WORK is to start on preserving the façade and towers of a historic building in Dennistoun as part of a major housing development.

The B-listed Golfhill School in Circus Drive is the focal point of a significant project by locally-based Spectrum Properties, which received planning consent last year.

The proposal envisages 18 flats built within the shell of the old school, which was in danger of requiring complete demolition.

The development will see a total of 133 flats on the school grounds complete with car parking, plus green spaces, including orchards, and paths across the site which will connect adjacent roads.

William Roddie, director of family-owned Spectrum Properties, said: “We are delighted that we are now able to make progress on this important new development for the Dennistoun area.”

Golfhill Primary School was designed by Alexander Nisbet Paterson and opened in 1902 as a classic example of a Glasgow School Board building.

Spectrum Properties, one of the largest property companies in Scotland, said that the work involved to save the historically-important building would be subsidised by the new build elements of the proposed plans.

Mr Roddie added: “The Golfhill School site had been closed because of subsidence and had lain unused for some 12 years before we bought it nearly four years ago.

“It is a substantial task to retain what can be salvaged of the building, including expensive and technically challenging façade retention but, as a local company, we feel an obligation to the people of Dennistoun to maintain a link to a history which means so much to so many people.”

“The plans will create areas which are desirable to both new and existing residents to pass through and linger in, an improvement on the overgrown and unsafe areas which currently exist on site.”

The Circus Drive development is the latest transformational scheme by Spectrum Properties, which has had a tangible impact on the built environment of the city by savingand repurposing architecturally pleasing properties

The company has converted sites such as Shakespeare Street School in North Kelvinside, Hillhead High School in Cecil Street in Glasgow, the former Hydepark Public School in Springburn and Shettleston Public Baths. It also converted art collector and city benefactor Sir William Burrell’s Great Western Road mansion.

Spectrum Properties directly employs 75 people and the same number of sub-contractors. It is actively recruiting to cope with rapid expansion.

Established by Mr Roddie in 1988, the company now has a portfolio valuation of £60million and a turnover in excess of £5million.