Vacant land on Green Street, Calton, c 1950s. The picture depicts children pilfering wood from a site which had been cleared of houses. The wood had previously been "treated" by blow lamp to kill any insects.
It was not until the passing of the 1919 Housing (Scotland) Act (often called the Addison Act) that Glasgow embarked on a concerted, long-term programme of urban redevelopment and house-building. One element was the re-housing of people from city centre slum areas which began in 1923 with the demolition of over 2,000 houses in Anderston, Cowcaddens, and Townhead. In 1929 another 1,131 houses deemed unfit for habitation were demolished in Calton.
Reference: Glasgow University Archive Services, PHU64/57
University of Glasgow
Keywords:
Addison Act, children, Housing (Scotland) Act, overcrowding, pilfering, slum clearance, slums, streetscenes, tenements, theft, urban redevelopment, waste land