We knew we wanted a project, and our very knowledgeable friend helped guide us towards some of the better opportunities – for example our street is one of the very few which has a bay window in the kitchen as well as at the front.  We didn’t want anywhere where internal walls had been knocked down, and as keen cooks, wanted a dining kitchen. We wanted somewhere ‘with potential.’

We are rather unusual in that the majority of people around Shawlands are young first-time buyers or renting. So generally speaking, not a lot of money is spent on them. We stumbled on this attitude very early on, when a kitchen fitter tried to encourage us to build a fake wall across the bed recess to make it easier for the standard size kitchen units to fit. He tutted at our love of the curved walls and wonky alcove. We didn’t use his services. A well-meaning neighbour came for a look and declared that there was no point in doing what we were planning because ‘you’ll never get the money back.’

All the major work was completed while we were still living in Cardiff. Clearing and selling our house alternated with weeks of concentrated effort, getting covered in plaster dust, exhausting ourselves with stripping off layer after layer of wallpaper, thick gloss paint and botched DIY jobs. There were some pleasant surprises –

the original front door was in good condition behind a plywood panel and the original clockwork bell mechanism just needed cleaning to make it work again.

The orange pine and glass shelves in the sitting room were easy enough to remove so we could reinstate an authentic-looking press using antique glass doors given to us as a housewarming present. Other discoveries were more frustrating – a high cupboard built for no apparent purpose in the hall had been fitted by hacking off chunks of coving and pulling off one side of door architrave. When we ripped out the kitchen units in front of the bay window, we discovered that pieces of window frame were missing.  They’d been chopped off to save the bother of fitting kitchen worktop around them.

Our intention was to combine the best bits of the flat’s heritage with some twenty first century touches so it didn’t feel as though we were living in a museum. 

We had lengthy discussions about the doors, which were orange pine with glass panels. Sourcing original 5-panel doors was clearly going to be a huge challenge – Glasgow Reclamation informed us that they rarely got hold of any the right size, so the chances of getting a set were pretty low. We came to the conclusion that changes like that were part of the flat’s life and we were OK with it. So I painted them instead, and with some beautiful antique doorknobs on them, they look great.

We were very glad when Neil from Clydebuilt joinery, who built the new press, mentioned Express Timber Mouldings in Paisley as a possible source of the old patterns for architraves.  Being new to Glasgow, we had very few contacts and our knowledge base was zero. We trotted down there with a chunk of door surround, left it there for them to look at and within an hour had a call to say they had the original cutters and could easily run some more up to match our existing material at a very reasonable cost.

Of course it wasn’t always straightforward – the boiler got condemned and the microbore pipework needed to be replaced. That meant a whole new central heating system, more damage to the floorboards and endless discussions about the boiler. It was located in full view of the doorway into the kitchen. I was not happy about it staying there. We agreed to get it moved into the utility room out of the way. But new gas safety standards put paid to that – our original fitter made a mistake with the measurements and we were told we either had to seal up the windows to give the necessary air gap or leave the boiler where it was.  Tears were shed. Then the wonderful Mike at Glenlith Interiors came up with a genius idea. He designed a combined cupboard/doorway assembly which hid the boiler (and gave us storage space underneath) and gave us a new door into the utility room which remains one of the highlights of the kitchen!

Once we had engaged Mike Cunningham, the kitchen was plain sailing. He really ‘got’ what we wanted to do – a kitchen that had a heritage feel to it, with units that felt a little like furniture as this would be a dining room as well. We also wanted to use every scrap of space, so bespoke was the way to go. With a very keen cook in the family, we also wanted high-end equipment. A combi steam oven and space-age cooker hood were therefore given pride of place.

The bathroom is the only unashamedly modern room in the flat, but even there we tried to retain some sense of its history by mounting the tiles vertically to give a look of tongue-and-groove.  We needed a practical space for rinsing dive kit so when JP from Coiremanich tiling arrived and pronounced that we needed to get rid of the bath and turn the whole area into a wetroom, we were sold!

With the ‘bones’ completed, we could start to look at decorating. While I am willing to tackle most things, I wasn’t so confident about the colour scheme. I’d bought some curtain fabric on eBay and had a rough idea of the sort of look I was after. The person to bring it together was Anna, the colour consultant from Farrow and Ball, who gave us so many ideas and encouraged us to be braver with colours than we might otherwise have been.

Many packets of Polyfilla and rolls of lining paper later, and I finally had wall surfaces that were fit to be painted.  The colours really brought everything together and created a cohesive look, which I wanted considering you can stand in the hall and see into all the rooms at the same time. The last task was to make all the curtains and blinds. I found vintage William Morris and Sanderson on eBay, blind fabric in Remnant Kings, and finally it was all done. Not without a fair amount of swearing and unpicking when the curtains didn’t want to hang properly, but I got there.

The finished flat is exactly what we’d hoped for and more. From being a base to explore from, with Covid-19 lockdown, it turned into our safe little nest. It continues to repay the time and effort we put in and I can’t see us wanting to leave here for a very long time.

