Then & Now
4
Dumbarton Road, Peel Street Corner
5
Partick Housing Association’s
1st New Build Eldon Court
Eddie Murray (former warden at Eldon Court)
“Eldon Court was a new-build complex; I think there were about 36 housing
units on it and a common room. Eight of those tenancies were solely for
people with mental health problems. Our referral source was Gartnavel Royal
Hospital. The idea was to integrate the people with mental health issues into
the wider community because a lot of those tenants had spent an awful long
time in Gartnavel and other institutions.
Partick did their homework and obviously knew this was going to happen prior
to it actually being built. The then Housing Manager, Stuart Montgomery,
and his staff had carried out quite a bit of research into people who were on
the register for housing in Partick, so anyone who was offered a mainstream
tenancy knew all about this – they were told what was going to happen.
There were a number of meetings in the common room, where the supported
tenants and mainstream tenants actually did lots of things together, like setting
up a library and cooking afternoons, you know, they got to know each other.
There was definitely a lot of input from Partick to make sure that it would
happen because it was a new type of initiative, certainly in Scotland. All in
all, there were never any problems between the mainstream tenants and the
supported tenants.
To my knowledge, Partick was the first housing association in Scotland
to develop a project like this and led the way in that type of supported
accommodation”.
Housing Associations
Change
Memories
“It could be argued that community-based
housing associations, particularly in Glasgow,
have been the most significant development
in Scotland since the Second World War,
particularly in terms of community engagement
and physical transformation. I can vaguely
remember Glasgow with its black tenements, the
legacy of industrial pollution. The stone-cleaning
dramatically changed the look of the city. We
would probably be some characterless modern
city, so it’s preserved the neighbourhoods like
Govanhill, Partick and Shettleston.
“Partick has changed from when I started.
Dumbarton Road had lots of tenements and
big department stores, but at the start of the
80s there were major changes to the economy.
There was a lot of unemployment and from
there you had marital breakdowns and the
big department stores started closing down.
Dumbarton Road is very different now with
small businesses, charity shops and cafes.
“I remember when I was growing up in Partick, we
were all talking about where we were going to go
when they demolished the tenements. Thankfully
that was stopped, but we lost a lot of good housing
and replaced it with housing that probably wasn’t
as good as the buildings they demolished. So I
became aware that it was changing, and that the
housing association was now looking to refurbish
and improve the housing stock and maintain it.
That would be the mid-70s when I became aware
that these things were happening.
The committee saw the housing association as
a way of retaining the community, but if you
were getting public money then you had to
allocate houses on the level of housing needs,
so there was always that tension between
balanced communities and the needs of various
groups. One committee would go on about
“undesirables coming in from Drumchapel”,
for instance, and of course most of the people
living in Drumchapel had originally lived in
Partick. My housing manager at that time knew
most of the tenants personally and she said
‘if you do a study, if you look at who are the
awkward tenants, it’s actually the people who
have lived here for generations’. I don’t know
if that would live up to academic scrutiny but
that’s a story that I like.
Rod Hunter, former CEO
6
Housing conditions are much improved from
when I started. When I arrived the Association
was modernising a lot of properties and I was
taken to see the conditions people were living
in. I also got to see the properties they could
be living in, and most people were quite happy
back then to sell us their properties. We rehoused them as tenants and they got a nice
new flat. I didn’t realise that people had outside
toilets and that people didn’t have baths – I
didn’t really know much about social-rented
housing when I first came here.
It’s also a more diverse place than it was
before and now we publish things in different
languages and over the years we’ve rehoused a lot of people from different ethnic
backgrounds”.
Fiona Adams, PHA
There was that feeling that all the tenements
were going to go and be replaced with multistories – that was the modern thinking at that
time, everyone was going to live in a tower block.
Fortunately, that changed before it was too late.
Since then I’ve been aware of Partick Housing
Association and the good work they’re doing in
the area. Partick is attractive to private developers
– student accommodation is the latest thing –
and the danger has always been that private
developers come in and basically take over.
Having a large social-housing landlord in the
area maintains the stock of housing for local
people and looks to build new homes whenever
it can. It gives that cohesion, providing the glue
that holds the community together. Partick still
has a fairly good sense of community, perhaps
better than some areas. I think Partick Housing
has helped to maintain that”.
