Ask any of Glasgow's older residents to name a book about their hometown and they will more than likely mention No Mean City, a title which has come to embody the experiences of an entire working-class generation. Glasgow mum and daughter duo launch interiors shop in heart of Shawlands. Pictures reveal the closeness of its families and the playful personalities of the district's children as they leap-frog over tombstones in a cemetery and play in puddles with pots and pans. The daring initiative proved to be an expensive failure. They live four, six, eight to a room, often 30 to a lavatory, 40 to a tap. Mother and her baby on the staircase of her condemned Gorbals tenement 1970. At first sight, of an early morning, the Gorbals looks like any other poor area. At one time most of the Jews in Scotland resided in this area. Along the riverside the classical terraces of Laurieston had taken shape. Lady Marjorie Stewart of Lochow was said to have had a hospital built for lepers and dedicated to St Ninian in 1350, although this year is contested by current historians' estimates dating her life and activities. By Ronald P A Smith. Tour Scotland wee video of old photographs of the Gorbals, Glasgow, on the south bank of the River Clyde. Thousands of Poles chose to settle in the UK after serving with the British forces during the Second World War. Some people were re-housed in flats. Drunkenness, the old Glasgow trouble, is not sensational in the district. Residents complained that the flats were riddled with damp and the blocks were eventually demolished in 1993. The Gorbals tenements were built quickly and cheaply in the 1840s, providing housing for Glasgow's burgeoning population of industrial workers. As with London and other major cities, in the post-war planning of the 1950s Glasgow Corporation decided to demolish many inner districts including Gorbals and Huchesontown, with families being dispersed to new outlying housing estates such as Castlemilk,[14] in overspill agreements with New Towns such as East Kilbride, and others rehoused within the area but in huge concrete multi-storey towers. It describes what seems to be a Greek monk on M Glasgow Slum in the Late 1940s: 22 Harrowing Photographs Capture Everyday Life of Residents of the Gorbals in 1948, 30 Cool Pics That Capture Naughty Ladies of the 1950s, Victorian Postmortem Photography: The Myth of the Stand Alone Corpse, The Lost Janis Joplin Topless Photos in Copacabana, Rio De Janeiro in the Summer of 1970, 40 Amazing Kodachrome Snaps Show What Life Looked Like in the Late 1950s, Incredible Then and Now Pictures That Show What Popular Dog Breeds Looked Like Before And After 100 Years of Breeding, The Last Photoshoot of the Rolling Stones With Brian Jones, May 1969, Mihailo Tolotos, the Greek Orthodox Monk Who Lived 82 Years Without Ever Seeing a Woman, Two children play with their doll as they pose for the camera, Two boys walking along a street in the run-down Gorbals, Child eat their breakfast in one of the overcrowded tenement flats, that would sometimes see up to 30 people have to share one toilet, Without many toys to play with, two young lads decide to play a game on a heap of rubbish, Children entertain themselves by playing in dirty puddle water in the slums, Two little boys in shorts and long socks play in the street, A woman carrying her shopping basket stands at the bottom of a destroyed flight of stairs, Two young boys link arms as they walk down the street in the Gorbals. As with most such areas it had cheap housing and nearby occupations. . These various gangs fought sporadically throughout the 1950s and 1960s, with fewer casualties and high profile fights than in the previous decades. With Howard Connell, Marjorie Thomson, Betty Henderson, Roddy McMillan. Living as they commonly do, huddled together with adults/often in the same bed, Gorbals youngsters find few mysteries among the facts of life. Pubs are plentiful. Many Scottish towns were not first mapped until the late 18th or early 19th centuries. A Glaswegian woman peers out of the window as she pets her cat, Without proper balls, children had to use whatever they could to enjoy a game of football, Youngsters play with toy guns around the streets of the huge neighbourhood of tenements, A woman peers out of the window of her tenement, A young boy sits on a stone and attempts to blow up his balloon in the Gorbals, One of the main nightspots in the Gorbals was the Diamond Dancing Hall, Two young boys