Growing up in Glasgow in the 1950s.

Growing up in Glasgow in the 1950s.

Meadowell Street.

I have been asked by my Friend Rodney Willett to write a blog about my terrible deprived childhood in Glasgow in the 1950s.

Actually, it wasn't that bad, although in print, details such as WCs shared by three or four Families, no hot water or bath, sound really primitive, at no time did I feel deprived or hard done by.

I was born in 1950, when my parents were living with my granny in a single-end, a one roomed flat in Meadowell Street, Shettleston. After a short period there, I moved , with my parents, to another single-end at1314 Shettleston Road,

Our flat at Shettleston Road was two "Closes" to the right of the Funeral parlour.

The new flat had a single room, with a Belfast sink, and cold water. I had to have a bath in the Belfast sink when I was wee. There was a bed recess where we all slept. We shared a WC with four other families.

A bed-recess in a Glasgow Tenement.

My wee brother was born in the flat in 1953, this was one of my earliest memories, (my oldest memory was the Death of. King George). I still posses my Identity/Ration-card from 1952.

When my brother was born we moved to a Room and kitchen in Fairholm Street.

Our flat was the ground floor flat behind the blue car.

All of these photographs are modern, after the tenements were stone-cleaned and improved.

In the 1950s many tenements were demolished due to their poor condition and dirty appearance.

The homes that replaced them have now mostly been demolished, as they were not as well constructed as the Tenements.

A prefab in Glasgow (not ours).

About 1956 we moved to a prefab in Greenfield, where we lived for the rest of the 1950s

The prefab was the best house we ever lived in. It was spacious and had two bedrooms, bathroom and kitchen (with a gas fridge). We had numerous built-in cupboards throughout the house,and we even had a Garden! WE HAD ARRIVED!