Kenny McLean, local resident & Councillor
7
Then & Now
Elie Street looking to Chancellor Street
Housing Associations
Leslie Milne, Chair, PHA Board
“I remember the original tenements
because I lived in one as a child. It was in
such a poor state that it was condemned
by Glasgow Corporation. In those days –
the late 1950s/early1960s – the solution
was to knock everything down, including
backstreet industries. I remember that on
the other side of our backcourt behind the
high “midden dyke”, there was stable! (Yes,
horses and carts were still in use then).
Many privately-rented properties weren’t
particularly well-managed. They tended to
be overcrowded, but the most important
thing was the lack of proper sanitation.
Not surprising that so many residents
opted to move to the new Corporation
housing schemes, the main attraction of
which was hot and cold running water and
a proper kitchen and bathroom.
Partick was particularly badly affected
by the famous storm in January 1968.
8
It was becoming obvious that investment
was needed in the external fabric of the
buildings and the backcourts and then
there was a breakthrough– over in Govan
– when the housing association movement
in its modern form really started.
The first thing that happened was putting
baths and toilets into tenement buildings.
What the architects found after a bit of
trial and error was that the best way
to deal with the problem was to knock
three flats into two on the upper floors,
removing the “single end” and to install a
bathroom in the ground floor flats where
there wasn’t one. The idea was that the
best way to give some decent living space
was to encourage some of the residents to
move to another property in the area.
As a result, the newly formed residents
committees began to get involved with the
factoring of the property and in housing
allocation, so they had to find vacant
properties which had been improved to
rehouse those residents displaced by the
amalgamations.
One of the things that the housing
associations started to do in the mid-tolate 80s was to build new property. There
were a number of local ”gap sites” in
Partick where a tenement had once stood,
with the ground lying vacant for years,
so as we were nearing the end of the
programme of upgrading houses which
were below the Tolerable Standard, the
Association started to build houses to
meet local demand.
However, perhaps the most important
legacy of the associations - and all the
traditional community-based associations
did this – was that they saved many of
the city’s tenements, which is a great
achievement”.
9
Then & Now
10
Byres Road looking down White Street
Commonwealth Mural
11
Change
“Because of where we are, there’s pressure
on the area. There’s Byers Road and the
cosmopolitan West End. It’s an attractive place for
people to visit, but also to stay. There have been
subtle changes in the area over the past number
of decades; I think it’s less predominantly working
class than it used to be. I think a lot of people
have come in, better-off, more aspirational, moremiddle-class. It’s certainly not the obvious working
class area it was when I was growing up. There’s
still a strong working class community here, but it
probably doesn’t predominate as much as when I
was wee.
Old backcourt
Picture:
No. 24 Stewartville Street,
Billy Connolly's old house.
“For years I
thought the
club's name
was Partick
Thistle Nil.”
There’s been a subtle change, and you can see
the wee special shops opening up: wine bars,
coffee bars. There was nothing like that when I
was younger”.
Kenny McLean, local resident & councillor
Change
New backcourt
“As a housing officer, I remember taking people
out to see flats and I was mortified showing
people a flat and thinking ‘look at the state of
this place’. People were refusing it, then you’d
take someone else out and they’d refuse it as
well. They were refusing it because, as much as
people needed a house, if they were moving into
somewhere in that condition, they’d have to do
lots of work to make if habitable. They didn’t
have the money, so they would’ve had to move
in and live there as it was. Certainly introducing
the Modernised Void Programme has really
helped with that, because the properties are
being completely renovated.
It was a hard sell, really difficult. You had to tell
people to look beyond what they had in front
of them and think of what they could do with it,
and there were some people who were happy
with that. Those people would say the décor
doesn’t bother them because they could do stuff
with it, but not everyone was capable of that.
12
Partick Burgh Hall
and Fortrose House
Change
“Mansfield Park has been completely
redeveloped along with the buildings and the
shops. There’s more variety of businesses
coming into Partick; independent shops opening
up – cafes and bakers that aren’t big chains,
so it’s nice to see that the commercial side has
changed.
Partick will always have its tenements but there
are still people who refuse central heating, still
sitting with one wee fire, because they’re older
and they don’t want to spend money. The
tenements add a lot to Glasgow, and now we’re
celebrating 40 years at Partick, if that hadn’t
been set up as a housing association we would’ve
just flattened the tenements”.
