What have been Glasgow’s urban problems? What have been the solutions? What are the recent changes?
There are various geological factors that led to Glasgow’s importance. One factor was that Glasgow was heavily resourced with iron and coal and these are the two main ingredients when producing steel. This steel is then used for many things such as railways (e.g. The Clyde Tunnel, 1963), bridge building (e.g. Kingston Bridge, 1970) and most importantly shipbuilding. Another factor that led to the importance of Glasgow is that it is situated on the River Clyde; a very deep and wide river. These two combined together, led to a large ship building industry producing in Glasgow and many businesses starting up in this kind of work.
However Glasgow soon began to encounter various problems. One problem in Glasgow at this time was the living conditions. The worst part of housing in Glasgow was the Gorbals. They were damp, smelly, infested, and largely overcrowded and these poor conditions led on to various other problems such as: drugs, alcohol, prostitution, vandalism, racism, vagrancy, and vandalism. There was also a lot of illness and disease in these slums during this time, mainly due to the overcrowding, because things spread so quickly from person to person. Another type of housing in Glasgow was a tenement; these were the shady side of Glasgow’s prosperity and were mainly accommodated by people that moved into town from the country to work in the shipbuilding industry. These were sometimes in such a poor state they fall down while people were living inside them resulting in a high number of tragic deaths. The city was said to be in a state of inner city decay.
