About us
The organisation has been formed to investigate the possibility of purchase and refurbishment of the Egyptian Halls, Glasgow. The new charitable body is in the process of being formed as a single-tier SCIO. The founding Trustees are as listed below.
The SCIO will be administered by the Director of the Scottish Civic Trust and will be provided with administrative and communications support through the Scottish Civic Trust.
Our Mission
The organisation’s purpose is to protect, rehabilitate and preserve for the benefit of the public the historical, architectural and constructional heritage comprising the properties at 84-100 Union Street Glasgow, known as the Egyptian Halls.
Our Trustees
Scott Abercrombie
Scott is an associate director with John Gilbert Architects, a conservation accredited architect and full member of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation. He is currently the conservation convenor of the Glasgow Institute of Architects and chair of the Alexander Thomson Society. He brings his knowledge of Greek Thomson and Egyptian Halls to the SCIO, alongside professional experience in developing complex adaptive reuse schemes centred around existing buildings.
John Mark Di Ciacca
John Mark is a Chartered Surveyor and has worked in both the private and public sectors. He has conceived and delivered several award winning projects ranging from long term gap sites through to large scale master planning and regeneration projects. He has held many executive and non-executive directorships, playing a leading role in their governance. Over recent years he has been invited to be an External Examiner for Edinburgh Napier University, a national judge for the British Council for Offices Awards and also the Saltire Housing Awards. He is presently a Trustee of the Scottish Civic Trust and a Community Representative for the Forth Bridge World Heritage Management Group. Always keen to give something back, John Mark regularly provides pro bono advice to third sector organisations, social enterprises and charities assisting them with their property needs and strategic direction.
Murray Grigor
Murray is a film-maker, writer and exhibition designer. He founded the Friends of Toshie in 1964 with Bill Williams and Bruno del Priore to help counter Glasgow's neglect. He also collaborated on Andrew McLaren Young's 1968 Edinburgh Festival Mackintosh Centenary touring exhibition that included his film Mackintosh. His 1970 TV programme on the planned devastation of Mackintosh's buildings in the wake of the ring road helped to initiate the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society in 1973. He has created further films on Robert Adam, John Soane and Alexander Thomson; a TV programme on neglect; and a Lighthouse exhibition with Gavin Stamp, Frank Lloyd Wright, Carlo Scarpa, Charles Gwathmey and John Lautner. Grigor directed the Edinburgh Film Festival 1967-72; British Film Institute's Film Production Panel 1969-74; the National Endowment for the Arts, Design & FIlm in 1978; Edinburgh Festival Board 1987- 91; was chairman of the Edinburgh Film Festival 1990-94; and director of Channel 4 1994-1998.
Catharine Kidd
Catharine is an experienced and professional heritage consultant dual qualified in Heritage Management and Urban Design. She has been a full Member of the Institute of Historic Buildings Conservation since 2007. She currently leads the Scotland Heritage and Townscape team at Turley, a planning and development consultancy. Catharine has provided strategic and pragmatic advice on the redevelopment and regeneration of historic buildings and townscapes for over 20 years. She has a sound understanding of the practical and commercial dynamics of bringing buildings back into viable new use. Her extensive heritage career in Scotland and the rest of the UK has involved helping commercial clients successfully navigate the complexities of historic environment designations and consenting processes; advising on regeneration frameworks for historic places; and, providing heritage project management to charities and social enterprises on grant funded historic building and townscape projects.
John Nicolson MP
John is the Member of Parliament for Ochil and South Perthshire. He is the SNP Westminster spokesperson for Culture and a member of the House of Commons Culture Select Committee. He sits on the Speaker’s Advisory Committee on Art. Prior to this, he graduated with an MA from Glasgow University and won a Kennedy Scholarship to Harvard where he was Harkness Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government. A journalist and broadcaster by profession, he has reported for a number of the BBC’s most high profile news and current affairs programmes including ‘Panorama’ and ‘Newsnight’. He has anchored both BBC and ITV network news including BBC ‘Breakfast’ which he presented for a number of years. He has restored a number of listed buildings from dereliction both in London and Glasgow and is a trustee of the Spitalfields Trust and Dennis Severs’ House.
Fiona Sinclair
Fiona is a Fellow of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, a conservation-accredited architect at advanced level, and sometime author and historian. She has twice been elected President of the Glasgow Institute of Architects, is a Trustee of the Scottish Civic Trust and has been a member of the Historic Buildings Council for Scotland. She is the author of Scotstyle – 150 Years of Scottish Architecture; co-editor of its successor publication Scotstyle 2016; co-author of the RIAS Architectural Guide to North Clyde Estuary, and the Penguin Buildings of Scotland volumes Argyll and Bute and Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire. Fiona serves on the Kilallan Kirk Preservation Trust, the Alexander Thomson Society, and as a Director of the Formakin Estate Garden Company. She has worked on the care and repair of a range of historic buildings, including scheduled ancient monuments, churches, country houses, estate cottages, tenements, designed landscapes, two synagogues, four fountains, a railway works, medieval town house and a malt whisky distillery. She is passionate about traditional building materials and the teaching of craft skills, and frequently collaborates with design-led architectural practices who do not have conservation accreditation in-house.
Eleanor Styles
Eleanor is a Trustee of the Scottish Civic Trust and a civil service policy professional working in the Department for Digital, Media, Culture and Sport. Her background is in the heritage and cultural sector, having worked as a consultant with clients across the UK, gaining experience in developing and delivering a wide range of complex change management projects. Prior to this she worked as a project manager at the National Trust and gained a masters in Heritage Management in 2016.
Paul Sweeney MSP
Paul is a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Glasgow Region, and previously served as the Labour & Co-operative MP for Glasgow North East in the House of Commons from 2017 until 2019. He is currently serving as Shadow Minister for Trade, Investment and Innovation, previously Shadow Under-Secretary of State for Scotland. He is a trustee of the Glasgow City Heritage Trust and a member of Glasgow Building Preservation Trust, leading walks as part of their annual Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival for several years. With a professional background in the Clyde shipbuilding industry, Paul was also involved in the restoration of the historic former Govan shipyard head offices into the Fairfield Heritage Centre, for which he won an award in 2014. After campaigning against the demolition of Springburn Public Halls in 2012, he founded the Springburn Winter Gardens Trust, which is working to restore the nearby Springburn Winter Gardens.
