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Bridie wrote:Was it because Glasgow had such an abundance of architecture that they the planners (or destructors) became complacent in their need to redevelop or is it that more people, especially in the last forty odd years, have really started to appreciate them?
Bridie wrote:I think it's easy to say what should have happened almost fifty years later given the fact that the powers that be have started to (almost) get it right.
I don't think it would have been a practical solution to renovate the old tenements from points already mentioned ie the urge to use new building materials and even the social aspect of the positivity that was flowing everywhere in the groovy new decade.
Where would the space have been to put in a bathroom in every home?
Nearly every Glasgow family share the same story - leaving the dirty tenement to a bigger,cleaner box in a scheme. My family hated the isolation and gave up the corporation house to move back into a less dirty tenement than the one they left behind. My granny had nowhere to walk - she wasnt used to walking in green fields.
It's very easy to get nostalgic when talking about the changes in the sixties in Glasgow. That department store you mentioned Escotregen was probably Dallass's - my mother worked there at one time. I used to meet an auntie at the fountain in Charing X, she worked in an office in Lyndoch Terrace, we would spend lunchtime looking at the glamorous dress shops that were all around Charing X.
RDR wrote:Bridie wrote:I think it's easy to say what should have happened almost fifty years later given the fact that the powers that be have started to (almost) get it right.
I don't think it would have been a practical solution to renovate the old tenements from points already mentioned ie the urge to use new building materials and even the social aspect of the positivity that was flowing everywhere in the groovy new decade.
Where would the space have been to put in a bathroom in every home?
Nearly every Glasgow family share the same story - leaving the dirty tenement to a bigger,cleaner box in a scheme. My family hated the isolation and gave up the corporation house to move back into a less dirty tenement than the one they left behind. My granny had nowhere to walk - she wasnt used to walking in green fields.
It's very easy to get nostalgic when talking about the changes in the sixties in Glasgow. That department store you mentioned Escotregen was probably Dallass's - my mother worked there at one time. I used to meet an auntie at the fountain in Charing X, she worked in an office in Lyndoch Terrace, we would spend lunchtime looking at the glamorous dress shops that were all around Charing X.
There was a story, possibly a myth, that certain tenements in the Gorbals, were rotten from the day they were built. In other words they were so cheaply and poorly built that they were built to be slums from day one. I always seem to remember the worst ones, as being the ones with the spiral staircases, we stayed for a bit in one of those. I doubt any refurbishment could have improved them.
On the other hand if you looked at some of the tenements in South Portland Street and Abbotsford Place, where big flats had been sub-divided down, then there was definite case for doing something with them rather than demolition, which is what happened.
I think the Gorbals, at the time, had such an image problem, that the Corporation didn't want to be seen to leave any of it alone.
Ironic, since we eventually moved out to Govanhill, via Hutchie E, that we thought Govanhill was very up market and look at the reputation it has now!
Bridie wrote:RDR wrote:Bridie wrote:I think it's easy to say what should have happened almost fifty years later given the fact that the powers that be have started to (almost) get it right.
I don't think it would have been a practical solution to renovate the old tenements from points already mentioned ie the urge to use new building materials and even the social aspect of the positivity that was flowing everywhere in the groovy new decade.
Where would the space have been to put in a bathroom in every home?
Nearly every Glasgow family share the same story - leaving the dirty tenement to a bigger,cleaner box in a scheme. My family hated the isolation and gave up the corporation house to move back into a less dirty tenement than the one they left behind. My granny had nowhere to walk - she wasnt used to walking in green fields.
It's very easy to get nostalgic when talking about the changes in the sixties in Glasgow. That department store you mentioned Escotregen was probably Dallass's - my mother worked there at one time. I used to meet an auntie at the fountain in Charing X, she worked in an office in Lyndoch Terrace, we would spend lunchtime looking at the glamorous dress shops that were all around Charing X.
There was a story, possibly a myth, that certain tenements in the Gorbals, were rotten from the day they were built. In other words they were so cheaply and poorly built that they were built to be slums from day one. I always seem to remember the worst ones, as being the ones with the spiral staircases, we stayed for a bit in one of those. I doubt any refurbishment could have improved them.
On the other hand if you looked at some of the tenements in South Portland Street and Abbotsford Place, where big flats had been sub-divided down, then there was definite case for doing something with them rather than demolition, which is what happened.
I think the Gorbals, at the time, had such an image problem, that the Corporation didn't want to be seen to leave any of it alone.
Ironic, since we eventually moved out to Govanhill, via Hutchie E, that we thought Govanhill was very up market and look at the reputation it has now!
It's a good point RDR and one that struck me recently as well. I did one of those "nostalgic/ virtual walks in present day" on google maps in the area that I lived in - Possil.
As a child I used to wander all around the busy streets, walking from Bardowie Street to Saracen X. I grew up in a "good" tenement ie red sandstone however my street was the only one that had that type of build. The rest of the streets, Carbeth, Barloch, Bardowie had either black tenements or what was called "new houses" - blonde sandstone built later.
On the google (updated 2012) walk I started at Hobart Street walking towards Saracen X. Weird feeling to see nothing left of any of the streets on the left hand side however in the distance - my street and the windows of my old house (top flat) - a bit like an apocalypse with a familiar beacon Obviously the red sandstone was good enough to refurbish.
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