Housing in Glasgow facts for kids

A typical Glasgow tenement block.

Glasgow is the biggest city in Scotland. It has many different types of homes. These building styles show how the city has changed over time. For example, there was a lot of growth in the 1700s and 1800s. Later, in the 1900s, industries closed, and poverty grew. In the 2000s, the city started to get better again.

Glasgow's Homes: A Look Back

Glasgow is famous for its tenements. These are large apartment buildings where many families live. They share a common staircase, which people in Glasgow call a "close." Tenements were the most popular type of home in Glasgow during the 1800s and 1900s. Even today, they are still very common. Many people like tenements because they have big rooms, high ceilings, and cool old features. The Hyndland area of Glasgow is special. It's the only place in the UK that protects its tenement buildings. Some of these homes even have six bedrooms!

Why Glasgow Needed New Homes

In the 1960s, Glasgow, like many other cities, started building tall apartment buildings called tower blocks. These were built to replace old tenements that were falling apart. The original tenements were built in the 1800s for workers. Many people moved to Glasgow from the countryside, the Scottish Highlands, other parts of the UK, and especially Ireland. They came to work in factories during the Industrial Revolution. Glasgow grew very fast and became a very important city. It was even called the 'second city of the Empire'.

But there weren't enough new homes for everyone. Many tenements became very crowded and dirty. Some inner-city areas, like Anderston, the Gorbals, and parts of the East End, became very poor and unhealthy. Diseases spread easily in these areas, which were known as slums. To fix this, groups like the City Improvement Trust worked to clear out the old slums. Between World War I and World War II, Glasgow actually doubled in size!

Building New Communities

After World War II, the city wanted to make things even better. They planned to knock down more slum areas and build new communities. This included creating brand new towns outside Glasgow, like East Kilbride and Cumbernauld. They also built new housing areas on the edge of the city and, of course, more tower blocks.

The city needed thousands of new homes very quickly. In 1951, almost half of Glasgow's homes were too crowded. By 1957, most homes in the Gorbals were still considered unhealthy. The city council wanted people to stay in Glasgow to pay taxes. So, they decided to build more tower blocks and large housing estates, even though land and money were limited. Before the war, they preferred building smaller homes with gardens, but these took too long to build for the urgent need.

Four very large housing areas were built on the city's outskirts: Castlemilk, Drumchapel, Easterhouse, and Pollok. These became some of the biggest in Europe. Other smaller neighborhoods were also built, mostly with three or four-story tenement-style buildings. Some of the first tall buildings in the 1950s, like Moss Heights, were successful. But they weren't tall enough to solve the housing problem. So, in the 1960s, Glasgow built even more and taller towers than many other cities in Europe.

Problems with the New Buildings

The new tower blocks and modern tenements had better facilities than the old slum homes. However, the large new housing areas often lacked basic shops and job opportunities. Many of these buildings were also built cheaply using pre-made concrete parts. This wasn't good for Scotland's wet weather. Damp (moisture) quickly got into the buildings, causing health problems.

Many tower blocks were surrounded by low-rise homes that didn't always match the original plans. Sometimes, older shops and services were knocked down to make way for new buildings that never appeared or weren't good enough. Many people found it hard to live in these new areas. There weren't enough places for kids to play or for people to get haircuts or buy clothes. Older people also struggled to get used to the new buildings. Some people even went back to their old neighborhoods to socialize, even if they had moved miles away.

The Fall of the Tower Blocks

Just like in other parts of the UK, Glasgow's tower blocks slowly got worse. They started to attract crime and became known as cheap, undesirable places to live. Many of the towers were built using the same design, so any problems with the design were repeated across the city. It cost a lot more money than expected to keep the buildings in good shape.

In the 1980s, some tower blocks were improved with new roofs and better security. But by the 1990s, knocking them down became a better idea than trying to fix them. While some people were happy living in the towers, many left. They were often replaced by people who had no other housing options. This led to more problems, and the cycle continued until some blocks were almost empty. A big change happened in 1993 when the city decided to knock down the Hutchesontown C tower blocks. These had once been seen as amazing new buildings but were now symbols of planning mistakes from the 1950s and 1960s.

Bringing Tenements Back to Life

At the same time, people realized that knocking down so many tenements had been a mistake. In the late 1970s, a project called Glasgow Eastern Area Renewal (GEAR) showed that old tenements could be fixed up. They could become good quality homes, even better than many of the concrete buildings built after the war.

After the GEAR project, many of Glasgow's worst tenements in areas like Govan and Springburn were also made into nice homes in the 1970s and 1980s. People now think that knocking down tenements destroyed many beautiful examples of a much-loved building style. Luckily, this traditional style still exists in many parts of Glasgow today. These old tenements have lasted much longer than many of the lower-quality buildings that were supposed to replace them.

In 2003, the Glasgow Housing Association took over all the city's public housing. They started a big project to knock down many high-rise flats and fix up others. This work helped improve homes across the city, including both tower blocks and tenements.

Glasgow Tower Blocks: A Closer Look

This section shows a map and list of tall buildings in Glasgow. It focuses on towers that are at least 12 stories high. These were built between the late 1950s and early 1970s. It also includes some important 10-story buildings. However, it doesn't include newer apartment buildings or other tall buildings like colleges or offices.

Map Key

• = Building still exists
• = Some parts of the building still exist (some blocks were knocked down)
• = Building has been knocked down
• ABC(4) = Short code for the building's name (number of towers)

The now demolished Red Road estate came to symbolise the mistakes of the city's 1960s housing policy.

See also

• Brutalism in Sheffield
• List of council high-rise apartment buildings in the City of Leeds
• List of tallest buildings and structures in Glasgow