Project of the week

Situated on Buccleuch Square in the heart of a former woollen mill town, this handsome two-storey sandstone building served as a police station from 1900 to 2010. After the station’s closure, the building remained vacant despite active marketing for commercial development by the local authority. In 2017, a high level of concern over the amount of local vacant buildings led to an asset transfer of ownership from Dumfries and Galloway Council to the Eskdale Foundation.

The Eskdale Foundation had relevant experience of providing accommodation for older people and understood the local market need, which was also seeing a drift of young people away from the area. The Foundation partnered with South of Scotland Community Housing (SOSCH) to adapt the former station into a mix of four affordable homes, including one accessible ground-floor home. Use of conservation-accredited architects resulted in the retention of original features and careful integration of appropriate energy efficiency measures.

Today, the former police station is no longer an empty building in the centre of town. Brought back into productive use, it provides four families with permanently affordable, warm, safe, and high-quality homes.

“It’s always great to be able to see a historic building being repurposed for housing - in this case, for much needed family homes, including imaginatively incorporating historic details such as former cells being repurposed as shower rooms!

"A great example of partnership working, the Eskdale Foundation and South of Scotland Community Housing have restored this handsome town centre building to its former glory and adapted it for a new use that meets an evidenced local need, contributing to civic pride and local sustainability. 

"We are so pleased to have been able to support this work and are happy to see it back in productive use at last."

Gordon Barr, Scotland Development Manager at the Architectural Heritage Fund