UPDATE: The application was approved at the Planning Committee on the 21st January! 

Fife Council is due in the coming weeks to decide on a planning application for the residential conversion of a redundant listening station in Cupar.

Operationally active by 1942, Hawklaw was one of a number of Y listening stations run by The Foreign Office and wartime intelligence services, gathering the raw material for the code breakers at Bletchley Park. At the end of the war the station became a GCHQ controlled Y station, masquerading as a long distance radio station. It continued to intercept messages, primarily in the Eastern Block, until becoming obsolete with the widespread use of satellites and decommissioned in 1988. The station has been vacant for some time and is now on the Buildings at Risk Register.

The buildings are long and low with a distinctly functional character with white rendered facades and steel crittal windows. While not ancient or exceptional, the buildings represent an important and unrecognised part of Cupar’s past and an exciting opportunity for an original conversion.

SCT was approached by 6a architects to engage in discussions before the planning application was lodged. This early consultation was commendable and allowed our comments and concerns to be addressed prior to the submission of the application. The Trust felt that the project’s strength was in its emphasis of, and sensitivity towards the military nature of the site and the value of the original fabric.

The majority of the existing building fabric will be retained with a new first floor stepped back from the front elevation. The addition of a new floor has proved controversial but the Trust feels that the clever use of morse code metal shuttering will allow this addition to read as a single unbroken element. This echoes the horizontality of the existing building; minimising its impact on both the elevation of the building and the landscape while creating a clear distinction between the old and the new.  The main interior space at the front of the building will be maintained as a warehouse-style living area in each of the dwellings. The proposals for both the interior and the exterior of the complex allude to and bring out the hidden history of the site by using the site’s military character to inform the detailing and materiality.

SCT welcomes the application as an exemplar for high quality, creative reuse of a redundant building. The submitted application seeks to retain the majority of the existing building fabric and is felt to demonstrate an excellent understanding of the existing building and its character.