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Westbank Quadrant
Gibson Street,
Otago Street and
Westbank Quadrant
Tenements &
Residents
Introduction
3
Westbank House,
the Tenements
and Builders
5
People and
Changing Communities
9
The Tenement Washhouse 13
Looking After
the Backcourt Today
21
Acknowledgements
24
1
2
Many generations of people have lived
and worked in the Victorian tenement
city of Glasgow. The white and red
sandstone in the hands of an
imaginative architect means Glasgow
is peppered with architectural
specialities and indeed the backdrop
of ordinary tenements is still imposing
and special to this day.
As part of the work carried out by the
group, this booklet aims to bring
together and record information about
the GOW tenements and everyday
lives in this part of Glasgow's
WestEnd.
The GOW group are interested in how
to help everyone to work together and
as part of learning how to do that
now, it is important and interesting to
look back and see how people did that
in the past. Traditional tenement
living is an excellent example of
people sharing facilities and property
and co-operating for the good of all.
Washing was a common everyday task
and even the simple co-operation of
passing on the washhouse key was
needed to make sure everyone got
their turn at the washing.
Most of Glasgow's tenements were
built in the second half of the 19th
century and the tenements that form
the Gibson Street, Otago Street and
Westbank Quadrant (GOW) triangle
are no exception They are still as
majestic as when they were first built
over one hundred and thirty years
ago, with their unique site near the
river Kelvin and the park.
Sadly there has been some decline in
the properties over the years. During
this period the common backcourt or
drying green area, formerly known as
Westbank Court, has fallen into
disrepair. Recently residents have
joined together as the “GOW Group”
to improve the environment and
community aspects of the area.
Views from Westbank Quadrant
In these pages there are some
memories of people who live here
now and some of those that live
elsewhere who responded to requests
for information. They have all been
included for your experience and
enjoyment of the richness they add to
descriptions of our common history.
Top – The Kelvin River
Bottom – Kelvingrove Park
3
On the right, a postcard from just after the turn of
the 20th century depicts Gibson Street as viewed
from Eldon Bridge over the River Kelvin.
While the picture is taken on a quiet day, there are
two horses and carts, a tram and advertising
boards to be seen outside the shop fronts.
Shops have always been an integral part of Gibson
Street and seen in original architectural plans.
On the left, a modern day re-creation of the
postcard above.
Horses and carts have been replaced by delivery
vans and cars, the tram by the bus, the impact of
technology is quite clear.
Both the grey Glasgow skies and the front of the
tenements, other than the brashness and variety
of modern shop signs, has changed very little in
one hundred years.
4
“it is thereby declared that the said David Smith and his
foresaids should not dig any clay nor make nor burn any brick
or potter work out of or upon the ground of the foresaid lands
excepting for walls thereon and other purposes connected
therewith”
Instrument of Sasine, 19th August 1825
Reproduced from the Land Certificate relating to 3 Westbank Quadrant
Westbank House,
the Tenements and
the Builders
What was built, when, why and by
whom
5
The architectural history of the GOW
tenements is rich and varied. Gordon
Urquhart of the Glasgow Conservation
Trust West describes this below.
“The triangle of tenements between
Gibson Street, Otago Street and
Westbank Quadrant were constructed
in the late 1870s and 1880s, at a
time when Hillhead was prospering as
an independent burgh. Although the
fledgling suburb was still rather
remote from the centre of Glasgow at
the time, and dairy cows still grazed
alongside the Kelvin, these new
tenements were not the first
buildings to be constructed on this
particular site. In fact, the
construction of the Westbank
Quadrant [GOW] triangle is an early
example of “brownfield”
redevelopment.
In the early 1820s, the youthful laird
of Hillhead, James Gibson, imagined
his lands becoming an exclusive
suburb of the burgeoning city of
Glasgow. Gibson engaged the
services of the city’s leading surveyor
and mapmaker, David Smith, to
devise a feu plan for Hillhead so that
6
parcels of land could be developed
for new villas and terraced houses.
Gibson and Smith seemed to have
formed a strong bond during this
initial commission, for not only
would the young landowner come to
rely on the surveyor in his quest to
open up the lands west of the
Kelvin with the construction of a
new private turnpike (Great
Western Road), but Smith’s
daughter would also become the
widower Gibson’s second wife.