Sarah Bowen,

Bellwood Street

Guest Blog

Read our post on the history and design of Southside tenements.

The post Our Southside Flat Renovation Story appeared first on SGHET.

Right now, 20th May 2020, we are all experiencing more time at home. For many days have slowed down and life outside has almost in its entirety come to a standstill allowing us to become reflective of the spaces we inhabit. There is a new and acute awareness of our surroundings within the walls of home. For us Glaswegians, this time will most likely be spent in one of the many tenements which dominate the city’s built environment.

Tenements have been part of Glasgow’s landscape since it developed from a fishermen’s town to a trade city, however, the traditional Scottish tenement did not originate in Glasgow, as we would like to believe, but in the fortified cities of Stirling and Edinburgh. As architect John Joseph Burns comments in his publication ‘Tenement, An Architectural History’, “the need for defensible wall cities such as Edinburgh and Stirling…led to small compact cities with little scope to expand beyond the walls and produced a vertical form of housing”.

Burns goes on to explain that the success of the tenement in Scotland was due to the damp climate, making elevated buildings off the ground more pragmatic, and Scotland’s abundant supply of stone allowed for structurally sound, tall buildings.

Tenement Style

During the rapid growth of Glasgow during the 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries, the tenement made room for the huge influx of people that were turning to the city to work. As Glasgow’s landscape changed so too did the traditional style of the Scottish Vernacular Tenement.

In his publication, Burns documents this gradual change through an informative timeline of key tenement styles from its origins on the High St, Gallowgate and Saltmarket to the east and west and of course here to the South as small suburbs were swallowed up by an ever-growing city boundary.

Scottish Vernacular Style

It is interesting to compare the Scottish Vernacular Style, typified by its turnpike staircases, small windows and subdivided rooms with the examples of tenements in the Southside which were typically built in from the 1850s – 1920s. Over the years improved living conditions, application of regulations, and the development of a middle class have pushed the tenement into a living arrangement which is still popular today.

Glasgow Style

One of the most noticeable changes between the Scottish Vernacular and the later ‘Glasgow style’ is the availability of light. Early tenement construction of the 16th Century and 17th Century were typified by small windows, and one window was often the sole natural light source of a single flat or ‘single-end’. By the 20th Century, the Glasgow bay window found in tenements across areas such as Battlefield, Cathcart, Mount Florida and Pollokshields gave a generous source of light to its occupants.

It is arguable that this gradual architectural switch from small to large windows happened in Scotland as the price of glass cheapened and the population moved from working predominantly outdoors to indoors. As more of the population worked long hours in the many factories of industrial Glasgow, the need to be exposed to sunlight within the home became essential. Large windows to the front and back of the tenement helped the building to breathe, as well as its inhabitants, and helped to prevent mould and rot.

Architectural Tricks

Moreover, little architectural tricks such as ventilating windows in the larders and storage cupboards helped circulate air from the close into individual flats; no doubt, however causing draughts through windy Scottish winters! Light and air were key to the tenement and its inhabitants’ wellbeing.

Regulations in 1862 set by General Improvement and Police Scotland prevented ‘backland’ tenement building. ‘Backlands’ were tenements built behind those at street front and put pressure on communal facilities such as toilets, washhouses and ash pits as well as blocking natural light. Building regulations also meant that tenements height were restricted in relation to the width of the street and ensured appropriate space between more housing and the backcourt.

Supply of clean water and communal inside toilets followed, and even though by today’s standards these early regulations leave much to be desired, it did mean that the tenement became an attractive form of housing to Glasgow’s growing middle class. A wealthier marketplace resulted in more elaborate examples, with decorative features both externally and internally.

Various tenement styles can be found all over Glasgow’s Southside. A cluster of Glasgow’s celebrated architect Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson’s tenements can be found in chapter five of our book South Glasgow Heritage Trails: A Guide covering Shawlands, Strathbungo and Crossmyloof, centred around Salisbury Quadrant/Crescent and Nithsdale Drive. Though built after Thomson’s death in 1875, the convex building of Salisbury Quadrant showcases stone ornaments typical of Thomson’s Neo Grecian style and has particularly beautifully decorated corbels above the doors.

Thomson’s tenements were dotted over the Southside to accommodate a growing middle and upper-middle class who could commute across the Clyde into the city. During the 1960s / ’70s the tenements beside Thomson’s Caledonia Road Church (1856 -1857) were demolished as part of the Bruce Report initiative which aimed to create a modern post-war Glasgow, as well as examples along Eglinton St (1858) (formally Queen’s Park Terrace). Thankfully, however, many examples of Thomson’s tenements survive and can be found on Walmer Crescent in Ibrox, Darnley Street and Nithsdale Road in Strathbungo, and elsewhere. They display Thomson’s typical classical restraint with repetitive palmette motifs, pilasters and architraves carved from local blonde sandstone.

