A dormitory in a model lodging house, late 19th century.
A major problem identified by the City Improvement Trust in the 1860s was the large number of overcrowded and insanitary lodging houses in the city centre, occupied by the poor, the destitute and by immigrants from all over Scotland and Ireland who had flocked to the city in search of work. To alleviate the situation and in an attempt to provide more salubrious cheap rented accommodation for Glasgow's large population of itinerant workers and others with "no fixed abode", the Trust built six model lodging houses for men and one for women between 1871 and 1884. By 1896 there were eighteen model lodging houses in Glasgow.
Although there would have been little privacy in this dormitory it was clean and tidy with proper beds and bedding provided. Chamber pots can be seen under the beds.
Reference: 1230.79.161
Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Museums
Keywords:
beds, chamber pots, City Improvement Trust, dormitories, homelessness, immigrants, interiors, Irish, model lodging houses
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