types of houses you lived in and your memories

[wegieman]

I started life up untill 10yrs old,living in mclean st,kinning park,tenement top floor,toilet in the close ,with a fireplace in each room,me and my sister used to crap ourselves at night as sometimes the odd pidgeon would decide to come down the lum rather against its will.running about the floor trying to escape in the darkness,imagine a 10yr old and an 8yr old hiding under the covers screaming for our mammy,mammy had a lot of sleepless nights,no thanks to those pidgeons.

Can also remember the nights with the power cuts,that was great fun sitting in the dark with candles wondering what was going to happen once they burned to the bottom.

Then one day the dreaded words came"were moving to a new house",had to leave all my friends behind and wondered if i would ever see them again,cried for about 2 days solid,what would become of my old nana next close to us?or my old papa who i used to go and get from the ship inn pub to come home for his dinner,what would become of these 2 wonderful people who i cherished

We then moved to the gorbals in the infamous damp flats in pine place,was wonderous,inside toilet,bath,stairs and even a verandah,met many new friends and a new species called girls house was amazing until my sister set it on fire having a fly smoke under the stairs,can always remember my dearly missed dad say to my mum"did you get ma whiskey oot"(dad was a docker):),well we then moved again to ibrox right next to the football stadium and to this day i still live in the vicinity of the stadium,how i wish i could turn the clocks back to my childhood,best days of my life and i still hate pidgeons :)

[Blueboy]

Enjoyed reading your memories wegieman !

Started life (1968) in a 1 bedroom flat in Paisley - me, my wee brother and my Mum and Dad sleeping in the same room - oh, the poverty !

Moved to an old terraced former mill workers house in Neilston in 1972 - loads of great places to play as a kid. Old mill dams, underground drains - fantastic.

Left home aged 17 to Hamilton Park Avenue off Great Western Road - basement flat with iron bars on the windows. 4 of us in one room (back to the poverty again - I never learn).

Moved from there to the big house (divided into about 6 flats) next to the tennis courts at the top of Partickhill road. I found a photograph in the Mitchell archives of the first owner (Victorian tobacco merchant) and his family standing outside - fantastic!

Now in Shawlands - top floor 2 bedroom flat. When I moved in, the kitchen still had the Belfast sink and old cupboards, original kitchen and bedroom fireplaces and I could see the outline of where the old coal bunker used to be. I also found a set of false teeth in the bathroom.

[DickyHart]

i lived in a same type of house as you wegieman, tap dancer an aw!!

Bedlay Street in Springburn, right across from Sighthill graveyard, Bedlay street is a firestation now. Remember them getting pulled dwon, we where one of the last families rehoused in 1975 and they moved us to Balornock .

[jim]

Floor 11, flat 114, 33 Shawholm Crescent, Pollokshaws.

Two bedrooms, living room and kitchen and a tiny verandah. Me and my brother sharing a room. I can remember the anger when my younger sister got her own room, I don't think I ever forgave her! Now I know that she had to do things like have periods and snog (etc) her boyfriends without me and my friends barging in on purpose.
Both my parents were heavy smokers, so when I went to bed after a heavy nights passive smoking my eyes would sting painfully for five minutes or so.
The fire escape stairs were especially alluring to a small boy. Oh the joy of having an illicit pee there! Although I got caught once and severely reprimanded by a neighbour. Another trick was to steal the caretakers keys to gain access to the roof for a bit of sunbathing/water-bombing. As usual in these situations it all went too far when a friend and I had some workies pinned down behind their van using our webley air pistols.
Once we threw a motorbike from the top of the building!
Paper aeroplanes were an obsession for a while. When conditions were perfect I could fly them over the River Cart and past the multis on the other side.
Mostly growing up in the 'multis' was brilliant fun, but I suspect some of our neighbours thought otherwise.

[james73]

Floor 11, flat 114, 33 Shawholm Crescent, Pollokshaws.

Two bedrooms, living room and kitchen and a tiny verandah. Me and my brother sharing a room. I can remember the anger when my younger sister got her own room, I don't think I ever forgave her! Now I know that she had to do things like have periods and snog (etc) her boyfriends without me and my friends barging in on purpose.
Both my parents were heavy smokers, so when I went to bed after a heavy nights passive smoking my eyes would sting painfully for five minutes or so.
The fire escape stairs were especially alluring to a small boy. Oh the joy of having an illicit pee there! Although I got caught once and severely reprimanded by a neighbour. Another trick was to steal the caretakers keys to gain access to the roof for a bit of sunbathing/water-bombing. As usual in these situations it all went too far when a friend and I had some workies pinned down behind their van using our webley air pistols.
Once we threw a motorbike from the top of the building!
Paper aeroplanes were an obsession for a while. When conditions were perfect I could fly them over the River Cart and past the multis on the other side.
Mostly growing up in the 'multis' was brilliant fun, but I suspect some of our neighbours thought otherwise.

Especially the owner of the motorbike...





James H

[crazygray23]

i lived in cairnban st in drumoyne in 1981 just on the corner facing a playpark moved away mid 1990 after the junkies moved into the area and my dad had a stroke, to hutton dr in linthouse across from elder park primary school moved again in 1997 to another flat in govan rd which was a dentists in a previous life stayed there till 2000 when i moved to another flat in morefield road across sheildhall rd from my old stomping grounds which is now in the process of regeneration into a new housing estate

[Vladimir]

I used to live in Neilston as well. Spent a lot of time as a kid around the Crofthead Mill and at Cowdenhall

[KonstantinL]

I was brought up in Newarthill in a council house. We didn't have much in the way of luxeries but it was actually a decent house, big rooms, made of stone, and we didn't have an too many problems with rot or damp. There was no heating in it though (apart from a coal fire in the living room) so it could get pretty cold. During the winter you would wake up in the morning and there would be fog INSIDE your room! Ice on the inside of the windows too! I've never been in hospital a single day in my life so I but this down to the cold toughing me up.

