Vivian Linacre, who spent more than a decade trying to win approval to turn Perth City Hall into a market, has died aged 93.
He had spent most of his working life in retail property development and believed a market could restore the fortunes of Perth city centre.
Vivian held the view that people needed a reason to visit town centres and argued that a market would provide a social hub to achieve that.
Proposal
However, in 2016, 11 years after city hall closed, his proposal was rejected by Perth and Kinross Council.
Although he was born in England, Vivian spent most of his life in Scotland.
He was born in Toxteth, Liverpool, on August 5, 1928 of English, Welsh, Irish and Italian descent.
The family relocated to Edinburgh around 1939 when Vivian’s father took a job with the NAAFI.
Vivian spent the war years at George Heriot’s School in Edinburgh, before studying at Edinburgh University.
He married his first wife Joan, nee Walker, in 1955 and, after several years in the property business, joined Murrayfield Real Estate Company in Glasgow, spending 10 years there and in Edinburgh.
In 1971, he moved back to England to join the board of City Wall Properties.
Return to Scotland
Vivian remained in England for seven years before returning to Edinburgh in 1978 to set up in solo practice.
He lived in that city before marrying Margaretha Kammer in 2003, and moving to Perth.
Over many decades, Vivian proved himself to be a pioneering retail developer and completed many town centre schemes in both Scotland and England.
In 1985, he was chair of the organising committee of the European Conferences of the International Real Estate Federation, then in 1987 he was Scotland chairman of the UN International Year for the Homeless Appeal committee.
Imperial measures
Outside the property business, perhaps one of his greatest achievements was through the British Weights and Measures Association he formed in 1994 and which campaigned for the retention of traditional measures on products, ultimately proving successful.
Vivian was author of Ground-Breaking, a history of commercial property development, and of the Marshall Place Conspiracy, about an ancient property scandal in Perth, and of the Several Lives of Alberto Bioletti, about his Italian ancestor.
He also founded the Scottish Property Industry Festival of Christmas, known in the property trade as SPIFOX, in 1983, which has since raised £5 million for Childline and other causes.