Victorian Era Tenements

The tenements along Queen’s Drive on the northern side of Queen’s Park show how different styles developed during the Victorian Era; while Thomson was inspired by Greek and Roman architecture, W.M Whyte takes inspiration from French Renaissance architecture. This French Renaissance Revival is typified by ​‘steep pitched roofs, or mansard roofs, often covered in slate tiles and dormer windows, small projecting spaces that stick out from the roof often with a vertical window. Buildings will often have large chimneys, cylindrical towers and turrets, small towers near the roofline. The towers and turrets might have circular tapering roofs topped with decorative elements. 

All of these features can be seen in Whyte’s tenement block on Queen’s Drive; decorative elements include the popular acanthus and a sculpture of what is believed to be Liberty, associating it further with the French revival style.

Burns suggests Queen’s Drive is ‘a prime example of the newly emerged Glasgow Freestyle that allowed the incorporation of various influences, yet shared standard features with other tenements of the time.’

Art Nouveau

Camphill Avenue (1903) on the opposite side of Queen’s Park shows yet another style adopted into the Glasgow Tenement form. Designed by architect John Campbell McKellar – who designed 640 buildings between 1890 and the early 1900s mostly in Glasgow’s West End (in fact an almost exact floor plan can be found in Hyndland) – Camphill Avenue takes inspiration from Art Nouveau.

The eye is drawn upwards through elongated windows and arched features. Stained glass in Art Nouveau style flood closes with warm yellow light, and small square windows in the front and back doors are reminiscent of Mackintosh. Care has also been taken to include intricate floral details in the buildings’ air grilles; some original examples still remain today.

Wally Closes

Decoration, though, was not only reserved for the finest of Glasgow’s tenements. Examples of decorative features which serve to enhance the experience of our home can be seen across our tenement stock, including most famously in the ‘wally close’. W​ally -​ as in china or pottery – along the close were added for hygienic reasons, however they also tell a story of which street or block the building is on, or what era it belongs to.

Before the closure of Glasgow clay pipe factories in the 1960s those without formally tiled closes would at times decorate their own. 

“Each tenant or owner on each stair landing was obliged to take her turn of washing the stair on a Friday night. This was done by dissolving pipe clay in the wash bucket, giving the surface of the stair stone a thin film of either red or white pipe clay. The process was usually finished by decorating the edges of the stairs with the solid block of pipe clay, the chalked pattern lasting for a week until the next resident took her ‘turn of the stair’. Many women were at great pains to draw distinctive patterns – sometimes loops or zig-zags or even flowers – which were locally recognisable as theirs.”

 People’s Pictures: The Story of Tiles in Glasgow. Elspeth King. 

This picture taken recently on Bolton Drive shows tenement pride is alive and well with hand-drawn decoration filling in the spaces where tiles have been damaged.

It’s clear that by the late 1880s Glasgow had confidently adopted the tenement as their own. It is a relationship which continued to develop and grow throughout the 20th Century and has seen many iterations based on its three to five-storey form whether in white sandstone or red, concrete or brick.

Tenement Maintenance and Improvement

However, tenements were and at times can still be difficult places to live in. Poor management, substandard building materials, lack of regular maintenance or adherence to building regulations resulted in poor standards of living for many in the 20th Century. Residents campaigned for their improvement, and in 1971 Assist Architects worked with Govan Housing on 10 Luath St to initiate improvements using a bottom-up approach after the Great Storm.

Since those times, we have continued to adapt and change the tenement to suit our needs and improve our lives, changing bed recesses for indoor bathrooms or open plan kitchens looking out to the living rooms. Closes and backyards remain a place of communal interaction as people navigate shared space, what to do with it, how to maintain it and how to make the best of it. I feel lucky to be sharing one of these special spaces and find comfort in knowing that many of us though isolated are somewhat together, with our neighbours above and below, awkwardly meeting in stairwells and sharing messages of care.

Tenements and the COVID-19 lockdown

As the lockdown response to COVID-19 continues and evolves, South Glasgow Heritage & Environment Trust (SGHET) is seeking to build a picture of the resilience of local city life south of the Clyde as our diverse communities adapt locally to the global pandemic – with public input. Read our lockdown project blog post.

To piece together the new experiences, habits and feelings of the moment, SGHET is inviting residents of South Glasgow to share photos from everyday life on social media – images captured by Southsiders that reflect how their lives are being re-shaped and neighbourhood moods and activities are changing in this new situation.

Images can be shared on social media using the hashtags #SouthsideLockdownLens or #SouthGlasgowLockdown – or by emailing SGHET direct (info@sghet.com). How are Southsiders making the new norms of social distancing, social isolation, working/studying/schooling from home (and other new realities) manageable… what’s keeping you afloat, giving you hope, helping you cope and get through this?

By Sarah Diver

Sources: 

John Joseph Burns: Tenement, An Architectural History. Published by Glasgow City Heritage Press 2019.
People’s Pictures: The Story of Tiles in Glasgow, Elspeth King. Published by Glasgow Museums 1991
Assist Architects: The Tenement Handbook A Practical Guide to Living in a Tenement. Published by RIAS 1992
South Glasgow Heritage Trails: A Guide, South Glasgow Heritage & Environment Trust, 2019.
Scotcities​ Gerald Blaikie
Bygone Bungo Blog Andrew Downie 

The post Tenements appeared first on SGHET.