Edit Gorbals past
The area was traditionally home to large numbers of Catholic immigrants from Ireland as well as at one stage housing the vast majority of Scotland's Jewish population.
The Jewish population has more or less left the area completely, and although the Irish-Catholic population has diminished to an extent, a high number have remained after the area's redevelopment.
The area today is now a mixture between working-class and middle-class people, with a rather cosmopolitan atmosphere.
The name Gorbals comes from the Scottish Gaelic appellation, Gort a' Bhaile ("field of the town").
The origins of the Gorbals area date back to the 14th century, when it was a village - sometimes known as Bridgend - which grew up around what was then the River Clydes most westerly crossing point: a bridge completed in 1345 by Bishop William Rae of Glasgow, aided by Lady Lochow.
This bridge stood until the 19th century and was the only one on the Clyde below Bothwell until the erection of the Broomielaw Bridge in 1768.
Five years later, a leper hospital dedicated to St Ninian was founded by Lady Lochow at the Gorbals end of the bridge. Hospital Street stands on the site.
After the Protestant Reformation, in 1579, the Church of Scotland feued the land to Sir George Elphinstone, a merchant who was Lord Provost of Glasgow from 1600 to 1606.
The barony and regality of the Gorbals was confirmed in 1606 by a charter of King James VI which vested the powers of regality over barony in Elphinstone and his descendants.
These powers descended to Sir Robert Douglas of Blackerstone, who in 1650 disponed the Gorbals to Glasgow's magistrates' for the benefit of the city, the Trades' House, and Hutchesons' Hospital.
The magistrates from then on collected the rents and duties and divided them: one fourth to the city, one fourth to the Trades' House, and the remaining half to Hutchesons' Hospital.
In 1790 the lands were divided into lots; the City acquired the old feus of Gorbals and Bridgend, and also the Kingston portion of the Barony of Gorbals; the Trades' House obtained a western section; and the remaining section lying to the east and south was allocated to Hutchesons' Hospital.
The Gorbals has long had a reputation as a gritty and rough area. Attempts to clear the slum tenements (originally attempted by The City Improvement Trust in 1866) by Glasgow Corporation and replace them with new high-rise housing in the 1960s did little to improve this reputation.
Throughout the 1980s the Gorbals was often referred to as the most dangerous place in the UK, as street gangs and casual violence were rife. The common weapon of choice amongst teenagers was a machete.
The poor design and low-quality construction of the concrete 20-storey flats led to innumerable social and health problems in the area; many of the blocks developed damp and structural problems.
The most infamous of these schemes, the Queen Elizabeth Square flats designed by Sir Basil Spence, was demolished in 1993 to make way for a new generation of housing development.
Much of the area, particularly Hutchesontown, has now been comprehensively redeveloped for the third time, providing a mix of private and social housing.
I lived in the Gorbals during the 1980s as a child but never thought of it being the most dangerous place in the uk . I knew it as a great place to be a kid lots of fun friends and brilliant outdoor games. I cant understand why they say it is a better place to live in now. I think its now a scary place, at least when a gang had a fight in thos days it was over and forgotten.things that happen nowadays are actually very hard to believe that this is the world that we live in.