When we did the (sustainable) backcourt project
years ago (2006) on Byers Road and Chancellor
Street, that made a big difference. We don’t get
funding to do it in every backcourt, which would
be amazing because then every backcourt would
look great and be well used. The development
of the allotments are having a big impact on
the area. People’s ideas and getting involved in
the community has changed as well. I’ve been
working in Partick for 25 years now so I’ve seen
it change quite a bit, for the better. Trying to
keep the buildings in a good state is always a
challenge, but I think we do a good job”.
Pauline Joyce, PHA
Jackie Reilly, PHA
13
Then & Now
Merkland Street,
Dumbarton Road corner
Memories
“The community was a lot closer. When Partick
Housing Association began, the likes of my
daughter, son, neighbours and their children had
to move out the area because they couldn’t get
their names on the housing list. We had people
from Springburn, Maryhill and all different areas
coming to stay in Partick, whereas a lot of the
Partick people left.
My son had to get a house in Croftfoot and
my daughter went to Scotstoun, so the family
commitment then split up. When I was a boy
you could go to your auntie’s house, who would
stay at the furthest, two closes away, and if you
were hungry when your mother and father were
out, you would go get something to eat. You
can’t do that here now, there is nobody. If you
chap someone’s door now, they won’t give you
a piece.
When we came to Partick at first, you didn’t
have to go into town for a single thing.
Where Farmfoods (Sainsbury’s) was on Byers
Road, that was a car showroom, so you could
go in and buy a car. The big shop along here
(Dumbarton Road) sold everything: carpets,
furniture, underwear, curtains, you name it.
There was a big toy shop, Edwards, so you
never needed to go out of Partick. And there
was a pram shop on Dumbarton Road, you
didn’t need to go into the town for anything”.
Mr & Mrs Picken, tenants
14
15
Memories
Picture:
No.3 Stewartville Street,
An early office for PHA.
Anne Marie Stewart, tenant
“When I read about the 40 year celebration of
Partick Housing Association it took me back to
my beginnings with the organisation in 1976 nearly 39 years ago this year - and I would like
to share my journey - and it has been a journey!
I was in the middle of a messy divorce with
four children and homeless. We were living in a
rented room in Hillhead at the time and, to say
the least, rather overcrowded.
“My first rent
was £9.00 per
quarter!”
Someone told me to go to a new housing
association which was situated in a tenement,
up a close in White Street in Partick. I duly went
along and met a young woman called Ruth
Henderson. She took my details and said that
there were very few flats available but she would
be in contact as soon as something came up. I
was relieved that there might be hope for us.
About two weeks later I received a telephone
call to ask if I would be interested in a flat,
which was only a room and kitchen and
bathroom, was situated in Chancellor Street
and was three up. I said ‘yes’ and was informed
that another person was looking at it and if they
did not take it I would get an offer. I remember
saying to the girl on the phone that if that
person was in my situation then I doubted that I
would get it.
Two days later on a Friday evening I was asked
to come in on the Saturday morning and
view the flat. I immediately agreed and so my
journey with PHA had begun.
We’ve moved several times over the years. As
my children grew up and left home, I mutually
exchanged with a young family to their three
apartment flat. After a while, my remaining
child left and we moved to a one apartment flat
which was one up. Eventually the stairs became
a problem and then I moved to our present
ground floor flat which I hope is our forever
home before I reach my eternal home.
16
Meadowside Granary
At the time of my first flat I had made a
promise to myself that as soon as my children
were older I would try and help with the
Housing Association as I felt so grateful that
this help had been there for me in our time of
great need as a family.
I became a member for £1 and then was
elected to the Management Committee on
which I served for around 8/9 years and was
the Secretary/Treasurer for a number of years.
This involvement gave me great experience and
actually seeing the architect’s plans and then
the completion of tenemental improvement and
then new buildings it was so exciting.
Our Management Committee meetings were
something I had never experienced before or
since, arguments over the minutes of the last
meeting would go on and on. I kept hearing
someone shout out “Standing Orders” and had
no idea what that meant (it meant we had to
adhere to the schedule as per the orders laid
out for our meetings). I soon learned to say this
very quickly as we were sometimes not finishing
the meeting until very late at night. Also the
AGM`s could descend into a good old Glasgow
‘rammy’ over issues which were causing
concerns.
I know that there have been many changes
through the years with legislation and finance,
but I still believe that the Housing Association
movement is just as vital now as it was then. I
hope that others can have the journey that my
family and I have experienced over these last
39 years.
The change from the dark tenements buildings
and new buildings in our area and the pride in
our environment has been helped enormously
by the involvement of PHA.
