Inner City Glasgow – Redevelopment
The geography of Glasgow dates back to the 19th Century. At this time, the main industries were iron ore and coal as it was nearby, shipbuilding was a mass production and the River Clyde was right through the city centre.
There were large areas of housing but they were very poor quality, in fact they were among the worst in Britain. The main accommodation was in the form of tenements. These were the most common houses, made out of stone and were four or five stories high. On the bottom floor there were shops. Tenants had one single room (called single ends) or two room flats, with no cookers etc and open fires. They were very crowded as this one room had to fit in the whole family and also, they sometimes took on lodgers as well, to try and earn some extra money. The beds had to be made so that they could be folded up into a whole in the wall in the daytime so it wouldn’t get in the way. There weren’t even any inside toilets. Poor communal facilities were in a block at the back of the tenement and included a wash room, outside toilet and bins. These tenements were built all over the city to house the people that had come to the city to work in the factories.
