Call to preserve City Hall in its entirety

Sep 23 2011 by Gordon Bannerman, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

Dear Editor, – I was outraged to learn of Perth and Kinross Council’s decision to demolish the City Hall.

One of Perth’s finest buildings which commanded such civic pride for a hundred years is to be obliterated solely due to the mismanagement of the council.

In every city around the world the City Hall has been revered as a symbol of the glory and strength of the community to which it belongs.

Instead of endeavouring to protect such an undoubtedly magnificent example of Edwardian architecture, the council seeks to remove one of its most spectacular buildings only to replace it with an empty space.

The concept of a continental style piazza is foolish, pretentious and disingenuous; foolish because the Scottish climate would preclude the public from using it for all but a few months of the year, and most of the time it would be frequented by drunken louts and strewn with litter, pretentious because Perth has its own unique charm, and should not have to try and emulate the way of life of any city in continental Europe, and disingenuous because the council’s real aim having now built the Conference Centre, is to do nothing with the building until such times as it falls into disrepair, and then make a case for knocking it down.

The councillors’ behaviour is utterly shameful. They would have made little or no attempt to seek possible uses for the City Hall in the past five years, instead attempting to convince the residents of Perth that the building has outlived its usefulness in modern society.

Demographic changes occur naturally, but it is the council’s duty to address these changes and to preserve our wonderful heritage instead of wilfully destroying it.

Unlike an old cinema which has had to give way to changing technology in the form of television and the internet, there is always a use for a building which can bring the community together for local events, such as art shows, exhibitions, meetings, award ceremonies, galas, etc.

I would not consider a part-demolition option. This would mutilate the building and render it grotesque and meaningless.

It must stay in its entirety as the architect Henry Clifford intended in1908. When an oligarchy of councillors vote for what might later prove to be a catastrophic decision for the city and for Scotland, the bulldozers move in, the building is lost to the nation forever, and no-one is ever held responsible for such a calamitous and tragic loss to the community. We have £3 million wasted, the councillors move on or retire in due course and one of Scotland’s most attractive buildings, which echoes and represents the spirit of the city of Perth has been wiped off the face of the earth, just as if it had been a victim of the Blitz.

Perth City Hall has survived two world wars, but now those who seek its destruction are the very ones who were voted in by the people to serve them and to protect the priceless assets of the city.

I have written one hundred letters to those who sent in their objections to the council, and have hurriedly set up an e-mail address so participants may add their voice to the campaign.

Send your protest, which need only be ‘I strongly object to the Council’s decision to demolish Perth City Hall’, to saveperthcityhall@gmail.com and objectors will be able to communicate freely as a group, and when support for the cause starts to snowball, the council will have to bow to the demands of the people of Perth and preserve this building of outstanding and remarkable grandeur.

Barry Pringle,

by e-mail.