walk their dogs around the streets of the Gorbals, A West Indian family pack into their tiny dining room in the Gorbals, Barmen serve thirsty customers at one of the 174 pubs surrounding the Gorbals area, Men from the Gorbals meet in the local pub for a friendly smoke, The children of the Gorbals pack together to pose for the camera, Barmen work hard to serve all their customers at one of the 174 pubs near the Gorbals. Between the World Wars the Gorbals unfairly acquired a world-famous notoriety for violence, principally founded on the contents of the book No Mean City. (picture) Mrs Greenan of Commercial Road has bourne 13 children, lost 7 from pneumonia. Select the town plan you wish to view: ca. What could be done ? Redevelopment of the area began in the late 1950s and the tenements were replaced with a modern tower block complex in the sixties. [12] By 1964 there were 12,200 houses.[13]. Filmed in. The children called this creature the Gorbals Vampire. In 2021, it was announced that the two remaining Area D multi storey blocks would also be condemned, meaning that the Area B or "Riverside" estate, designed by Robert Matthew, will be the only high-rise flats left in the Gorbals. Create your own unique website with customizable templates. already futility and frustration stretch ahead. Here is our most loathsome slum, and a horror to be cleansed. Last August there were two cases in a single week. Glasgow in this context includes the Royalty (the traditional central city) and the parishes of Barony (the suburban area adjacent to the northern part of the Royalty) and Gorbals (the suburban area to the south of the River Clyde). The district, on the south east coast of the River Clyde, was the home to lawyers, doctors and wealthy merchants but when the estates were built rapidly and with cheap materials - the once middle class enclave soon turned into one of Britain's most notorious slums. [8][9], By 1914 the population of Gorbals and Hutchesontown was working locally and in commerce in the city centre, factories and warehouses nearby of carpetmaking, garment making, food manufacturing, ironworks, chemical works, railways, docks, shipping, construction and engineering; supporting some 16 schools, 15 churches, three synagogues, swimming baths and libraries, and a range of picture-houses, dance halls and two theatres. Inside Gorbals houses, the commonest pictures are of The Sacred Heart and the Celtic team. Such was the influx of people, the district's population sky rocketed to 85,000 people in 1931 - despite the area of 252 acres, covering just two per cent of the city. The novel is set in the 1930s in Gorbals, an area on the south bank of the River Clyde once characterised by its lack of jobs, severe poverty and proliferation of violence. . Perhaps because of the area's notoriety, the Gorbals was the first part of Glasgow to be promoted for comprehensive redevelopment under post-war planning legislation. Boys . Much of the area, particularly Hutchesontown, was comprehensively redeveloped for a third time, providing a mix of private (market rate) and social housing. There are also the railway arches. Finding 1950s Gorbals. Image source, MARZAROLI COLLECTION. Bill Smith, a Church of Scotland minister, and Communist McShane, with the help of local doctors, lawyers and the like. Father Neil McGarrity has been placed on the sex offenders register after being found guilty of four sexual assaults and one charge of engaging in sexual activity. Whatever happened to the Castlemilk Lads? For the girls and their boy-friends there are two or three cinemas of varying dubiety, and Joe Diamond's Dancing Academy, a bright respectable place with a goodish if decorous band. Tributes paid to 'vibrant' Glasgow community hero who tragically died after long cancer battle. Glasgow charity rush to aid of man and woman after unprovoked attack on Argyle Street. Palace Bingo Hall August 19683 of 14. Located just next to the city center of Glasgow, Scotland, is an area known as the Gorbals, once a small village right there. They were probably funny but rebellious. Their designs prevented residents from visually controlling their internal and external spaces, adding to issues of social dysfunction. A very early reference to Gorbals is contained in a charter dated 1285 referring to a wooden bridge opposite Stockwell Street, then known as Fishergate. The driver also failed a roadside drug wipe for cannabis. Conditions were appalling, overcrowding was