Changing the face of Dunoon

In any town, I suppose, there are moments that are destined to change its face for ever. Buchanan Street in Glasgow is to lose its steps to a huge glasshouse; Argyll Street in Dunoon is to acquire a totally unsuitable block of flats. This huge hole that is currently being dug out next to the historic, listed, recently reborn Burgh Hall used to be the site of one of the nicest looking churches in the town - St Cuthbert's. Clearly there were too many Church of Scotland buildings in a small area for the declining number of adherents, and it had to go. For a while it was still used as a venue for weddings and concerts - it had a splendid acoustic - and then it sat empty. Eventually kids got in and lit a fire, and shortly afterwards the building was demolished. 

For a good 20 years or more the site has been empty, populated by trees and bushes and grass. Where that wooden fence is was for a while cultivated and a public seat placed in an alcove. The town Christmas tree was erected there. People argued about the best use of the site. When the first lot of plans appeared, people protested. But the council over-rode all the arguments against putting high-density housing here, and for the past week a pile-driver has been battering at the rock that lies just under the soil.

And all this is probably of interest only to Dunoon folk, and people who grew up here and remember it as it was. But let's hope the developers have heeded what happens to pale-dashed buildings on a day such as today, or they'll be an eyesore in no time.