On December 8, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris will open its doors to the public for the first time since fire raged through the 14th-century building in April 2019. It has taken just over five years to restore the cathedral – an extraordinary achievement. Scotland’s much-loved Glasgow School of Art, also devastated by fire, has not fared so well. Two blazes in a decade and a restoration project mired in controversy have left the iconic art nouveau landmark shrouded in scaffolding.
In 2014, the first fire partially destroyed the building. A scarcely believable second fire in 2018 left only a shell standing. Painstaking, expensive work to recreate the library and other parts of the school which had just been completed, turned to ashes.
The people of Glasgow were incredulous. Twice they had lost this prized heritage building that had stood as a beacon of creative arts and culture for 125 years, exemplifying the “Glasgow style” of Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