standard and sewage and water facilities inadequate. Although these gangs seemed less dangerous to the people of Glasgow, they did attract younger members and the 1950s saw many more teenagers getting involved in gang culture as many older men were lost to World War II. The group have discovered that a copy of the original cross fountain was installed on the Caribbean island of St Kitts & Nevis. Although there was little new development (apart from 344 new Council flats in Oatlands), the population peaked at around 90,000. Thirty years of rent control removed the incentive for the private landlords to improve their housing stock and the factoring system for the care and maintenance of property broke down. GOVAN, a parish, chiefly in the Lower ward of the county of Lanark, but partly in the Upper ward of the county of Renfrew; including the village of Strathbungo, and the late quoad sacra district of Partick; 2 miles (N. W.) from Glasgow. They said it had already killed two young boysdrinking their blood and . they live for, six eight to a room, often thirty to a lavatory, forty to a tap. The Glasgow Club Gorbals leisure centre was built to improve health and well-being as well as life expectancy in the area. Others belong to the Glasgow Corporation. The Forgotten Gorbals -from Picture Post - 31st January 1948. Who owns it? Glasgow . From the late 1990s, terraces of tenements in the modern style started to return and in the 21st century most of the concrete tower blocks have been demolished. Oven, hob, sink included. History [edit | edit source]. Nicholson Street (Apsley Place) in the Gorbals area of Glasgow. Still Game crowned most loved axed TV series fans want to see return to screens. Pictured:A young woman holding a baby wrapped in a blanket in the Gorbals district of Glasgow in January 1948, Conditions in The Gorbals were appalling, overcrowding was standard and sewage and water facilities inadequate, The housing blocks sprang up in the 1840s to provide accommodation for the city's burgeoning population of industrial workers, As thousands flocked to The Gorbals streets residents would often live four, six or even eight to a room, 30 to a lavatory or 40 to a tap, Families were attracted to the cramped and dirty streets of The Gorbals by the cheap rents and the opportunity of work in Glasgow's factories, docks and railway. The Glasgow of 1950 was certainly a far from attractive place, and on many winter nights thick smog enveloped the city so tightly that pedestrians could often see little more than a few yards in front of them. Gorbals Cross was the next street along from Crown Street, where Ballater Street and Gorbals Street met. The Gorbals was a successful industrial suburb in the late 19th century, and attracted many Protestant and Catholic immigrants from Ireland, especially from Ulster (in particular from County Donegal), and Italy, as well as Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire and Eastern Europe. The parked car was towed, and so Jones hired a Heres a newspaper clipping from the Edinburg Daily Courier, and is dated October 29, 1938. After dark, the sky is red from the glow of Dixon's Ironworks, and even in bad weather the streets are full of folk who do not care to sit around in a crowded house whose evening breath is, as they say, like a lung-sick beast's. The tram system was closed in 1962 On the final day of . The 1960s was the era of major unemployment in the history of the city, as coal mines, street works and heavy industries went out of business. Jan 11, 2012 - Flickriver - view images as a 'river of photos' and more. [citation needed]. Businesses flourished as the city's population reached it's all-time high of approximately 1 million. In 2005, fire destroyed the Catholic Church of Blessed John Duns Scotus as a result of a fallen candle. By and large, the youngsters have plenty of pride and few. See also Ordnance Survey maps for developments after 1840, and County Maps of Lanarkshire for maps of the wider Glasgow environs. The Beresford Hotel opened in 1938 and was often described as Glasgows first ever skyscraper being the tallest building in the city at one time. They live in apartments that are mostly small, dark and dirty. 