historic Environment Scotland to do something original at a ‘similar but different’ kind of site is intriguing – I hope that we may yet see the site as a new ‘property in care’ for Scotland.

Remote control urbex on TV

Channel 4 has been running a series of docu-shorts exploring derelict and abandoned sites using drones.  Each ‘Drones in Forbidden Zones‘ film is approximately 2-3 minutes long, and comprises fly-through and fly-over of a variety of different sites in the UK, including power station cooling towers, an abandoned theme park, and Crossrail.  The atmospheric films have included commentary from people involved with the site as former workers, residents and explorers.  At the intersection of heritage, urbex and what has been labelled in some instances ‘ruin porn‘ or ‘rustalgia‘, the films are nonetheless instructive in presenting depictions of sites and buildings in the process of ‘becoming’ – becoming derelict; becoming ruins; becoming heritage sites; becoming complete; or becoming something else.

Ruins and derelict sites have become a distinct subject of exhibition and study of late. Ruin Lust (held at the Tate Gallery) is notable for providing a wide art history context, whilst Bradley Garrett’s ‘Explore Everything: Place-hacking the City‘ considers the behavioural aspects of adventure and opportunity in trying to experience cities via off-limits or forgotten spaces.