By the way, my first rent was £9.00 per
quarter!
Committee / Board
There was always a constant pressure; it was
Scottish Homes then, and endless discussion with
them about money and getting project approval
to buy land. The committee was always strong
and really quite supportive.
In those days, Partick was much smaller because
Meadowside and Thornwood hadn’t been
incorporated. The make-up of the board at that
time was about, 50% tenants and 50% owneroccupiers and others. There was one committee
member who wasn’t making a lot of sense at the
time and he said: ‘Mankind is facing its biggest
threat’. So we were saying, ‘What is it, global
warming, nuclear obliteration?’ to which he
replied ‘rust’.
Prior to Glasgow harbour, the granary was still
there, and even though it wasn’t really in our area,
it was a dominant feature in the neighbourhood.
When rumours came out that it was going to
be demolished, because the place was infested
with rats, there was uproar. I said at the meeting:
‘we can maybe get a pied-piper person to divert
them up to the West End?’, so you could come
up with the most illogical nonsense. I’m sure the
board at Partick doesn’t now, running a multimillion pounds business that’s employing 40-50
employees.
responsibilities and understand what makes
a housing association tick. Legislation now
allows payment to committee members, and
I’m amazed that this has passed without much
comment. There’s still a strong feeling against
that in Scotland but I think in England 60% of
the Registered Social Landlords have paid board
members
The dynamics of the way Housing Associations
are operating today is different to when I was in
Partick. When I was here, it was fuelled by a fairly
healthy amount of grant money for new housing
and refurbishing houses, so that was like the
driver. The committees then were almost 100%
tenants, and the incentive was that you would get
your house done.
It’s more about management now; making sure
tenants are happy, meeting the requirements
of the regulator. The regulator’s requirements
are challenging for committees. There are
more business pressures, thinking about riskmanagement and stress-testing your business
plan. I see a greater managerial expertise among
board members, and I know that the numbers of
tenants have decreased. I think there’s initially a
bit of suspicion when white-collar professionals
come in, but they are there to bring added value,
not to tell people what to do.”
What the tenants did was a massive achievement,
albeit with support from the housing corporation,
Scottish Homes, and then latterly Communities
Scotland, running training sessions for committee
members to make them appreciate their
Rod Hunter, former CEO
17
Then & Now
Sandy Road
Homes
Community
“Customers are given the choice about their
kitchens and bathrooms so they feel a part of the
process. Although we own the house, it’s their
home; they have the choice - what would they
like and how would they like it laid out? That’s
important. We try to give the customers that bit
more ownership of their property. We’ll go in and
plan it with them and the customer can see it on
the laptop instantly. We have a good standard of
finish with our bathrooms and kitchens and the
two contractors we use are extremely good, giving
high levels of customer satisfaction”.
“I think things should be driven by people
themselves. It’s for people who are experiencing
need to be enabled to say, ‘what do we want’? A
lot of good work is accomplished because people
have come together, wanting to do something,
rather than because it’s been written into the
business plan of an organisation. I think that’s
what community cohesion is really about”.
Councillor Aileen Colleran
John Gilbertson, Chair, Partick Works
18
19
Then & Now
Beith Street, Hayburn Court
Change
“I’ve watched the area grow. I’ve watched it change for the better and PHA
has contributed to those changes. The Partick Community Growing Project
is fantastic; people have got talking to each other. It looks great and it’s
had great publicity. We have some nice murals round the area because of
the Commonwealth Games now as well. When we build things we do them
properly. People are proud of doing things though, getting things done and
getting it done right, and I think that’s what PHA’s strength is. Sometimes
things will go wrong despite our best efforts because they’re outwith our
control, but there’s a lot of great people in this organisation who have a
passion about it”.
John Gilbertson, Chair, Partick Works
The Partick Community Growing Project
20
21
“The opening was
unique because
I had met Ricky
Ross and Lorraine
McIntosh from
Deacon Blue at a
hotel and we asked
them to come and
do the opening.”
Memories
I started as CEO in Partick in July 1989. I was
there for about five and a half years.
What was interesting was that there was quite
a lot of archived material about the early years
of the association. It was full of people talking
about how the association got started; it was
collaboration between the local churches and
people wanting to save the area because it was
designed for comprehensive development. The
whole area was going to be cleared in the late
60s, early 70s – Victorian Glasgow was going to
be, more or less, obliterated.
