I miss The Lighthouse. I miss the feeling of disappearing behind the copper-clad BOAC building into another world, so close and yet so far away from Buchanan Street’s revolving door of fast fashion chains. I miss losing my breath at the top of the 134-step spiral staircase. I miss looking out across Glasgow city centre in all its dissonant architectural glory. And I miss how I felt free and inspired just from that bird’s eye view alone.

It was, therefore, a brilliant start to the week when reports swirled that the Charles Rennie Mackintosh gem might actually reopen. A mystery organisation appears to be in talks with Glasgow City Council chiefs to take over operations of The Lighthouse, which would include public access. It’s been five years since it closed, perhaps conveniently, in the throes of the pandemic. The cash-strapped local authority can’t afford to staff it, they say (through lips so tightly pressed together their chins are quivering). But The Lighthouse, Scotland’s Centre for Architecture and Design, has always been a bit of a sticky institution with the council and historically it’s had some issues in the financial department. So why do we not just return it to the city, but return it in a sustainable way?

It was Mackintosh’s first public commission, designed for The Herald and completed in 1895. When the newspaper moved out in 1980 after 112 years, the Category-A listed building sat unloved until a 15-month, £8.5 million refurbishment saw it reopen as “The Lighthouse” in 1999. The Queen came all the way to Mitchell Lane for the occasion, which coincided with........

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