Like his future son-in-law, David
Smith also foresaw the value of the
lands along the River Kelvin —
despite the fact that they were still
well beyond the periphery of Glasgow
(which, in the 1820s, barely reached
Blythswood Square). Smith acquired
large parcels on land not only on the
banks of the Kelvin within Gibson’s
Hillhead estate, but also on the
opposite east bank (around the north
end of today’s Kelvingrove Park).
David Smith built a small country
retreat for himself on the gently
sloping right bank of the Kelvin which
he called “Westbank” — one of the
earliest houses in the new Hillhead
suburb. Eventually, when a new
David Smith built a
small country retreat
for himself on the
gently sloping right
bank of the Kelvin
which he called
“Westbank”
Top left - Section of Ordnance Survey map of 1858 showing Westbank House (© Ordnance Survey)
street was cut behind Westbank it
was named Smith Street in his
honour, though in the early 20th
century this would be changed to
Otago Street.
parcels of open land left in the
district — Northpark, Westbank,
Saughfield, Lilybank and even
James Gibson’s own Hillhead house
— were all redeveloped.
As Hillhead continued to grow during
the middle decades of the 19th
century, demand for development
sites increased. Instead of a suburb
of detached villas and terraced
houses, Hillhead became more of a
tenemental district in the last quarter
of the century as builders opted for
more densely populated building
types. With time, the few large
The new tenements at Westbank —
built over a period of more than ten
years — seemed to have been
developed by William Young. The
earliest section is the range of
seven buildings on the northerly
corner of the triangular Westbank
block, designed in 1876 for Young
by the prominent firm of Glasgow
architects John Burnet & Son. In
the following year, the design of the
gushet block overlooking Eldon
Street Bridge was submitted to the
Hillhead authorities (probably also
by Burnet), and in 1879 Young
developed the opposite corner of
the triangle — facing south over the
Kelvingrove Park yard — though for
this scheme his architect was
Duncan McNaughton (designer of
Maryhill Burgh Hall). John Burnet &
Son would return to the site to
design the final two tenements in
the triangle for Young in 1886,
namely 3-5 Westbank Quadrant.
The most unusual
feature of the
Westbank triangle is
the use of cast iron
columns in place of
solid stone mullions
in the tripartite
windows
These four separate developments
have many architectural features in
common, most notably the use of
tripartite (ie three-light) windows
alternating with single windows along
the front facades (all with ornamental
hood moulds, or projecting cornices
above), V-jointed channelled ashlar
(white sandstone) at ground floor
level with plain polished ashlar above
and below. The blocks fronting
Gibson Street have three flatted
floors above a row of shops (only two
of which, Offshore and Abacus, still
Top right - Section of Ordnance Survey map of 1893 showing the GOW tenements (© Ordnance Survey)
7
have their original frontages intact),
whilst the Otago Street elevation and
the McNaughton corner block have
four floors of flats above an elevated
basement level. Interestingly, only
the Burnet block at 3-5 Westbank
Quadrant lacks a basement to the
front and it is also the only building
with bay windows.
The most unusual feature of the
Westbank triangle is the use of cast
iron columns in place of solid stone
mullions in the tripartite windows of
the McNaughton and late Burnet
blocks. It is not known why this
detail was chosen by the architects —
whether it was purely for aesthetic
reasons or perhaps there was
difficulty in obtaining stone from the
quarries of the correct dimensions for
use as mullions. Considering the
buildings on this side of the site are
built on filled land (which levelled off
the slope from Otago Street down to
the river bank — thus accounting for
the massive retaining wall above the
Kelvin and the deep basement
beneath Offshore), it is possible that
these iron columns were used for
additional structural strength. It is
8
certainly a design feature unique in
the West End of Glasgow.
Without doubt the most impressive
part of the entire triangular block is
the curved gushet (corner block) at
the junction of Westbank Quadrant
and Gibson Street. With an orginal
shopfront at street level, three tiers
of triple windows above, and a
handsome dome with pedimented
stone dormer punctuating the
roofline, Burnet’s design is a perfect
example of the Victorian Glasgow
architect’s ability to use a simple
combination of design techniques to
produce a composition of restrained
elegance. It is a classic piece of
Victorian townscape “wallpaper” —
not showy, like Burnet the
younger’s flamboyant Charing Cross
Mansions (1891) nor a studied
example of a foreign style (like his
father’s Venetian palace of a Stock
Exchange in Buchanan Street, built
c1875-77), but rather it is simply a
handsome and confident way to
terminate a prominent corner site.”
