New life will finally be breathed into an empty Buckie building that has served the community for decades.
In around 1889, the ‘prominent well-detailed baronial tenement block’ with four shops at 1-3, Bank Street was built by local businessman John Simpson.
Over the years, it has housed a pet shop and a hairdressers, among other things.
Now Neilian Toms has purchased the building after being attracted by the architecture.
She is working in partnership on the major project to turn it into a family home with local contractor Matthew Thornton.
What led to the purchase of the Buckie building?
Neilian revealed: “I live in Buckie, not far away from the building and I have walked passed it numeral times with my dog.
“It is a beautiful building and I have an interest and conversation and preservation of buildings.
“Last September, joiner Matthew Thornton and I first looked inside the building as we were looking for a project and it was stunning.
“When we returned from three months away to Europe , I decided to purchase the building as it would be horrible for an important heritage building to be lost.”
Long-term project
Neilian promises locals she will be as respectful as possible when transforming the building into a home.
The project which will be done in three phases has been widely welcomed by the community.
She said: “I can’t preserve everything, but I will be as respectful to the building as possible.
“Buildings gets lost or bought and preserved with some changes.
“It is great to hear locals welcome the project.
“I will be there in the building for between seven to 10 years.
“The phase one is to make the building weather proof and structurally sound.
“It is a very expensive project. i will be funding the bulk of the restoration through the sale of my home in Buckie. You never know how long it will take.”
See pictures inside the building captured by Jason Hedges:
She has downloaded all the public comments from a Facebook post she put up looking for information about the building’s history.
She plans to create a timeline from them and attached the comments to the relevant rooms.
Memories of the building
The building has had many purposes over the years.
Ann Wojcik said: “The building was owned by the Caira family now deceased. I rented part of the ground floor and established Hair Design.
“I was there from the mid 70’s until I sold the business in 1980 . It is a beautiful building and happy to know it is going to be developed instead of lying there in such a dilapidated state.”
Jean Brown recalled: “My husband and I had the front as a pet shop. “Early 1980s we had a parrot called Jock. An aviary which sometimes had kittens. Other times it had budgies. pups, hamsters, mice and tropical fish.”
More stories about new life for empty buildings:
Conversation