It was a great place to grow up since it was right on the urban fringe. To one side you had the Ravenscraig Steelworks and lots of factories and housing schemes; on the other you had old abandoned railway lines and mine workings and lots of fields and woods. We used to build camps out of hay bails or go off exploring on our bikes. We also used to shot rabbits with my dads .22 (the local farmer gave us 10p for each one - I think he fed them to his dogs).

My childhood was kinda like some Famous Five book or something! I have this theory that I was one of the last people (I'm 31) to grow up in 'Old Britain'. Pretty much the working class way of life stayed the same from the post-war period up until Thatcher appeared and then 'Old Britain' was destroyed. Or maybe I was just a hick! Things seem very different now though and I'm not especially old.

[Sharon]

<nostalgia alert>

I'm also 31 and I've also always said my chilhood was a bit Famous Five and end of an era. I was brought up in Galloway on a farm a million miles away from anything industrial - thank god! mea nad my sisters used to build the most incredible huts out of bales, really elaborate structures. Great fun! Thinking back a great deal of our tme was spent making huts. Everything from tree houses to flooring rafters in shed roof spaces. Everythign was consdered right down to wall linings and insulation! We even had oil lanterns... which in retrospect wasn't so smart in the straw houses.... the actual house i grew up in was a tiny farm cottage. Very near my favourite tree!

Anway it was all very old school. No hanging about on street corners - although living in the middle of nowhere did make that tricky. No computers, no playstation, very little TV... My childhood was very like my parents, only with better shoes! Not alot by way of luxury, but then that wasn't even a consideration then... we were the last year to do o'grades and highers too...

People only a couple of years younger than me had a totally different experience.

[Gazzathecoigne]

My first months on this earth where in a tap dancer in Uest Street in Govan, but I was wee and have no memory of it. When I'd reached 6 months old my parents moved to the newly built masonets in Houldsworth Street in Anderston, and I grew up there untill I seeked independance at the age of 20. My first house was a 1 bedroom flat on the 7th floor of the Kingsway Court Flats in Scotstoun, and it was a tad shadey to say the least with all the imigrants, alcoholics and junkies around. Nevertheless, I was just happy to have my own wee place.

After about a year there I decided to buy, and bought a 2 bedroom flat in Shettlestoun. It was a great house, fully decorated, new doors, fireplace, suite, new bathroom, the works. I would still be there had I not been made redundant on Xmas Eve 2002. Sadly I could'nt keep up the payments and left to move back to Anderston, down in the new houses accross from the Buttery. Stayed there about a year untill I met a girl, fell in love, got engaged and moved in with her accross the water to Pollock (Househillmuir Road). Unfortunately it was'nt to be however, and after just over a year we split up, and I moved back in with my folks in Houldsworth Street, where I currently still reside today, although looking for my own place again.

At 27, I've moved around a fair bit.

[mustardman]

Well, born in Glasgow, stayed in Dunira St, Tollcross till the age of 5, parents divorced, moved to Byres Rd for 6 months and then Radnor St for another 6 months. In the summer stayed at my uncle's in Alness. Then moved back with mum to Altyre St(fucking shithole), Tollcross for three years, moved in with Gran in rattray st, tollcross for 2 years. From there moved to Knightswood from the age of 12 to 20, then moved in with girlfriend in Maryhill Rd for 2 years, than moved up to Aberdeen in 2002, been in student/private accomodation since, phew!

All different types of accomodation: flats, tenements, 4-in-a-block,wimpey type house

[paladin]

There were 12 of us in our house (we were just average sized in them days) and the only room (apart from the loft) that you could be alone was the loo as it had a lock on it. Needing the toilet and someone already in residence fetched out negotation skills from an early age, with the odd fib thrown in, like "There's someone at the back door for you"....just to get in and use the facility.
The walls of our house were paper-thin, which mean't that if you were having a confidential family squabble and didn't want the whole street to know, you had to resort to sign language or pass written messages between one another.....our family squabbles went on for months 'cos it took so long to relay the messages.
No-one seemed to hang underwear out on the clotheslines as there was an underwear knicker that preyed upon them that did.
The house I was born in was to be my home for 16 years and has remained the longest time I ever stayed in one house. Seems like a lifetime away now, as everything has moved on/changed, but the old place is still there.

[Caltonboy]

I came from a "single end" in the calton, one room was the kitchen , bedroom and living room , the toilet was doon the close and everyone shared it, and our old neighbour used to go in and read the fooking paper, :) . my mum used to give me my baby baths in the sink, :) .
i still remember the wee guy coming to light the gas lamps in the close and then wonder of wonders we went electric!

ah for the blissfull days of black and white tv and no videos or dvds and when all a child really had was his/her imagination, this generation has lost a lot

who's old?

[HollowHorn]

[soapy]

It was a 3 bedroom flat in govanhill for us. Our parents had 10 kids, one died as a baby before I was even thought about. My parents slept in the livin’ room. It was mental but brill. I think ive worked out that I got a doin’ a day, cos I was third youngest.(all deserved)
The backs were the place to be. Everyone came from the four streets that made up our block. I have fond memories of that time. All the games we played as kids. It was like a wee community of our own.
It’s a small world. I have met up with 4 pals I grew up with from the same street here in Oz. We all talk about the good old day like we are about 60

soapy