Housing, Everyday Life & Wellbeing over the long term

Housing, everyday life and wellbeing over the long term in Glasgow c.1950–1975 is a Leverhulme funded project which has employed a historical approach to explore the long-term impact of re-development and forced relocation in post-war Glasgow.

After the Second World War, modern homes in high rises and new towns were identified as the solution to inner city overcrowding, an approach championed on behalf of the working classes by architects, planners, and local officials. Glasgow was nationally influential in its approach, which channelled this modernist impulse into homes, designed and built with a modern aesthetic and with the use of new building materials and techniques. More than fifty years on from the inception of Glasgow's housing revolution there are lessons to be learned from this massive public housing experiment.

Source: ©Nick Hedges (as featured in 'Gorbals' by Ruth Hedges)

Source: Post-war housing no.2, A/30/F/6, Glasgow City Council, Libraries Information and Learning.

Research on the success or failure of social housing and relocation has generally tended to focus on short-term impacts. Very soon after the slum clearance and rebuilding programmes of the 1950s and 1960s, the criticism was made, and has stuck thereafter, that the main impact of such developments was to cause the ‘destruction of communities’ and ‘social displacement'. Despite a lack of research on the ongoing effects since, this has proved a very influential narrative, so much so that present-day urban restructuring has been said to have parallels with the earlier epoch, with policy-makers and planners having failed to learn the lessons from the past.

This project has employed a historical approach in revisiting this period of post-war redevelopment and has asked to what degree it succeeded or failed, for whom, and in what context, over the longer term. Ultimately, understanding what has happened to people in social housing across the lifecycle, and over several decades, has provided important lessons for the conduct and prospective impacts of restructuring programmes today.

We have obviously learned a great deal about the process of relocation, settling in to new housing in high rise estates in Glasgow or in East Kilbride, and the outcomes for individuals over the long term. The oral history life narrative interviews conducted for the project (see section below) were crucial to our understanding of these processes. 

Among our key findings from the project are:

• There are clear benefits to accessing subjective memories of relocation and placing these in the context of longer term housing pathways across the life course.
• The overwhelming satisfaction expressed by tenants of high rise flats in the 1960s must be judged in the context of former housing conditions – the new homes were a qualitative improvement on what had gone before and were perceived as a new start – and residents’ present circumstances.
• Contrary to the findings of some influential studies, relocation was not always a negative experience in respect of family and kin relationships.
• In the case of the new town, new social identities were formed, distinct from those shaped in the city.
• In terms of design, despite the greater tendency of urban Scots to live in flats, the majority of tenants desired a house with their own front door (signifying autonomy and social mobility) and this aspiration grew as time passed.
• As the composition of residents on social housing estates altered, concerns from original tenants about the changed social mix and social breakdown destabilised communities which had originally appeared socially coherent.

Source: P. Jephcott and H. Robinson, Homes in High Flats, (Oliver & Boyd: Edinburgh), 1971, front cover. Image © Miss D. Foy credited in the book as the artist

Pearl Jephcott's Homes in High Flats drew upon 1,066 questionnaires completed by residents throughout Glasgow. Alongside this questionnaire Jephcott also chose to 'concentrate on a limited number of estates' as this would 'enable staff to make sustained relationships with individual households'. The five areas chosen, Castlemilk, Wyndford, Albion, Red Road and Royston, were thought to be 'not too 'untypical' of the estates as a whole'.

Mitchellhilll in Castlemilk, which comprised of five 19 storey multi-storey blocks was chosen as a result of its position on the edge of a large postwar council estate. Jephcott notes that 'The semi-rural setting was judged very favourable for the child living in a high flat (once he was old enough to go out by himself) and Castlemilk was selected for special study largely for this reason' (p. 28).

Wyndford was chosen as it was close to a busy shopping street (Maryhill Road). This estate, which consisted of 16 multistorey blocks over 8 storeys and also low-rise flats, was (and is) situated on the site of an old barracks and was surrounded by 'a high and handsome wall' which meant that it was 'visibly self contained'. Jephcott states that 'socially it is believed to be settling down rather well' and this along with the fact it was built and managed by the Scottish Special Housing Association (SSHA) were the main reasons for its selection for in-depth study (p. 28).

Albion, an estate which no longer exists, consisted of three 19 multi-storey blocks, it was near the docks and 'hemmed-in' by an arterial road, Ibrox football stadium and a greyhound track.

Red Road, which has become an iconic representation of high rise living in Glasgow, was chosen by Jephcott because although it was only two miles north-east of the city centre 'it was curiously cut off from the main stream of city life'. At the point of her study only two of the eight 'massive blocks' (around 31 storeys high) had been occupied but both 'were already showing signs of social problems since the lifts were proving most inadequate'. There was also 'a high proportion of child-users'. The high proportion of children in these blocks were of interest to Jephcott (p. 30).

Finally, Royston was selected as one of Glasgow's 'earliest ventures in high flats'. The three 20 storey blocks had been completed in 1961 and Jephcott thought 'the novelty of this new type of home should have long worn off' which 'might make it a useful contrast to the city's high flats in general' (p. 30).