Right – A view of the corner block at the junction of Westbank Quadrant and Gibson Street
An advert from the early part of
the 1900's shows the well known
Glasgow academic booksellers
John Smith & Son used to run a
store from premises at
28-30 Gibson Street where the
Stravaigin bar is located now
People and Changing
Communities
Who lived and lives in the area, how
their actions form the community
and how that has changed
9
Early Residents
In common with modern building
development, Glasgow tenements were
built by speculators, people with capital
interested in building for profit. In modern
times, flats are sold on to realise the
income. In the late 19th century when the
tenements were built, property would be
retained by the original owner or sold on
as a block of flats, not one by one. Flats
were built for the rental income they
would provide the owner and not for the
resale value. This meant that tenements
were built for all manner of people in
society, from the infamous single-end
through to more salubrious
accommodation extending to several
apartments and a kitchen. There was a
strongly competitive market for rental
property meaning good tenements were
often very well built with plenty of
decorative features.
As well as the private speculator who
had an interest in the rental value of the
property, the “feu superior”, who owned
the land on which the tenements were
built, had an interest in making sure the
tenements were of good rental value.
The owners of large areas of land would
also have an interest in their legacy and
want to stamp their impression indelibly
on the fabric of Glasgow. Most of the
streets in Glasgow were laid out during
the building of the tenements to plans
drawn up on the request of the
landowner of the time and remain in
place to this day.
The people who rented tenements in the
GOWt triangle were from various
backgrounds. The 1913 voters roll lists the
residents of Westbank Quadrant as having
the following occupations:
Bootmaker, Butcher, Clerk,
Lieutenant, Marine Engineer,
School Teacher, Ship Master,
Shoemaker, Teacher, Traveller,
Window Cleaner, Wireman
As could be expected, as the flats are
large, well ornamented and have superb
views across Kelvingrove Park, (in those
days the trees were not as tall!) the
occupants were skilled tradesmen or
professionals.
Changing lives – the war years
A law was introduced in 1910 that made it
unprofitable for private speculators to build
tenements for rental. The new concepts of
housing for all provided for by the state
began to come into force around this time,
most major building work would be carried
out by the Glasgow Corporation, the
equivalent of today's City Council.
Tenement properties of all qualities and in
all areas suffered a long period of
deterioration as they were no longer
profitable to maintain and mass home
10
Above – An extract from the 1913 valuation roll listing some of the residents of Gibson Street
ownership was not possible as an ordinary
person could not get a bank loan for the
required sum. At the same time the first
and second world wars meant that all
resources went towards the war effort.
Standards of living were not as high as
they are now and war made poverty bite
even harder.
Mrs. Innes, a GOW resident who grew up
in a tenement flat in the Southside of
Glasgow, recalls during the first world war
seeing boys playing in the street barefoot
with a football that was flat. Their parents
were so poor they could not afford shoes
for their children. When she was bought a
pair of shoes, they didn't come with any
laces as the shopkeeper claimed there
were no laces for wartime boots!
In the kitchen there was a bunker of coal
for the big grate in the fireplace and there
was barley broth to eat.
Barley broth was typically a fairly meagre
dish demonstrating the poverty in wartime
all families were faced with.
For a day trip, Mrs. Innes remembers
getting on the tram to go to the city centre
which was considered quite a treat, a
journey today's children do regularly on
the bus.
Mrs Smith of Otago Street comments I think its days of grandeur were the
1900s to 1950s, when it had an
established community, local shops,
including a dairy (with milk deliveries!), a
blacksmiths for shoeing the local
merchants’ horses, and, when the days
of horses were over, a car show room in
Otago Street!
Changing lives – the fifties and
sixties
During this period, home ownership
started to become more common, but
most flats were still rented out. In 1953,
around a fifth of the flats were owner
occupied, the other major owners being
a James Smith and the Bank Quadrant
Company.
