Glasgow Schemes4

jeeff: 20th May 2007 - 05:24 GMT

i enjoyed the series. glasgow tenements were notorious in the past. some of them still look pretty bleak. how are the modern ones?

kobie: 20th May 2007 - 20:59 GMT

well tenements in scotland vary in quality, think it depends on the building materials used. from what i know the grey sandstone ones tend to suffer from more problems than the red or blond sandstone ones, as i say i think its because they were built a lot more cheaply and not as well maintained. In glasgow the best tenements tend to be in the west-end or south-side. Most of the ex council/housing association owned blond and red sandstone flats have been renovated over the last 40yrs and are nice to live in. However some are in bad condition because the people who own them either cant afford to do the necessary work to them or cant be bothered.

colavitos ghost: 21st May 2007 - 15:48 GMT

this proves it; public housing--american or otherwise--just pretty much sucks.

i've never been to glasgow, london, or any other british city for that matter, but from what i've read and seen in these photos, it seems (lamentably) that british estate housing is just as horrendous as the "projects" in the US.

this has been a very enlightening, if disheartening, series of posts from glasgow. thanks for sharing.

kobie: 21st May 2007 - 18:42 GMT

Dont worry not all council housing in glasgow or britain is as bad as this lol there are many decent council areas around and a lot of areas are being regenerated. I will be doing more pages on glasgow schemes shortly, just a bit busy with work at the moment so keep your eyes peeled.

CE: 21st May 2007 - 21:16 GMT

Montreal has some excellent publich housing, especially the infill housing in the older working class parts of town.

kobie: 25th May 2007 - 16:25 GMT

Yeah in glasgow it tends to be that the older working class parts do have good council housing. The problem is that there is not a lot of it remaining in these areas because most of them have been bought by landlords or developers and then rented privately. So it is really only those who can afford it who benefit from the best of the housing

PK: 10th Mar 2009 - 14:17 GMT

Just worth adding that all the above flats are in the process of being pulled down over the next few years

David9000 : 21st May 2009 - 15:48 GMT

It was a crime demolishing so many old tenements in Glasgow - especially when they replaced them with the spiritually disturbing and Machiavellian housing schemes that followed. Like the author has said, many have been refurbished and are now mid to upper range to buy these days.
Great work, kobie.. look forward to your next set... though wish you'd caught some of Easterhouse' old stock. It may not be too late.

Leo: 13th Aug 2010 - 23:31 GMT

Thanks for the photos of Glasgow, they are great.

To revive the debate, here in France we also have public housing and plenty of troubles with them recently as you must have heard. But well, believe me, these problems have nothing to do with housing quality or being publicly/privately held. The only factor is the people you put in. Just how deep they are fucked up.

Catherine Arnott: 3rd Feb 2011 - 03:06 GMT

can anybody help. I would love to see any old photos of sleads street in Glasgow where i was born