Rosemount Square: New windows after flooding at 'A

A decade-long campaign to replace "totally rotten" windows in the A-listed Rosemount Square in Aberdeen is finally progressing. But residents still fear the worst whenever it rains.

Water teemed down the inside of David Wilson’s window on Monday, as a downpour broke the summer heat in Aberdeen.

It was not the first time, so he had a pink storage tub on the sill at the ready.

The glittery plastic box would be better suited to holding the belongings of his four-year-old daughter, who suffers from asthma.

But as floods streamed down the pane and seeped in behind wallpaper in the corner of the room, it was put to necessary use.

It is a fact of life on the eastern edge of Rosemount Square that rain and damp will invade your home.

And, in the housing scheme that one flat owner calls Aberdeen’s “A-listed slum”, it has been this way for at least a decade.

Residents’ wait for impactful action will likely run into next year.

As approval for replacement windows was granted on Monday, water broke new ground in David’s flat – entering through the ceiling light.

Imagine this was your home, every time it rains

Anxiously on his doorstep, the single dad told us it was “absolutely disgusting” his family was expected to live as they are.

“I have complained many times. I was told last night someone would be around about the water coming through the light but no one has come (by 12pm).

“My daughter is only four and I am scared she touches a lightswitch and gets an electric shock.”

The cause of the prolonged misery has previously been blamed by those around the Town House on quarrels with Historic Environment Scotland (HES).

However, with some remaining reluctance, the heritage quango waved through the proposals.

“Our decision not to object should not be taken as our support,” they told the local authority in a letter.

It was the same response they had given the council in 2017, before Aberdeen abandoned the bid to replace the windows.

Before that, the last widespread replacement was carried out in 1994.

Rosemount Square was designed in 1938 by Leo Durnin and was completed in 1947-48, built in a European modernist style from grey granite.

Two of three archways into the inner courtyard are adorned with granite carvings.

Head of sculpture at Gray’s School of Art, T B Huxley-Jones, decorated above the south and east pends with his Spirit of the Wind figures.

But the “horizontal emphasised” windows are worth historical note, says HES.

Like-for-like replacements, with slim casements and glazing bars, have proven hard to come by.

While the deliberations went on, councillors have blasted HES, the watchdog has spoken out to protect the building’s character and MPs and MSPs have fired shots in both directions.

The negotiations have been messier due to private ownership in Rosemount Square, and heritage boffins’ desire for “uniformity” in the fenestration.

But now, finally, consent has been given to replace all windows in council and privately-owned flats, as well as in communal areas.

Council planners this week rubber stamped plans for new aluminium windows and listed building consent has been granted too.

Already, letters have been sent to residents telling them they will soon be fitted.

Some were expected as soon as June and July, though only one resident we spoke to had actually had the work done on their home.

Others have been told their windows contain asbestos – but have had no word about relocation to allow their safe removal.

The new windows will also feature trickle ventilators. They are hoped to make a difference to the damp and mould creeping up residents’ walls.

When asked to comment on the prolonged wait for progress, a Historic Environment Scotland spokeswoman was quick to point out that they had nothing to do with delays beyond November 2021.

In a letter to the council, an official said: “Although we would welcome further assurances about the design, we are content with the principle of the windows and would not want to delay their approval.”

Since then, and for seven years before, Abigail Watt has been battling water and mould downstairs from David.

The hairdresser said: “Everytime it rains my house gets flooded in, my son’s room get flooded.”

“The walls crumble and you can actually hear the water coming through between the walls. My wife’s had enough.

“All the council has done in nine years is take out the rubber from my windows, just to get them closed. When I said to them there’s water that comes in when it rains, they claim there isn’t and my flat isn’t damp.”

Abigail has been fighting the damp and the rain for nine years

Even when her eight-year-old son Keeley took ill with chest complaints, the local authority would not move the family.

“They said this building is suitable for people to live in.”

Residents on the west side have to deal with washing away “annoying” black mould monthly.

Continuing round the semi-oval, the water ingress only gets worse.

Abigail and others in block 13 have to wash the foustiness away once a week.

Council policy is that inspectors will attend tenants’ homes in three working days to assess health issues caused by reported damp, water penetration or dirt.

Private tenants have been told to report problems to the environmental health service, which investigates in five working days.

George and Fiona Sharp’s son moved to Aberdeen to study in 2012.

They purchased a flat on the curved south-eastern end of Rosemount Square at that time.

Speaking to The Press and Journal last year, George said the block was “falling apart” while the council and heritage buffs squabbled.

“When it’s raining heavily, water comes in the top of the window like a waterfall,” he said.

Hearing her husband was speaking to a reporter, Fiona grabbed the phone.

She said the windows she had been stuck with for more than a decade were “totally rotten”.

“When we bought the flat, it was imminent that the windows would be changed – 10 years on, it still has not happened.

“As owners, we would pay and the council would pay for theirs.

“I have called it an A-listed slum because no one can change their windows because of the listing.”

Other owner occupiers also aired frustrations. Work being impossible is delaying the sale of their properties.

Council housing convener Miranda Radley said she was “pleased” the windows – “cleary not suitable any more” – would be replaced.

She added: “It’s disappointing that due to the complexity associated with this important building that it has taken as long as it has to have new windows approved, and that so many people have been impacted by this.

“I will push for this to be finished as quickly as possible.”

A council spokeswoman told us that the in-house target to have found a company to fit the windows was “autumn 2023”.

“The city council will identify and appoint a contractor to survey, manufacture and then replace the windows to the council owned flats.

“The owners of the privately owned flats will be given the option of also ordering new windows.

“The approved replacement windows will have thermally broken double glazed units, improving insulation. They will have aluminium frames, locking handles and trickle ventilators.

“The opening method and window fenestration will be similar to the existing windows, matching the special character and appearance of these A-listed properties.”