Daily lives were still quite traditional with
people shopping and socialising locally
and using public transport to go into the
centre of Glasgow. Gibson Street
provided the whole range of shops that
were needed for the household. Few
people owned a car and of course there
were no supermarkets.
Mrs. Smith of Otago Street remembers
the Hillhead community of this period -
Hillhead was quite a diverse community in
culture, wealth and background – from
professional and local business people in
the prosperous streets and larger flats and
houses to ordinary working class people in
the smaller flats in Otago Street and the
lower part of Gibson Street, so there were
not the friendships and sharing in every
close and street one found in Partick,
Govan, the Gorbals and other working
Right – An original range in a Westbank Quadrant flat, a St. Enoch model by Glasgow's W.Borland & Co.
11
class communities. Families were quite
large and self-sufficient but close
friendships were established at local
schools, tennis clubs, the Boys Brigade,
Scouts and Girl Guides, and through
business, church connections and other
interests. Within families and close
friendships there would have been the
usual kindness and sharing through the
good times and the bad.
Mrs Dunkeld of Gibson Street recalls the
array of shops that there were in the early
fifties.
It felt like a proper community, you would
meet people at the shop and the chemist
and so on. You knew people in the close
well. It was like a village community,
everything you needed was on Gibson
Street, you didn't have to leave. There was
a laundromat, licensed grocers, grocers,
John Smith's bookstore, chemist, second
hand store, co-operative and other shops
too.
A resident of Otago Street says about the
shops in the area The most established – and by far the
most important to the community – was
the local dairy in Gibson Street. This was
owned and run by two local sisters who
12
liked people and knew everyone in the
community; the latest local news - good
and bad – was passed on with
enthusiasm as you bought your milk and
morning rolls.
The Present Day
Over the years, particularly in the early
eighties, the corporate owners of flats
sold them on. Currently all the GOW flats
are in private ownership with around half
owner occupied and half rented out,
mainly to students from Glasgow
University.
Daily life has changed with most people
commuting into the city centre and those
with cars doing their shopping at the
supermarket. The Gibson Street shops
are now mainly food outlets reflecting
the change in lifestyles over the years
with people cooking less and eating out
more. With modern demands for a range
of consumer goods, Gibson Street would
no longer be of sufficient size to
accommodate all the shops wanted by
modern lifestyles.
Mrs. Dunkeld notes the change in the
make up of the selection of shops on
Gibson Street.
The area was starting to get run down [in
the seventies and early eighties] but the
removal of sufficient shops by the
demolition of the tenements on Gibson
Street to the north of Otago Street meant
that the vibrancy went and the community
disintegrated completely as people had to
leave the are for everyday shopping.
The well known Indian restaurant, one of
the earliest in Glasgow, the Shish Mahal,
was located on Gibson Street in these
tenements and relocated to Park Road.
The area still retains its multicultural
influences with both Asian and European
influence to the local restaurants.
Sandra, a resident of the GOW tenements,
remarked of the early eighties when she
moved in that people were asking her why
she would want to move into the area.
Now, WestEnd house prices have climbed
dramatically and it is clear from the
property values that people believe that
the area is desirable to live in and own
property.
A painting of a washhouse in the
backcourt of a tenement block
in Exeter Drive, Partick. Others,
like the one at 3 Westbank
Quadrant, were built into the
basements of tenements
The Tenement
Washhouse
What it looked like and how people did
the washing
13
The washhouse
Before the advent of the washing
machine, all washing had to be done by
hand. When the GOW tenements were
built, there was no electricity and even
gas lighting was not very common.
Heating and cooking was done with
wood or coal and coal was expensive
and a precious commodity. Builders of
tenements had to provide for a place for
people to do their washing and this was
typically a communal washhouse. The
washhouse would be shared by all the
flats in the close. Without providing
facilities to do the washing on the
premises then the owner of the
tenement would be less likely to get
tenants and not be able to charge a
market rent. This meant all tenements
An architects plan showing
the boiler (circle) and sinks
(joined rectangles to the
left) in the washhouse in
the cellar of Number Five
Westbank Quadrant
14
had washhouses built either in the
backcourt as a stand alone building
(often a larger building with four
washhouses where four backcourts
met at a corner, with each shared by a
set of tenements flats) or integral in
the building as part of the cellar.
room for drying clothes. Secondly, the
ground leading down to the Kelvin had
to be levelled before being built on.