22
It was an interesting place to come and work.
I can remember my first day here. I had a
meeting at 5 o’clock about the development of
Glasgow Harbour. There was a master plan for
the waterfront there: leisure, hotels and retail.
Someone had a model created of what it would
be like – that was 1989 – of people wind-surfing
on the Clyde. In those days, there was a lot
more money for housing associations; Partick
was probably spending £3 - 4million per year,
refurbishing houses or building new ones. It was
quite an active developer. Those days are gone,
for the time being anyway.
The development of the co-op halls on Mansfield
Street and the Peel Street new build project
spans my time here. We bought the ground for
the Peel Street development not long after I
started. The opening was unique because I had
met Ricky Ross and Lorraine McIntosh from
Deacon Blue at a hotel and we asked them to
come and do the opening, and we had a picture
in The Sun. That was 1994, so I would say Peel
Street and co-op halls were my legacy”.
Rod Hunter, former CEO
23
Then & Now
24
Dumbarton Road looking East
25
Quality
“I get enjoyment out of being on the board; I
enjoy when we start to talk about a project. Our
last one was at Centurion Way. I remember when
we first spoke about that site and then when you
get round to look at the property you have a great
sense of pride, because they were stunningly
finished. That’s a conscious decision we made
a long, long time ago. We knew that this year
(2015) we have to reach the Scottish Quality
Housing Standard for homes, and we were
working on that and made a conscious decision
that we would rather spend that wee bit more for
quality because it’s going to last longer”.
John Gilbertson, Chair, Partick Works
Rubbish piled up in Crawford Street in Partick during the
Glasgow Dust Cart Drivers' Strike of 1975. John Byrne's
gable end mural Boy on Dog was one of the first of many to be
completed in the city during the 1970s.
26
27
Change
“I think the organisation is far more outwardlooking, I think we deliver better value
for money and I think the culture of the
organisation has changed significantly for the
better. I’d like to think that people are very
open and honest with each other in terms of
working here and that there’s a much better
sense of teamwork than we had before and
that people are open to change, looking
forward to the next chapter rather than feeling
threatened by it. When I look at what’s actually
been delivered, year on year, the performance
indicators have improved – whether that’s
collecting rents or winning awards – it was
something we just didn’t go in for, but you
know, there’s tangible things that people have
felt the benefits from.
Then there’s the visible stuff, everything
from looking at the Centurion Way newbuild and celebrating just what a brilliant
development that was, through to the
community development activity that’s out
there, sponsoring school sports kits and the
growing project. All of those things have been
so rewarding for the staff, as well as for the
community, and they’ve delivered all of that.
You know, the motivation has really increased
and the results have shown for themselves. The
first result that we had from the new annual
return on the charter, we beat every indicator
in Scotland, all averages, and some of them
significantly. I think they’re a great team and
a great board – there’s been a lot of changes
on the board as well in terms of personalities
and dynamics – but really, they understand the
business.
I think we are close to the community, but I
still think we have a good hill to climb to really
make them feel like partners in what we’re
trying to do”.
Lynn Wassell, former CEO
Community
“Getting people involved is not just about
their availability, it’s about their motivation
for engagement. If you take your average
regeneration area, where – like here
historically – threats of demolition or
the health outcomes are really poor,
kids can’t get nursery places, it drives
communities together in any event. If
housing organisations harness that energy
and the community drives the change,
like what originally happened in Partick
to save the tenements, then the hope is
that it will be sustainable, but it engages
people absolutely at that moment in time.
At times like the referendum, there were
young people engaged like never before
because they felt so strongly about an
issue. In Partick, apart from strength of
feeling of anti-student accommodation,
that’s probably the only measure that I
would look at as bounding the community
together in terms of their level of interest.
It’s our job to recognise that, in any
event, people access information and
communication in a million different ways,
which they didn’t 5/10 years ago, whether
it’s social media, 24/7 services rather
28
than 9-5 services, and we’re still on that
journey. We’re still not there at all in terms
of social media and modernisation, but
then, the news on the street is that people
are still fairly traditional in Partick. A lot
of people are still happy with newsletters
and to get a piece of mail, more than they
are to get a text, so it’s understanding who
we’re communicating with and why and
challenging ourselves in the ways in which
we engage and the methods we use. If it’s
all about meetings, who really wants to
come to a meeting? What are we going to
achieve? We’ve got to be quite clever and
innovative about the way we engage people.
