RHT Case Study - Kilmarnock

Kilmarnock Station regeneration C ASE STUDY

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock is the second largest town in Ayrshire, and sits on the main Glasgow & South Western railway line from Glasgow to Carlisle via Dumfries. It remains a major railway centre, with a through service from Glasgow to Carlisle, and terminating services to Glasgow and Ayr/Stranraer, along with Scotland’s last remaining rolling stock workshop.

Kilmarnock station is situated at a high level, and overlooks the town. It dates back to 1843, and the original buildings remain largely intact, along with much of the later 1878 additions, and the canopies on the three northbound platforms. However, the southbound buildings have been removed, and by the 1980s much of the station building was disused and almost derelict: only the booking office and waiting room remained in use. Over the last thirty-five years the Railway Heritage Trust (RHT) and other bodies have worked together to bring the station back up to a standard that matches its prominence.

Our first grant to the station was as early as 1985/6, but we really got involved ten years later, when we helped fund new windows, and gutting the derelict rooms, in the disused south wing buildings of their plasterwork, wiring, etc. This grant helped stabilise the building, and gave time for all the parties involved to work out a plan for the station.

In the 1970s British Rail had installed a floral clock on the station approach, visible as you approached the station from the town, and in 2011 we gave a grant of over ÂŁ100k to help the Council upgrade and restore this feature. This started the process of restoration, and was a clear statement to the town that the railway was back on the up.

In 2011/12 we had hoped to restore some units for a charity shop, but at the last minute this project did not go ahead.

However, at about the same time a local charity, Addaction, became interested in taking office space in the station, and, from this interest, local people set up a separate charity, the Kilmarnock Station Railway Heritage Trust (KSRHT), to project manage the restoration of the station. KSRHT has been amazingly successful, and the RHT has worked with it for the last decade, supported by both ScotRail and Transport Scotland, to bring all the disused space back into community use. The RHT has given KSRHT a series of ten grants between 2014/5 and 2020/21, totalling almost £488k, as a result of which KSRHT has been able to restore all the disused space in the station. The KSRHT has used this money, and funds from ScotRail and Transport Scotland, to leverage a series of other grants, so that their total expenditure to restore the station buildings is well over a million pounds. Happily, there is now an amazingly wide range of operations in what was previously derelict space, including: • Community café; • Second-hand book shop; • Community crafts shop; • Alternative therapies centre; • Railway Heritage centre; • Cycle hire and repair centre; • Training kitchen; • Drug addiction support centre; • Vegan takeaway (first in Ayrshire), and; • Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and person-centred counselling

In addition, the station provides space which other community bodies can hire for training or events.

At the same time as the KSRHT has brought the derelict space in the station back into use, the rail industry has upgraded the station for passengers, including: • Providing full disabled access to all the platforms; • Upgrading the main station subway, which provides a through route between the town and the college; and • Reglazing and repainting the canopy over the three northbound platforms As a result of strong local leadership, backed by the industry, with the ability to go out and seek all sorts of funding, Kilmarnock station has gone from being an urban embarrassment to being a thriving centre in the town, much appreciated by all involved.

5 1

6 7

2 3

4

1 Drug addiction support centre

2 Second-hand bookshop 3 Subway improvements 4 Community café

5 Canopy reglazing

6 Floral clock 7 Basement restoration and damp-proofing

Front Restored clock tower and refurbish offices below Back BR-style enamel signing

1 Eversholt Street | London NW1 2DN @RailwayHeritage | rht@railwayheritagetrust.co.uk | railwayheritagetrust.co.uk The Trust is registered in England and Wales Company number: 1876790