Business / ‘We canna let this go’: new owners delighted to give tourist office a bright future
THE NEW owners of Lerwick’s tourist centre say they could not let the “heart of the Market Cross” be lost.
Elaine Nicolson and Netta Simpson swooped in to save the building after it was put on sale by Shetland Islands Council, following the decision by VisitScotland to close the tourist office last year.
The pair – who are set to lease it to Shetland Tourism Association (STA) to keep it as a tourist centre – said they had “time to look over nothing” at the building before committing to buy it last August.
But Nicolson said as soon as they saw it go up for sale they had decided “we canna let this happen”.
The news that Lerwick’s hugely popular tourist office would open its doors once again was met with widespread praise last week.
And there is more good news for those who enjoyed watching a birdseye view of the Market Cross on a sunny day.
Nicolson revealed that the webcams which look down from the tourist office onto the Market Cross will also return.
The webcams, which were operated by Shetland Webcams, were turned off when the tourist office was closed last year.
Almost £4,000 has been raised for the STA to fill the tourist office again after it was cleared out by VisitScotland when it vacated.
After a near seven month wait to get their hands on the keys, a now vacant building is the next hurdle for Simpson and Nicolson to overcome.
“It was a very different ball game when we were viewing it in August,” Nicolson said.
“We expressed an interest in taking on everything, right down to the pictures on the wall.
“We’ve had to go right back to square one. But it has given us a blank canvas to work with.”
The pair were speaking to Shetland News from inside a “barren” tourist office, which they hope will soon be flooded with visitors to the isles.
The SIC put the building up for sale or lease in July 2024, and asked for expressions of interest before a late August deadline.
Simpson estimated they had five days to put in an expression of interest, view the building and try to make an offer.
“We struggled to get a lawyer at that short time,” she said.
“There was time to look over nothing.”
They decided to put in a bid for the building, eventually paying £251,000, with the aim of handing it over to STA to continue using it as tourist centre.
“We thought, ‘we canna let this go’,” Simpson said.
“It’s the heart of the Market Cross.
“We want to see it back as tourist centre.”
Nicolson agreed, saying that – with the former Laing’s Pharmacy building next door also empty, but now up for sale – it was “a terrible look for Shetland that the Market Cross is so barren”.
Neither of them knew if the STA would be willing to join up with them at that point, with Nicolson adding they “just had to hope the STA would come onboard”.
Thankfully the tourist association, and chairwoman Amanda Hawick, full heartedly backed their bid.
Nicolson and Simpson will be the owners of the building, with the STA its operators – providing a meeting with its executive committee goes to plan, they add.
If it does the STA will likely operate from the ground floor and use it as a tourist centre again.
The STA is fully behind the plans, and started a fundraiser last Friday with the aim of raising £4,000 for items such as desks, chairs and display units.
Simpson and Nicolson said they had wanted to buy everything in the former tourist office from VisitScotland.
“We said to them we would like to buy the stuff,” Simpson said.
“We were offering to buy it – we weren’t expecting it for nothing.”
However they were told that VisitScotland would prefer to “donate it to stakeholders”.
Some of those goods ended up at scrap stores around Shetland, which – in some cases – have been donated back to the tourist centre.
Simpson admitted it was a “bit of a slap in the face” to be left with an empty building.
“We could have nearly had the doors open by now,” Nicolson agreed.
“But we just have to go with the flow and work with what we’ve got.”
As well as raising nearly £4,000 for the STA, people have been donating items that they can use in the new tourist office.
One incredible donation has a huge sentimental appeal for both Nicolson and Simpson, and is linked to prolific author and historian the late Douglas Sinclair.
“Douglas Sinclair’s nephew heard about the appeal and said he wanted to donate his old desk to us,” Simpson said.
“It was the one that he used to write all his books on.
“We were both nursing students that were taught by Dougie, so it’s a lovely bit of history.”
While the STA is likely to use the ground floor, the labyrinth of offices upstairs are set to be rented out.
“We’ve had expressions of interest already,” Nicolson said.
First they have to get the doors open, with their meeting with the STA set to have a big bearing on when that will be.
“We initially thought we might be in in January,” Simpson said.
“That would have been ideal,” Nicolson agreed.
“We would have been open by now.”
The pair said they had felt a “huge amount of support from the public”, and said they hoped to provide more details about an opening date soon.
People can donate to the STA’s GoFundMe appeal here.
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