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The Rottenrow

PostPosted: Mon Mar 22, 2004 10:17 pm
by crusty_bint
The place of my birth along with thousands similarly, and did you know, the birthplace of ultra-sound technology? ...yup, look up the index of any pedeatric medical journal and you'll find it listed: Royal Maternity Hospital, Glasgow or, the Rottenrow :D

Before I really start Id just like to point somethin out that I always wondered about as a bairn... the Rotten-Row??? I could never understand why ud want to give birth in a rotten row of something or other/!??! But fool I was!! Coz Rottenrow is an ancient (gaelic, gealic, gallic???) term for Kings Way or was it Kings Road. Theres one in London too.

Anywho, it's been demolished now, for those of you who don't already know, and all that remains is the old entrance portico. Did anyone see the BBc's thingy about it? It showed the complete demolishion and some personal accounts of people who'd gave birth, been born and worked there over the years.

Sad tho it's gone, the whole site has now been turned into a commemorative garden complete with "water-feature" ...until Strathclyde University find something to do with it 8O

My point is... Id like to see a feature on the home page! :D :D :D

Do you have any memories of the place... tell us here!!!
Do you know anything of the history of the place... tell us here!!!
Got any pics of the place... let us know here!!!!

...u get the idea :wink:

PostPosted: Mon Mar 22, 2004 10:57 pm
by DMcNay
My brother-in-law is a medical photogrpaher, and took the official photographs of the last baby to be born there.....

PostPosted: Mon Mar 22, 2004 11:29 pm
by james
tsk another of me illusions shattered. I'd always had rottenrow down as a dank dreich slum , sewage in the uneven wet slimy cobbled street with an abundance of raggity urchins playing kick the can with an old dead cat cos we couldn't afford cans .. bit like edinburgh.

rottenrow disgrace

PostPosted: Tue Mar 23, 2004 12:31 am
by cataclyzm
ABsolutely ignorant and cold hearted that this building was demolished.
Only in a commercially focused and cynical modern age would a building of such memorable and cultural value be demolished.
IT makes me sad how the heart of Glasgow is constantly being erased by those eejits in the council chambers. How they grow fat at our expense and how little they care about human values of integrity and decency.
All they care about is money and property development and getting a slice of the action with their rich friends. And they call it a democracy?

ok

PostPosted: Tue Mar 23, 2004 12:36 am
by cataclyzm
there must be so many people in Glasgow who feel disenfranchized from the places that they used to know and love.

IT makes me sad returning to Glasgow, because it is a city of memories of a kinder age, when people had consideration for one another. People seem so cold hearted now, and I'm not really sure why.
Maybe this is a mystery we can solve here in Hidden Glasgow. . . for it doesn't just seem to be buildings and legacies of the industrial age that are hidden. Human warmth and friendliness are fast disappearing.

Go on...prove me wrong!! Say something nice....

For those of us who were born in the 60's we may just remember the great places of Glasgow that once were, and now aren't. e.g. Bridgeton...Springburn....Govan..... Yes there still positive aspects of Glasgow, but please save us from cafe latte society and credit card bills....

PostPosted: Tue Mar 23, 2004 1:21 am
by james
No offence mate ... but thats what city's do ...they change.Thats why they are exciting vibrant and sometimes dangerous , it's all a smokescreen isn't it really ? Glasgow is none of the above..but trys so very much to be , it's a place built on memories.

thanks james

PostPosted: Tue Mar 23, 2004 8:50 am
by cataclyzm
I couldn't agree with you more about cities changing, whether or not that makes them vibrant or simply prone to the whims of experimental commercial exercises is another thing.
For example...ask yourself this question. Why during the enlightenment of the 60's and 70's did none of the tenement buildings or Main Streets of Shawlands; Kelvinside; or Dennistoun get demolished?
Unfortunately, I'm just old enough to remember what Springburn and Bridgeton used to be like. In fact the people of Springburn were promised that the motorway being constructed wouldn't cut their community in half, and that's exactly what it did. Both their main streets where like Argyle Street on a busy Saturday, with buildings of enormous beauty and historical value, and so many people who all knew one another.
I now live in Belfast, and a similar kind of thing has happened here - where entire districts went under the hammer. It's more an indication as to the dreadful motives of those we place in power and the appalling mistakes they have made in terms of city planning. Walking up the main street of Bridgeton is now akin to exploring the abandoned, although I still visit there as its where my sister lives. She lives there, because it too, reminds her of the past, before things changed so much.

Another wee bit

PostPosted: Tue Mar 23, 2004 9:01 am
by cataclyzm
And another thing......! :wink:

Just to get my tuppence worth.... :? I forgot what I was going to say now.

Why has no kind of research been done to those who have grown up in the experimental high rises of the 60's? There is a lot of evidence to show that those children became more socially isolated in adulthood and more fearful of the world outside. Before most of the families moved out in a kind of panic as dampness spread up the walls and the insanity of living in such places began to creep into their lives. A lot of people forget that most people embraced the tower blocks with open arms in the 60's, and lots of young families lived in them, until those who had the means to, rapidly escaped.
I think we often believed in Glasgow that the labour dominated council chambers had our best interests at heart, but what people have created is a kind of political dictatorship that is arrogant and smug in its certitude of constantly being reelected.
I can assure you that Springburn and Bridgeton; Govan and Townhead; Finnieston and Royston are not the vibrant places that they used to be. That's not being negative, just honest. There must be so many lonely people now in Glasgow, who are socially isolated when once, they actually belonged to a real place....not just a concrete nightmare.

PostPosted: Tue Mar 23, 2004 1:29 pm
by duncan
anyone know what the deal is with tunnels under the old Rottenrow site? I was walking past during the demolition, and the builders had painted large signs saying things like "caution: tunnel underneath here!", etc. it could be either rail tunnels (Queen Street to High Street perhaps?), or wasn't there also talk of tunnels between Rottenrow and the Infirmary?

PostPosted: Tue Mar 23, 2004 2:30 pm
by Ronnie
Jim - the Artful Dowser - is the man to ask about tunnels under Rottenrow ...
Best, Ronnie

PostPosted: Tue Mar 23, 2004 5:39 pm
by jim
http://www.blackdrop.blogspot.com/2003_ ... chive.html

see the above for the TRUE story on tunnels, drug-fuelled madness and 19th century smackheads.

PostPosted: Tue Mar 23, 2004 5:43 pm
by cumbo
Rrottenrow:route de roi -The kings route or road
:vicus ratonum-street of rats
Either way the name came about,king or rat it's a good name for a maternity hospital and I am proud to have been born there.

PostPosted: Tue Mar 23, 2004 7:13 pm
by jim
Ratoun Row. Ratoun meaning ladies? The Rottenrow used to be one of the more desirable bits of the city, with gardens and everything! Hence the strolling ladies.
At least thats what I heard.
Cue 'The Voice of Reason' ?

PostPosted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 5:20 pm
by crusty_bint
Finally got round to taking some pics.

The entrance
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From the "inside"
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sculptural lighting rig and down the stairs
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The Glasgow Guide has pics of the demolition, see them at the following
http://www.glasgowguide.co.uk/images_rottenrow.html

PostPosted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 5:40 pm
by duncan
looks really weird. i'm struggling to visualise it, will probably need to go and check it out myself