There was the opportunity to build deep
cellars as no or little excavation would
be required to do so, and the builders
took that opportunity.
The tenements at 3 and 5 Westbank
Quadrant have washhouses built into
the cellars of the tenements. There
are probably two major reasons for
this. There are eleven closes that back
on to the triangular green at the rear
of the tenements, not in the usual
rectangular pattern common across
much of the city. Space is very
cramped and it would be difficult to fit
in individual washhouses and still have
The interior of a washhouse was very
simple as can be seen from the plan of
the washhouse in 5 Westbank Quadrant
(the one in 3 Westbank is a mirror
image). A boiler and two sinks were
built into the area, the sinks overlooking
a window. This was the usual
arrangement for sinks in kitchens also.
This practice developed from having a
'jawbox' – an outside sink – prior to
water being supplied internally which
had to be accessed from a window.
Even though the washhouse was a
straightforward everyday necessity and
part of life, plans to build one were well
detailed as can be seen from the extract
from a building manual on the facing
page.
With the widespread use of washing
machines and a more affluent labour
saving lifestyle, the washhouses became
disused. Washhouses built on the
backcourt were usually demolished. The
sinks and boiler of washhouses built into
the cellar were usually removed and the
space used as a storage area. There are
few remaining intact washhouses in
Glasgow and the one at 3 Westbank
Quadrant is a rare example.
Doing the washing
Unlike today where clothes are put
into the washing machine and they are
clean an hour later with no effort,
doing the washing took an entire days
work. It was always the women who
did the washing, sometimes with a
little help from any daughters who
were at home that day.
The day started early, usually at six
o'clock. The big boiler, either cast
iron or copper, was filled with water.
Wood was gathered to make a fire
underneath it. Coal was not normally
used as it was too expensive and
needed to heat the home. It would
take over an hour to bring the large
vat of water to the boil.
Mrs. Innes, resident of the GOW
tenements, remembers from her
childhood in the Southside of
Glasgow that her mother would start
the wash day before seven in the
morning. They had a washhouse out
in the back close and her mother
would fill the boiler from the cold tap
above it and light the fire once the
boiler was full. Tins of soft soap were
used in the washing water – dark
green was strong and used for work
clothes. Light green was milder and
used for other clothes. Mrs. Innes
recalls that it was mild enough to
shampoo with.
In Corkerhill in the early 1960's the
washhouses were still being used.
John McGee who grew up there has
memories of this time from when he
was a boy - “Inside the washhouse I
“Fig. 5 shows the wash tubs which are
of enamelled fireclay. Figs. 6 and 7
show the plan of one tub and of the
syphon which is placed under the
other tub.”
Extract from “Elementary Building
Construction, Charles Gourlay (1903)
can still remember the stone-built
'bee-hive' which housed the large
copper washtub and the distinctive
smell of the copper when the washtub
was being heated for the washing.”
Below left – The door and bricked up window (to the left) of the washhouse at 3 Westbank Quadrant
15
Mrs. McGee, John's mother,
remembers it too On the allotted wash day the woman
would be up as early as 6.30am to
light the coal fire under the copper
boiler as it took about an hour to heat
the water. Normally the hot water
would be transferred in a large steel
pot into the first sink to do the
washing.
Corkerhill families were often railway
workers and so their work clothes
would be very grimy. But they would
use coal for the washhouse.
John says “One thing I always remembered my
mum and dad saying was that 'oor
street had the poorest coalman in
Glasgow'. Being a railway village there
was always access to coal, obviously
not taken entirely legitimately. If the
coal for the washhouse was running
low the train driver would slow his
steam engine down coming in to
Corkerhill Station and pull the train up
at his back green. A large 'clinker' of
coal would be tossed over onto the
back green and it would quickly
disappear into the bunker.”
16
If the clothes were particularly dirty,
they would have to be scrubbed. A
washboard was used for this, either of
corrugated metal or of glass. Clothes
would be rubbed up and down against
the corrugated surface with a
scrubbing brush and soap pressed
down upon the clothes. Like using the
dolly, this was tough work. In the
picture on this page you can see
someone using a scrubbing brush and
washboard.
