THE TALL STORY OF THE 400FT WHITE ELEPHANT

20 years after it opened, how Scotland’s most troubled tourist attraction became a world-class monument to misfortune

LOOMING over the Clyde like a disembodied fire escape in search of its high-rise, it is among the most recognisable components of modern Glasgow’s skyline.

True, it is less striking than the Clydeside Auditorium, whose interlocking ship hulls design accounts for its affectionate Armadillo nickname.

Sure, it is less loved than the Squinty Bridge, less useful than The Hydro, less evocative of the city’s maritime heritage than the hulking Finnieston Crane.

But the Glasgow Tower, which overlooks them all, at least maintains the distinction of being tallest.

It is now 20 years since this £10million rotating structure opened for business (albeit the nature of this business was not immediately apparent to all) – and it is almost as long since its first closure due to technical difficulties.

Many more snagging issues followed. Cables snapped, lifts failed and, at one stage, the 417ft tower shrank as it started sinking into the ground. Then ten people found themselves trapped halfway up and a five-hour rescue drama unfolded like a disaster movie.

The ill-starred tower may be Scotland’s tallest tourist attraction, but it is probably better known for being its most regularly mothballed one. Right now, it is on a two-year time-out from welcoming visitors due to social distancing rules.

From the very start the omens were not encouraging. Among the first to arrive for the official opening of the new Glasgow Science Centre in the summer of 2001 was the Queen. The newly completed tower, Her Majesty was informed, was not yet working. The frightening truth was that nobody was entirely sure it would ever work.

The original design had been submitted by architect Richard Horden in a 1992 competition looking for ‘big imaginative ideas’ for St Enoch Square in the city centre. Horden’s idea was a freestanding tower which could rotate 360 degrees from the ground up.

While it looked impressive on paper, nothing on a similar scale had ever been tried before. It would require world-class engineering ingenuity, substantial funding and, as it turned out, many years of trial and error.

The St Enoch Square project was never taken forward but when plans for a science centre took shape for the former docklands on the Clyde’s south bank in Govan, the tower was added into the mix. Part of the incentive was a £35million contribution for the centre by the Millennium Commission – the largest single donation it made in Scotland.

THE construction was riddled with problems and, according to Mr Horden, who severed links with the project in 1999, done ‘on the cheap’. A major early issue was the realisation that the two glass lifts were too heavy for the structure and caused overheating in the rotation mechanism.

It was not until October 2001 that the engineers and architects were confident they had a functioning rotating tower capable of conveying paying guests to the observation deck, offering 20-mile vistas in every direction.

The tower opened as a record breaker – the tallest fully rotating, free-standing structure on the planet – and, on paper at least, as an engineering marvel.

It burrows almost 40ft below ground level where its base bearing turns in an egg cup-shaped nest. It tilts – by design – in the breeze and swivels according to its direction to ensure it always faces into the wind.

Within weeks of the grand opening however, there was a closure of two and a half years. Engineers had discovered a bearing failure was causing the structure to sink into the ground. In order to get at the seat of the problem, the entire tower had to be raised onto temporary supports, prompting fears among architects that it might topple over.

Neil Baxter, then-secretary of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, told the BBC: ‘You had the potential prospect of ruining not just the tower, but also causing some pretty substantial damage to the science centre.’

Not until December 2003 was an end to the repair job in sight, but at that point the Science Centre revealed the tower would be closed all winter due to bad weather.

The next attempted opening was August 26 the following year but, within hours, a lift failure forced closure. Bosses tried again the following day and this time achieved almost two weeks of service before an eight-day repairs closure.

A few more days of business were achieved in the middle of September before gremlins struck yet again on September 22.

But those challenges were merely the warm-up for the catastrophe which unfolded on a January afternoon the following year. A cable on the underside of one of the lifts failed, triggering the emergency brake system and leaving four children and six adults trapped.

Firefighters arrived in their dozens. A mountain rescue team was summoned. Police and ambulance crews watched with bated breath as three attempts to rescue the lift’s occupants all failed.

One plan was to evacuate the passengers to the second lift but that was ruled out when it was found to be damaged too.

At one point an engineer climbed up the safety stairs which run inside the tower, abseiled down to the lift cab and clambered inside to calm the visitors, who had no food, drink or toilet facilities.

Things took another turn for the worse when, at 6pm, the lights failed inside the unheated cab, leaving everyone in total darkness – and freezing.

Ultimately fire crews used cutting equipment to remove part of the lift wall, built an emergency bridge into the cab and, using harnesses, walked the tourists to safety down maintenance stairs. Two of the terrified children were carried down by a firefighter.

It was the worst possible publicity for Scotland’s most futuristic tourist attraction. Not that it was in any position to welcome further visits. Another long closure followed, lasting most of the year.

The second half of that decade was, by Glasgow Tower standards, comparatively untroubled. But by 2010 it was clear another lengthy period of mothballing was due. ‘Technical issues stemming from its original design’ forced the decision in August 2010 and this time it was out of action for four years for a £1.8million refit.

By now the chorus of criticism for Glasgow’s towering ‘white elephant’ was deafening, rows simmered over the public money funding it and Science Centre bosses launched a lengthy legal battle with contractors over the failures. They won ‘substantial’ compensation in 2013.

PRIOR to the big reopening in July the following year, the tower was featured in a TV documentary entitled Incredible Engineering Blunders: Fixed. Many remained to be convinced.

Nevertheless, 13-year-old Emilija Morrison from Dunfermline was prepared to take it on trust – and that surely counted for something. Almost a decade earlier she was one of the children stuck in the lift when the cable snapped. Now she and her family had been invited back for the latest reopening day to see if she could conquer the fear of lifts the tower had instilled in her.

Happily the visit passed off without incident. ‘Maybe this will mean I won’t be scared any more,’ said the relieved teenager on returning to terra firma.

Since 2014 bosses have not even attempted to open their temperamental tower all year round. Its season now spans the summer months – April to October – and opening days only happen when wind speeds are lower than 25mph.

Lately, another proviso has been added. Opening days only happen when Scottish Government social distancing guidelines are not in place – which, since March 2020, has been never.

All in all, then, a challenging first 20 years for the venture which some believed should never have been attempted.

‘The fundamental thing,’ said Scottish architect Peter Wilson back in 2013, ‘is that when it was initially designed, it was never meant to be built. It was intended for an “ideas” competition.’

Whether or not construction was a good idea, the tower has surely earned its place in the skyline of Scotland’s largest city – even if, for many taking in the view, it is as a monument to dysfunctionality.

‘The tower is closed today’ says the top line of its page on the Glasgow Science Centre website. Familiar words indeed. But, says a spokesman, the tower ‘is working and will reopen in summer 2022’.

Until next summer, then. What could possibly go wrong?