26 Whitehall Road Leeds LS12 1BE; 0330 403 0033; Sign In or Register The Government-sponsored Crown Street Regeneration Project, together with significant work by the community-based New Gorbals Housing Association, continues to transform Hutchesontown, restoring traditional street layouts and a human scale. Up to 40,000 people lived in the notorious Glasgow slum of the Gorbals in the late 1940s. They were later incorporated into Hutchesontown. Its flat, wide streets are lined with flat-faced tenements. Factories opened up alongside academic institutions as . A big proportion packed themselves into 252 acres just over the Clyde south from the city centre, in the area known as the Gorbals. The housing blocks sprang up in the 1840s to provide accommodation for the city's burgeoning population of industrial workers. The placename would therefore mean 'the Sheaves'. As communities from across Scotland, Ireland and Europe settled in their droves in the district, the slum became fit to burst - with four-story tenements ill-equipped to adequately home the ever increasing populations. Two young boys walk their dogs around the streets of the Gorbals in Glasgow in 1948 Credit: . But in 1954, the first Sikh Gurdwara was created in 79 South Portland Street, Gorbals. Couple in a Leith tenement flat, Edinburgh 1972. CCTV footage has captured the moment a man and woman were assaulted by a male on Argyle Street at around 11pm on Friday night. Find a it s a in Gorbals, Glasgow on Gumtree, the #1 site for Stuff for Sale classifieds ads in the UK. Communities from The Highlands travelled to the city in search of work and headed for the slum because rents were cheap. Even so, the Glasgow Corporationwhich has the greatest responsibilityis slow to move; and in the Gorbals the theory is widely held that 'the Corporation is no longer shockable. They have an unusually deep awareness of their plight, and a hot anger for listless authority. Not that the Gorbals is Irish only. As a lodging-house, the Gorbals could hardly be worse. Although hard to believe today, the area was in many ways a southern extension of the city centre with 1,000 shops, 130 public houses, numerous doctors' surgeries and a vast range of small businesses. Glasgow. / Albert McCabe/Getty Images. Rangers 3 Kilmarnock 1 as Colak recall justified, Raskin and Cantwell impress - 3 things we learned. Perhaps because change is so slow to come, the local Communist Party is strong and well-received, and one of its leading members. The Gorbals - a predominantly poor working-class district of Glasgow on the south bank of the river Clyde . In the early 1950s there was a famous incident involving a vampire, the Necropolis and a pack of mini-Van Helsings that made headlines worldwide. In 1846 the city absorbed Gorbals, with a population of some 3,000, and with cotton spinning and weaving factories, ironworks and engineering. But many Jews left as their economic condition improved and nowadays, though you still see Jewish names over the shops, the main landmark at the Cross is Doyle's Irish House. Football takes on the proportion of a mythology, and players are seen as heroes of a fantasy world. Catholic roots: Polish immigrants attend a church service at the Polish Church of St Bride's in Cheapside Street, Glasgow, Home away from home: A Polish immigrant chats with a barmaid at the Polish Ex-Servicemen's Club in March 1955, A priest (pictured centre) visits Polish immigrants at their home in Glasgow in March 1955. Shelter Scotland launch Glasgow Central Station pop up clothes shops. At the time the photos were taken, Britain was home to some 140,000 Poles, with around 22,000 of them living in Scotland alone. The lands on which the hospital was built were named St Ninian's Croft. After the Second World War the district's decrepit homes were demolished thanks to the Housing Act of 1954, which ordered councils to clear the slums. The density of human habitation reached fifteen times that of today's suburban housing while it is recorded that only three per cent of the houses in Hutchesontown had a bath. The doctor will see you now but you probably don't want them to: Interactive map lays bare all 260 of England's worst performing practices that are 'inadequate' or 'require improvement' - so is YOURS one of them? In the Gorbals, everyman has two football teamshis own and Celtic. there are 174 of them (above Frank Judge's Bar) Some are good, some bad, all popular. A controversial pub in the district is the Brazen Head, located at the northern end of Cathcart Road and one of few buildings to survive the mid-20th century redevelopment. In 1901, there were just 5000 Jews, yet by the 1940s, there were approximately 10,000 Jews living in close-knit