During last weekend's Doors Open Day, many locals will have reacquainted themselves with the modest charms of the Glasite Meeting House on Barony Street.
This deliberately unassuming building is no longer used for religious gatherings, but is the national headquarters of the charitable Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland (AHSS).
In its own words, AHSS encourages 'public understanding and appreciation of our built environment, and supports the thoughtful and meaningful preservation and restoration of historic buildings'.
At a more immediate and local level, the organisation is working hard to preserve the physical structure of the Glasite Meeting House, and to find historically appropriate and cost-effective options for those parts of the building which it doesn't use. Occasional lets already take place, but more long-term tenancy arrangements and Festival possibilities are also being considered.
AHSS produced an information leaflet on the day, outlining the building's past, and has kindly agreed to make it available through the Spurtle. Just click on the pdf at the very foot of this page (below the cupola). Interestingly, it emerges that the Glasites were committed and patient worshippers, but far from the dour-faced misery guts of popular imagination. Their children, it seems, bored and restless, were every bit as capable of misbehaving as our own.
In a related development, AHSS's Forth and Borders Group has recently announced its new Winter programme of lectures, all of which start at 6.30pm, are open to the general public, and cost £5 each for non-members (£2.50 for students). The first will take place outwith Broughton, but subsequent lectures are held in the Glasite Meeting House itself at 33 Barony Street:
- Gavin Stamp, 'The Life, Work and Changing Reputation of Sir George Gilbert' (Main Lecture Theatre, Edinburgh Art College; Wednesday 12 October)
- Professor Mary Gibby, 'The Victorian Fernery at Benmore' (Glasite Meeting House; Monday 7 November)
- Bryan Park, 'Museums and Galleries of the 21st Century – Realising the Potential while Conserving the Past' (Monday 5 December)
- David Mitchell, 'Digital Documentation of the Historic Environment and the Scottish Ten Project' (Glasite Meeting House; Monday 6 February)
- Gordon Barr, 'Scotland's Architecturally Diverse Cinemas' (Glasite Meeting House; Monday 5 March)
- Alice Custance-Baker, 'Stone Conservation: from Theory to Practice' (Glasite Meeting House, Monday 2 April).
