The Hidden Glasgow Forums

Nobody in my close has got a key for the wee cupboard at the back green door. I'm thinking about busting it open to see what's inside. I'm kinda hoping it leads to a basement under my tenement but more likely it's just a cupboard under the stairs.

I knew somebody who had a tramp living in there for about a year. He was apparently a nice, polite chap and swept the close in return for being left alone.

Anybody got a big basement under their close?

Your factor might have a key. I have quite a large basement under my tenement, but the space is used by the shops at either side of the close, and it's now inacessable from the 2 doors in the close itself (which have been blocked off).

Yeah, the one under mine still has the big boiler thing for washing clothes. It's been bolted up for a few years since the students on the ground floor put a padlock on it and started growing weed in there and neglected to remove it when they moved out.

Hmmm.... I don't know whats through the door in my close.... someone on the ground floor seems to hog the key and stores some things just inside the door.

Surely he can't claim ownership can he?

My close has 2 cupboards underneath the stairs - a large one and a small one. The big one has a lawnmower in it plus various other gardening implements. We've had the lawnmower stolen at least twice, but then this is Ibrox.

stinkpad wrote:............ started growing weed in there and neglected to remove it when they moved out.

Where do you live stinkpad

McShad wrote:Surely he can't claim ownership can he?

No he can't. It should be in common ownership, but check your title deeds [if you've got them - otherwise your building society can supply you with a copy, but they will charge you]. If you really want to make an issue out of it I suppose you could ask the factor to get involved but that's probably a waste of time.

My house has a wee door. and for years I stayed clear of it then I got the courage to go in, turns out its a kitchen. Things amaze me.

Ours leads to a very dull cupboard-under-the-stairs. But lawnmower larceny isn't confined to Ibrox, Viceroy - our close's and next door's went a couple of years ago during a summer spree in what estate agents sometimes call "relatively-leafy North Kelvinside".

Armadillo wrote:Ours leads to a very dull cupboard-under-the-stairs. But lawnmower larceny isn't confined to Ibrox, Viceroy - our close's and next door's went a couple of years ago during a summer spree in what estate agents sometimes call "relatively-leafy North Kelvinside".

That would be the bit that is really Maryhill then?

McShad wrote:Hmmm.... I don't know whats through the door in my close.... someone on the ground floor seems to hog the key and stores some things just inside the door.

Surely he can't claim ownership can he?

In some closes it does actually belong to them, something to do with being on the ground floor or something !

Mcshade, aliferste is right, in many closes the wee room is in the ownership of the ground floor proprietor. In many cases these wee rooms were the original outside W.C. done away with at the time of rehab or conversion of the property. There would have been an outside lavvy on every floor of the close.

In other cases the room was a storage facility for the shops on the ground floor... even where the shop no longer exists after conversion, the ownership has passed to the subsequent residents.

And stinkpad - you seem to have one of the priceless few remaining remnants of an old washroom... any chance you can photograph it for HG (but do not in the process identify the addresss!)

escotregen wrote:In many cases these wee rooms were the original outside W.C. done away with at the time of rehab or conversion of the property.

I had mentioned the title deeds earlier - if the space beneath the stairs was actually a WC at one time, then the deeds should still mention this as belonging to the appropriate ground floor flat. If it was always just used for storage then I reckon it would be in common ownership.

escotregen wrote:And stinkpad - you seem to have one of the priceless few remaining remnants of an old washroom... any chance you can photograph it for HG (but do not in the process identify the addresss!)

Yeah, I've been meaning to kick the door in for a while now so this would be a good excuse.

aliferste wrote:In some closes it does actually belong to them, something to do with being on the ground floor or something !

This is true in many cases. The reason being in a tenement of, say, 8 properies, 7 of them will occupy exactly the same square footage. However, one of the ground floor flats will lose space to accomodate the close entrance.

In my own close, it means that this flat has an internal bathroom and no hall cupboard. Therefore they get sole use of the close one. But this is just an under-stair cupboard. Basement washrooms were always communal and should be to this day, so if anybody is growing grass in yours, feel free to go and smoke it now