Once the water was ready, it was time to
wash the clothes. To wash lots of clothes
in the boiler or one of the sinks, a copper
washing dolly was used. It looks similar
to a blocked drain plunger, but is made
from copper and is solid and has quarter
inch holes set back a little from the rim
to allow water through. You would push
the clothes up and down through the
water and squeezing them on the base
of the sink with the dolly. This would
force soapy water through the clothes
and knock the dirt out. Moving water
from the boiler to the sink and agitating
the clothes with the dolly was very hard
work.
Mrs. McGee remembers the normal
way the washing was done The dirty clothes would be washed in
the first sink in the hot water and this
could consist of more than one wash,
i.e., darks, lights, woollens, depending
on what washes were required. Large
whites were usually boiled in the
copper boiler, usually at the end of
the wash, when no more water
needed to be transferred to the sink.
Initially, the women tended to use a
large cake of Sunlight soap rubbed
onto the clothes, then scrubbed
against the glass washboard. Washing
powders OMO then DAZ tended to
come into vogue later in the early
1960s.
Above – A woman hard at work scrubbing clothes with the aid of a washing board, 1950's
Once the dirt had been scrubbed out
of the clothes, the soap and dirt
needed to be rinsed off. First, the
clothes would be put through a
mangle. The benefit of having two
sinks back to back now becomes clear.
One sink could be used for dirty water
and clothes, the other for rinsing
water. A mangle conveniently attached
between the two sinks meant that
washed clothes could be mangled
directly into the rinsing ink. Once the
clothes had been mangled through,
they could be rinsed and passed back
through the mangle, clean, free of
soap and ready to be hung out in the
backcourt to dry.
Mrs. McGee remembers The washed clothes would be wrung
through the wringer, which would be
clamped between the two large sinks,
and the clothes would be rinsed a
couple of times in the second sink in
cold water, before being hung out on
the clothes rope stretched above the
drying green outside the washhouse.
John's recalls that “It was always a
fight with the kids to get a turn at
cawing the mangle to wring out the
Left – An advert for a mangle, early 1900's
clothes, but usually mum had to give a
hand to turn the handle.”
Of course, trapped fingers in the mangle
were always a danger. The Southern
General even used to have a specific
section in accident and emergency for
injuries inflicted by mangles!
Once the washing had been mangled
and rinsed, the washing was put out on
the drying green in the backcourt.
Poles with notches in the top to
accommodate a thick clothes line were
either arranged in the backcourt or to
hand in the washhouse or a room just
off it. Each family would have a rope
Right – Partick Steamie (Public Washhouse), 1950s
17
out to dry in the backcourt,
mischievous younger people would
tie the legs of her trousers together
for fun!
Mrs. Dunkeld of Gibson Street
remembers that the backcourt was
kept immaculate as it was needed
for the washing.
stored in the washhouse and it would be
strung up between the poles to hang
out the washing.
Mrs. Innes played in the backcourt as
a girl with her friends using the
washing line as a skipping rope.
During the autumn she says that the
fog combined with the smoke from
the coal fires (the infamous Glasgow
smog which was common then) would
make drying the washing difficult.
Sandra, a newer resident of the GOW
tenement, remembers that in the
eighties when she left the washing
18
Washing on the line
Once the washing was hung out to
dry this was not the end of the
work, the washhouse had to be
cleaned up. There was the fire to be
cleaned, the sinks to be rinsed and
the floor of the washhouse to be
mopped. After the washhouse was
clean, the clothes would have to be
brought in later on in the day. If
they were still wet they would be
hung over the range in the kitchen
until dry. The clothes pulley, still in
common use in many flats today,
was invaluable for drying clothes on
rainy wash days. Dry and just damp
clothes would be ironed and of
course collars and other whites
would have to be starched! On top
of doing all this, the woman of the
family would have to do all her other
daily chores, grocery shopping and
Left - GOW backcourt, present day
cooking for the family.
Mrs McGee recalls Once all the wash was finished the
woman would have to clean the
washhouse, including raking out the
ashes, cleaning the boiler and sinks
and mopping dry the stone floor. It
would be four or five hours after
starting before the woman was
finished this heavy work and this
would allow her to get back up to the
house to start the housework and
prepare for the kids coming home
from school at lunch time.