community operating its own welfare centres, synagogues, cultural and charitable societies. [5] Gorbals railway station opened on 1 September 1877. A further wave of military mapping between 1715 and 1745 is viewable on our Military Maps of Scotland pages. Some criminals live there. ), the number of floors and the height of the building, as well as construction materials . Some investigators declare that sub letting racketeers may make nearly 2,000 a year from a single house hereabouts. These powers descended to Sir Robert Douglas of Blackerstone, who in 1650 disponed (legally transferred) the Gorbals to Glasgow's magistrates for the benefit of the city, the Trades' House, and Hutchesons' Hospital. Not surprisingly, there was a strong desire after the Second World War to tackle such problems through large-scale demolition and comprehensive redevelopment. Teacher strikes suspended as union backs new Scottish Government pay offer. More recent phases, masterplanned by Piers Gough, have employed noted modern architects such as Page/Park, Elder & Cannon and CZWG, resulting in more bold and radical designs, accompanied by innovative street plans and high-quality landscaping. Designed by George Bowie, Chief Architect at Crudens (the company that also built Sighthill), the two blocks at Norfolk Court were approved in 1970 and completed in 1973. . The centre of the city, hotels and nice streets contrasted with the Gorbals slums, tenements, poverty and scruffy children in the street. Queen Elizabeth Square (or Hutchesontown C) is one of the most famous high rise experiments in the history of British housing projects. Hard as nails. The level of poverty would be unthinkable in today's Scotland. In the past, writers have given the Gorbals a bad name, as an area for razor-toughs and meth-drinkers. Laurie built the first house in St Ninian Street in 1794.[5]. Mother and sleeping child, single end tenement flat, Glasgow Maryhill 1971. The Gorbals is an area in the city of Glasgow, Scotland, on the south bank of the River Clyde. It is not as the sensation-mongers pretend. Since 1945, the Citizens Theatre has been based in the area at the former Royal Princess's Theatre, an historic Victorian building. Scroll through a growing chronology of events and click on them for more details and links. The Third Statistical Account of Scotland: City of Glasgow, published 1958, Glasgow Corporation, Facts & Figures, published 1965, "Population Estimates (Current Geographic Boundaries)". Located in Hutchesontown in Glasgow's notorious Gorbals it was meant to be the flagship for an exciting new dawn but turned out to be an icon for poverty, deprivation and the tarnishing of Basil Spence's reputation. The Gorbals area of Glasgow, Scotland, is widely regarded as a successful example of urban regeneration. The Gorbals Story: Directed by David MacKane. . In its beginnings, the problem was one of immigration. The Rise of Provincial Jewry - Glasgow by Cecil Roth, 1950. By the late 19th century, it had become densely populated; rural migrants and immigrants were attracted by the new industries and employment opportunities of Glasgow. Glasgow was the first town in Scotland to experience the full impact Work started in the central area Hutchesontown-Gorbals in the late 1950s, with Laurieston-Gorbals following later in the 1970s. as would earn them a professorship in any other field. If ever there was a top prioritynot only for the Glasgow City Corporation, but for the nation, too, if it values its self-respectit is the destruction of the old Gorbals and the building of a better one. Remains a byword for poverty. Perhaps because of the area's notoriety, the Gorbals was the first part of Glasgow to be promoted for comprehensive redevelopment under post-war planning legislation. Residents would often live four, six or even eight to a room, 30 to a toilet or 40 to a tap. GORBALS, a parish, in the suburbs of the city of Glasgow, chiefly in the county of Lanark, but partly in the Upper ward of the county of Renfrew.This place, originally called Bridgend, from its situation at the extremity of a bridge over the Clyde, connecting it with Glasgow, was anciently part of the parish of Govan, from which it was separated in 1771. Cheers. Glasgow shop owner 'in tears' after store weeks away from opening hit by devastating blaze. Most of the district was built up intentionally as a slum in the 1840's and i850's, and has so remained without change and almost without repair.