Clyde Street Centre

A decision on the future of the Clyde Street School has now been made.

This B listed building was originally designed by A N Paterson in 1903, as a 2-storey school in Scottish revival style incorporating 17th century Renaissance details. Until a few years ago, the school complex was used by a large number of local organisations for their meetings and for a variety of adult classes.

The building is currently owned by the local authority, and was the subject of Argyll and Bute Council's property rationalisation plan. Under this plan it was envisaged that several local Council offices could be relocated into one central accessible building, and the prefered choice was the Clyde Street Centre.

Argyll & Bute Council formally placed the building on the market in the Summer of last year and invited bids from potential developers. Helensburgh Heroes submitted a bid that would have restored and converted the building into a Living Arts Centre combined with the Council Offices.

Helensburgh Heroes proposed that the building could be restored and converted into a Living Arts centre that would be used by both the local community and visiting tourists 365 days per year, whilst also housing the Council Offices. The Council received three bids in response to its invitation to purchase.

On the 20th January 2009, at a meeting of the Council's Helensburgh & Lomond Committee, the decision was taken to reject all three bids as unsuitable, and retain the building for future use as a 'Civic Centre'.

We now await details of the Council's plans and, more importantly timescales for planned implementation, with interest.

Helensburgh Heroes remains convinced that the facilities that it wished to deliver within the Clyde Street School are needed by the local community and will continue to seek opportunities to bring them to fruition. The facilities that formed the heart of the Heroes bid included:

Multi Media Facilities
Music Studios and rehearsal rooms
Meeting Rooms
Family Film Themed Diner
Cinema
Function Suite
Wedding Suite
Art Rooms
Exhibition Space
Landscaped Gardens
Central Council Offices

A set of plans are available for download below.

We remain committed to our cause. We have not removed this project from our list as we believe that there will be many twists and turns to the Clyde Street Centre Story in the future. Whilst we can not actively pursue our plans, in light of the Council's decision, we hope that we may still have a role to play in assisting with the building's future development.

Any person or organisation that wants this or similar projects to materialise can get involved. If you have something to contribute, no matter how small, please contact us now.