Argyll Works - Alexandria

[My Kitten]

Good building, shame its been "developed" into a crap shopping mall.

[Apollo]

Better preserved as rubbish that lost altogether though. I watched it lie derelict, expecting it to come down, and then they actually got the project underway. Visited it most Christmas times, and depressed to see it gwt quieter every year.

The building as such is long gone, and the retained section is really only the fascade. Fortunately, this includes the main reception area and the superb marble staircase it contains.

The fascade holds a corridor running from end to end, with the shop units behind, and the wall carries framed exerpts of the story of the factory in its various lives as a car factory and a wartime production facility.

The lower floor houses a small motoring museum, which moved there a few years ago from its first home in New Lanark.

Don't know how busy it is now, but it was reasonably busy when it opened. All the shops were basically fashion outlets or cleareance shops, with a record/games shop, Thorntons, and a cafe/diner.

In recent years its gone quiet, and last time I was there it was looking pretty miserable, with the shops beginning to look run down, a number of units lying empty, and not many people about either.

[Alchemist]

The building as such is long gone, and the retained section is really only the fascade. Fortunately, this includes the main reception area and the superb marble staircase it contains.

Yeah I know mate. My father has many a story about the place, from many
a year ago. The marble is class

[Apollo]

At least the Motoring Heritage Centre has and web site, and one of the pages features the very staircase:

http://www.motoringheritage.co.uk/html/the_centre.html



Regrettably, this is the only part of the centre that looks like this, and the rest is just shop units and breeze block construction tacked on the back. It is worth wandering around the fire stairs and rear accesses though, as the modern build is integrated in parts with remaining pieces of the original structure, which can still be seen:



Couldn't recall exactly what its wartime duty was, but this reminded me that its task was the construction of torpedoes.

When built, around 1905, it was the biggest car factory in the world. By 1910, it was non-profitable, turning out only 452 cars, half the number needed to break even.

Grade A listed, the restoration cost was around £6 million.

[My Kitten]

I have no issue with the restoration of the building, its the fact that they have thought to create a pretty uninspiring shopping mall inside. I think that the community would have been better served with possible some business units and/or community group space such as the like found at Ladywell or McNeill Street Library in the Gorbals.

It is a lovely building and I'm glad it has been restored but I came away feeling quite depressed.

[Vladimir]

There are far too many shopping centres. Heres a list:

East Kilbride


Braehead


The Fort



St Enoch



Princes Square



Buchanan Galleries



OVERKILL

And now another to add to the list at the new Pollok one.

[mrlipring]

Cheers for that second pic, my middle mouse button was needing the exercise

[teclo]

CROP!!!!

[Apollo]

My Kitten's hit the nail squarely on the head. Apart from the car museum, the rest of the is depressing. If they'd mixed something in that would have generated something for the local environment, it would have made the project so more complete.

Maybe some visionary in Alexandria will see the light, and use some of the empty units there for just that.

Don't know what list I'd include Princes Square in, but shopping mall wouldn't be one. Shopping malls generally have a use, like 'em or not.

[lordsleek]

I'm a happy consumer
I love malls
malls are great

Bill Hicks 1988 (he was right then he's right now

[teclo]

One problem is that the last time I visited it, most of the shops were shut, and what I remember being open was a crappy clothes shop selling cheap looking clothes and a crappy book shop selling those _Art_ books for a quid.

It could have worked if they managed to get some good shops in, but since Clydebank more or less runs the district and gets all the money then Alexandria and Dumbarton shopping areas are pretty much lacklustre because there is no money to draw _big_ names in.

[Vladimir]

Sorry about the big pic, just wanted you to get an idea of the scale of the place

"That this house notes with sadness the 10th anniversary of the death of Bill Hicks, on February 26th 1994, at the age of 33; recalls his assertion that his words would be a bullet in the heart of consumerism, capitalism and the American Dream; and mourns the passing of one of the few people who may be mentioned as being worthy of inclusion with Lenny Bruce in any list of unflinching and painfully honest political philosophers."

- Stephen Pound MP; Parliamentary House of Comons

[mrlipring]

generally speaking, 640*480 is a decent size and doesn't arse up the formatting of the site. Possibly 800*600 would fit too. I try to do all mine 640*whatever. if you use flickr you can upload the big version, but link to an automagically resized version which, when clicked on, links to the bigger version. If that makes sense.

[trudger]

a a a

[Apollo]

Concur.

One thing I found was that the staff were all nice enough folk, but none of them seemed pleased to be there, interested in what they were doing, or motivated in any way.

Older ones appeared to be happy to sit quietly as if they were just passing the time until it was time to close up, and the younger staff all seemed to be able to huddle away in corners with their their mates and spend their time gossiping.

Either way, not creating an atmosphere to attract folk back, or get visitors to send their friends.

It all perks up around Christmas, but is otherwise so depressing I never feel like detouring anytime I'm heading up Loch Lomondside during the rest of the year.