A Chip Off The Whole Block
I was talking to the Good Morning Scotland production team this morning and the discussion turned to housing. This was prompted by today's news about the Glasgow Housing Association's . I was reminded of something I'd seen when I'd been travelling through Garthamlock in the east end of the city. Many of the original streets have been demolished, other tenement blocks have been refurbished. The strangest sight was this block in the above photograph which appears to have been left stranded by the demolition squad. Clearly the flats are still occupied, but I wasn't sure whether this is a temporary arrangement or whether there are plans to attach new buildings in the future.
Last time I saw anything like this was in the sixties and seventies, when many of Glasgow's Victorian tenements were being cleared on a block-by-block basis. It was common to see the opened side of a building, with the fireplace still intact and the wallpaper of the various rooms visible to the outside world.
It seemed like a violation of personal privacy.
And, of course, many of the people who were cleared from those so-called slums eventually ended up in vast housing estates like...Garthamlock.