Right – Calton Street, early 1900's
John remembers that - “During the
good weather it was always a fine
sight to see a big washing blowing in
the breeze on the washing green and
during bad weather there was always
a washing interminably on the clothes
pulley indoors.”
Mr Smith of Otago Street recalls how
people got the wash done after the
washhouses fell out of favour By 1960 most homes would have had
a washing machine or at least a spin
dryer; basic launderettes, where your
washing was done for you but not
dried, were common around the
streets - there was even one in
Gibson Street. They were soon
replaced by the launderettes which
are still around today; they were well
used by homes without washing
machines and those living in bedsits
well into the 1970s. I have the
luxury of a washer/dryer, which I now
consider more essential than a cooker
in the kitchen! I did however miss
the many interesting social chats on
my trips to the launderette.
Giving a Helping Hand and
Washhouse Etiquette
There was a lot of work to be done in
the washhouse and occasionally
people might help out but there were
also rules to be obeyed.
Each flat had access to the
washhouse for one day only.
Typically there was one key for the
washhouse door and this got passed
from flat to flat each day. You had to
do the washing when it was your turn
for the key, you couldn't change your
mind as someone else in the close
would be after the key the next day.
Sometimes you would help others, say
members of your extended family who
would often live nearby, and do their
washing for them in with yours. More
often than not it would be people in
the same close who would help each
other out by lending each other soap,
helping to fetch wood, raking out the
fire grate and other such tasks.
Mrs. McGee remembers that old Mrs Reid would come in and help
wring out a particularly heavy wash,
usually blankets. Normally, turns at
doing washing were conducted in an
orderly fashion - everyone knew their
day and when it was good form to
hang out washing or share part of the
drying green. However, on one
occasion old Mrs Reid had a bit of a
bun fight with old Mrs Fisher, because
she had not taken down her rope from
the previous day, which was becoming
a regular occurrence. One woman
would not dream of hanging her
Above – A washhouse built in a back close in pringburn with a woman, her dog and her washing, 1950s
19
washing on another woman's rope, but
it was expected that the woman
should remove her rope at the end of
the day, in readiness for the next wash
day!
Not only was the washhouse and
drying green a focus for co-operation
and the obeyance of unwritten rules,
but also in the other major communal
area of the close, the common stair.
Each flat would be expected to take
their turn at cleaning the stair and, like
the washing, was work done by the
woman in the household. The stair
would have to be brushed and mopped
down and the steps whitewashed and
pipe clay rubbed on the stair. Often
people would decorate the close walls
with patterns in the red clay.
Cleaning rotas were very strict and
everyone was expected to take their
turn. Those women who did not were
pressured into cleaning the stair by
their neighbours and if that didn't
work, a neighbour would report the
laggard to the sanitary inspector. Even
as early as 1843 this was recognised
as a difficulty in shared living and as
the extract on this page shows, the
fines could be quite severe, with five
shillings being the equivalent of
around £30 today, about the same as
a parking fine.
The City Council still has powers to
this day to enforce cleanliness in
common stairs. The fine has now gone
up to £50 pounds (faster than
inflation!) if you are found not to have
“The possessor of every house, flat or story, entered by a
common stair, shall cause the stair and areas immediately
below the flat or story possessed by him, to be swept every
lawful day, and washed at least once a week . . . under a
penatly not exceeding five shillings for each offence”
Extract from the Glasgow Police Act 1843
20
cleaned the stair to the satisfaction of
the council inspector. Dropping litter in
a comon area, such as the stair or the
backcourt, can attract a fine of up to
£200! However, the
conventions that governed the
maintenance of the common areas of
the close have fallen by the wayside.
Many residents now club together and
pay for someone to clean the stair on a
regular basis. This certainly takes the
effort out of the work, but someone still
has to collect the money and do the
organising. In parallel with the old
conventions dying out, some of the
buildings have become run down and in
need of attention. But with property
values rising, there is more incentive to
work together to keep the communal
areas clean and in good condition.