I have just read Colin Macfarlane's book The Real Gorbals Story...a brilliantly funny book and a must for all those who have lived in or are interested in the old Gorbals
I worked as a concierge in Norfolk Ct for about 12 years. From that I have gained a lot of knowledge through the many photographs I have from Gorbals from the days when the demolition of the old tenements was given the go ahead. Yes it could be scary ,some of the youths were bad, read the reports in the press from a couple of years ago and see what I mean. There were plenty of good kids and tenants and they made up for the bad ones. From all those photos a book has been published, its called The Gorbals an Illustrated History. Bye for now, Norrie
THE YUPPIES HAVE TAKEN OVER. WE CAN'T EVEN GET A CHINESE TAKEAWAY WITHOUT THEM PUTTING A PETITION ROUND to STOP IT. THE HEART HAS GONE FROM THE GORBALS. WE HAVE NO COMMUNITY CENTRE, UNEMPLOYED WORKERS CENTRE ART PROJECT OR ANYTHING FOR THE COMMUNITY ANY MORE. NO SHOPS NO PUBS NO SWING PARKS FOR KIDS OR PLAY AREAS. WHERE I LIVE THE KIDS HAVE TO CROSS MAIN ROADS TO GET 2 SWING PARKS OR PLAY AREAS. THERE IS NO PUBLIC SEATING. THERE USED TO BE LOTS OF PLACES TO MEET PEOPLE, NOW THE COMMUNITY IS BROKEN AND FRAGMENTED...SAD DAYS
Although the Gorbals has improved in terms of housing, albeit there is a serious lack of social housing, and too many yuppie flats and townhouses, it has lost a sense of community, in terms of the younger people developing friendships etc. I am Gorbals born and bred and, to be honest, hardly know anyone of my own age in the area. Most people I know are through my mum, and her wee dog Hannah.......and these people tend to be elderly..............they seem to keep a sense of neighbourly gabs going...............eg it takes me and my mum 2 hours to go for a pie out of greggs.........because of GABBIN!!!! To be honest, I love living in the Gorbals, and don't remember it ever being that bad in terms of drugs etc..............I was NEVER offered drugs as a child or teenager...............and I was too scared of my parents to even think about trying them...............poverty.......pure mince!!! My parents brought me and my brothers up on low wages and in tenements and high flats, and we have all done well for ourselves...........so excuses like poverty etc..............nahhhhhhhh doesn't wash with me!!!
It would be great if there could be a bi-ennial gathering of former residents of the old Gorbals, i.e. those born and living there until around 1960. I suppose those who lived there after 1960 could be included but my feeling is that they are of a "different generation" as things changed rapidly after 1960. Those who grew up in the days of coal men, rag men (and women); cairtie rides by entrepreneurs who came with their wee carts and long-suffering wee ponies that patiently trotted up and down the street with a load of 5 or 6 weans in the back at a penny a ride; lobey dossers; street singers - or back court singers - that sometimes got a halfpenny or a penny tossed to them from a tenement window; the soor milk cairt (buttermilk); the scramels (scrambles) for the pennies - and a sixpences if you were lucky - that were tossed from the hired taxis taking brides/grooms to their weddings; the rat-catching at the behest of the H&W Dept (sanitation) that paid 3d. a tail for each one caught - which initiated a great contest among the fiendish weans running after the poor creatures with clubs and sticks after smoking them out; the gas man most welcome as he stacked pennies on the kitchen table after emptying the gas meter and left a "rebate" that helped eke out the money for food; the local bands - St. Francis Church, the BB bands, and the Sally Annes (Salvation Army); the games in the street; the bonfires at the end of the war; halloween night when you might get enough money in additon to a few tasty treats as reward for doing a turn such as singing, dancing, reciting a poem or telling a joke; and where everybody knew a lot about everybody else's business and were for the most part kind to one another. Conditions were tolerable most of the time - well, tolerable, because of what we were used to - but, even when things were bad, neighbours commiserated with one another. That was the problem: we were very good at complaining to one another and we learned to put up with a lot because we never complained enough to the powers that were. I often wondered why we kept on voting for and electing Alice Cullen to the City Council for she never seemed to get very much done - maybe because she was a woman in the then- and until recently- male-dominated chambers at George Square. We had a lot of good times, especially the New Year celebrations - that is the holiday we saved for and celebrated in the Gorbals of old and it was great for it lasted about two weeks. That's when I learned all the "auld Scots sangs." I suppose through the less critical recall of nostaligia, we often remember mostly the good times and put the nasty times aside even if we don't forget them. All I can say is that as weans we played well together and, even with the diverse population mix, adults seemed to accept one another as people just struggling to get along in the same boat. Is it like that today, I wonder?. I moved to Canada and then the States in 1965 and the old Gorbals is no more, nor should it be in the light of progress. There were very few parts remaining that I remembered when I was back there in 2007. It would seem from looking at the Gorbals website there are many more social activities and resources for people now with a diminished population than there ever were when they were much more needed in the good old/bad old days. I wonder if this level of attention is warranted nowadays or is the Gorbals name being used to fund resources as if the area was still full of hungry weans wi' dirty faces, torn claes, and shoes too big for them because they are hand-me-downs from their older siblings. Mary Caroline (nee) Whittaker