If they want to sit at home, and there are
people that want to just press a few buttons
on the internet and give their opinion, then
that’s absolutely fine – they don’t have to
be in the building, talking to our staff, to
express their view.
In the absence of having something that
absolutely drives the community, a single
thing or issue, the more you understand
what they need, the more you press that
button, if you like, the more they’ll work
with us.”
Lynn Wassell, former CEO
29
Then & Now
Corner of Hyndland Street and Chancellor Street
A recollection
Ruth Henderson, Housing Manager 1976 to
1981, then Chief Executive 1995 to 2010
1977, a dreich winter’s day. People rush home
anxious to be out of the misery. But home is
misery of a different sort. A single end or one
room and kitchen in a tenement, overcrowded
more often than not; with its soot encrusted
exterior. Sub tolerable housing they call it. No
hot water, no bathroom or in some cases inside
toilet, wiring so old that it is dangerous to life,
leaky roofs, stairs worn down by years of weary
feet dragging themselves home after a day in
the shipyards perhaps, or some other heavy
industry. No escape into a warm bath but boiled
kettles, water drawn from the jaw box, tin bath in
front of the fire or range, or a trip to the public
baths. Rent £80 a year; repairs minimal. Owner
occupation by deposit and instalment-yours
today but never yours till the last penny paid.
However, were you to lift your eyes from the
pavement you would see the honey sandstone
of 15 White Street shining out of the gloom, a
beacon of what might be done. Inside the close
mouth, admire the Veitchi flooring and speckled
walls, smell the paint, wander into a flat, the
fitted kitchen, hot water on tap, the bathroom,
in place of the two bed recesses. Walk through
on the spring of newly fitted carpets; admire the
new curtains and blinds; peoples’ palaces. When
you’re leaving, you notice that three are now
two. The middle flat is missing. Amalgamation it
is called. Homes fit for the 20th Century.
30
“If it wasn’t for the critical
financial support and
encouragement of the
Housing Corporation
and the Corporation of
Glasgow, it could all have
been so very different.”
How did the transformation transpire? You find
no grand plan but rather disparate events and
actions which, when examined in retrospect,
resemble interlocking pieces of a giant jigsaw.
Take yourself back to January 1968, as the 103
mph hurricane rips through Glasgow, tearing off
roofs and chimneys crashing through buildings;
callous underinvestment rendering Glasgow’s
decrepit tenement housing unfit. Watch in
the days and weeks ahead as a sea of green
tarpaulins, covering up holes in roofs across the
city, flutter above you. Look across the river to
Govan, in the midst of this chaos, the formation
of the New Govan Society, which was to become
Govan Housing Association, goes largely
unnoticed, while the Clydeside expressway tears
through the heart of the south of Dumbarton
Road.
University who see the possibilities of combining
bed recesses to create an internal bathroom with
a common vertical stack. That solution needs
everyone to take part in improving the property.
The legislators enter the story at this crucial
stage, passing the Housing Scotland Act of
1974, defining housing action areas within
which owners are obliged to improve their
houses with the help of more generous grants,
with subsidies for housing associations. Applaud
the 7 member steering group of Partick Housing
Association, some warriors from the New Partick
Society, who encouraged and emboldened by
what is happening in Govan, have the vision,
commitment and courage to move forwards
to the crucial registration of Partick Housing
Association in October 1975.
The following year, the 1969 Housing (Scotland)
Act was passed. Public participation into
the planning process is the big idea, while
redevelopment plans for Partick are still of great
concern.
Activists press for the creation of Meadowside
and Thornwood Housing Association in 1977.
If it wasn’t for the critical financial support and
encouragement of the Housing Corporation and
the Corporation of Glasgow, it could all have
been so very different.
1971 saw the introduction the New Partick
Society, standing up for Partick, challenging
wholescale redevelopment. Acknowledge the
false starts to tenement improvement taking
place elsewhere in the city, bits of the jigsaw
evolving but still misshapen. Recognise the
innovation of the architects at Strathclyde
2015, four decades on, you might walk over
that familiar ground and your eyes might glance
fleetingly at the sign at 10 Mansfield Street,
Partick Works Ltd, it announces. You might reflect
momentarily and say to yourself quietly, ‘Yes I
guess it does’
31
“A lot of good work
is accomplished
because people have
come together.”
Interviewer: Ryan Kyle
Editor: Mark Hughes