“Armed with brushes shovels,
picks, and wheelbarrows... they
set about spring - cleaning
Westbank Court”
How the Glasgow Herald
reported a GOW backcourt
clean-up effort on 8th May 1972
Looking after the
Backcourt Today
Current efforts to keep the communal
areas of living space enjoyable for all
21
Since the washhouses stopped being
used, the drying greens at the back of
the tenements are rarely used. Some
hardy souls still hang their washing on
the line, but with the unpredictability of
the Glasgow weather, the advent of
central heating and tumble dryers, most
people dry their clothes indoors. What
used to be a common resource, looked
after and kept clean in the interests of
all the residents, now has lost a little of
its purpose. Often used in modern
times simply as an area for bins, with
the attendant problems of litter,
excess waste and smell, it is an
underused and neglected space.
People clamour for
outside space in the city and often
move out to the suburbs to live in a
house with a garde
n. There is no reason why the
backcourts in Glasgow cannot be used
effectively as a communal garden
space if problems of waste
management are dealt with effectively.
There is a history of trying to improve
Westbank Court, the backcourt of the
GOW tenements, for the benefit of all
the residents. The Glasgow Herald
reported in 1972 that, under the
direction of the Westbank Court
Association (a residents group), 30
residents including two Norwegian
students, worked hard to clear up the
debris from the backcourt and “cleared
out the abandoned junk of several
generations from the basements.”
Some years later the Association
managed to gather the funds and
improve the backcourt and landscape
it as it is seen today.
22
The GOW group tidying the backourt
Left – Hard at work
Since then, while some residents have
tried to maintain the backcourt, the
work done over twenty years ago has
fallen into disrepair. Bin shelters are
dilapidated and paving stones cracked
from frost. Some people still use the
backcourt for their washing, but many
just see it as a place to dump rubbish,
spoiling what could be an extremely
pleasant communal outside space for
all.
The GOW residents group formed in
2001 has been working hard to
communicate with everyone and to
demonstrate the potential of the
backcourt and the potential impact that
working together can have on the local
amenities for the benefit of all. The
Right – A well deserved rest
group keeps residents informed of
activities by a monthly newsletter
distributed to all the flats in the
tenement. There are regular monthly
clean up afternoons which have helped
enormously to both keep the backcourt
clean and to generate a spirit of
camaraderie. Other improvements have
included repairing the railings above the
river along Westbank Quadrant which
were dangerous for many years. There
have also been successes in
demonstrating how a big outside space
can be used effectively with plays
performed in the backcourt for the
benefit of residents and the public alike.
what life was like a hundred years
ago.
Behind every Glasgow tenement block
is an under used resource, the drying
green, and many are sadly in a state
of disrepair. Thirty years ago the
Westbank Court Association showed
that this common resource could be
updated for modern use and within
the last few years the GOW group has
demonstrated that too. It is hard to
say what the back court will look like
or be used for in twenty or thirty years
time. All that can be known is that the
backcourt will continue to evolve and
continue to bring people together.
The history of the washhouse and the
backcourt or drying green will hopefully
move into a new phase over the coming
years. The GOW has been earmarked to
take forward a pilot scheme for
recycling which will mean the backcourt
will be regenerated sensitively with
areas for recyclate management and
garden space. Not only will the
backcourt be used for the benefit of all
residents, but through recycling, the
whole community benefits. The
washhouse could be preserved and
refurbished for everyone to experience
Above - The GOW backcourt in the early summer sunlight
23
Picture Credits
Unless specified below, images were
taken by members of the GOW group.
Unknown
Top right p4
Ordnance Survey
pp 6 and 7
Glasgow University Archives
p9
Mitchell Library Archives
pp 10, 18
Frank McNab
p 13
Weddell and Thompson
p 14
Glasgow City Council Archives
pp 16, 17 (x2), 19
24
The work on which this document is
based was carried out during the
months of April, May and June 2005 and
could not have happened without the
assistance of:
Awards For All
The GOW committee
Amanda (Open Museum)
Ann Laird
Glasgow City Council Archives
Glasgow University Archive Services
Gordon Urquhart
Jan Warrack
John (1 Westbank Quadrant)
Margie Scott
Mitchell Library Archives
Morag MacPherson
Mrs. Dunkeld
Mrs. Innes
Peter Douglas
Rhona Sweeting and The Extra
Rosemary (Copy and Print)
Sandra Graham
The Evening Times
Vanessa Lill