Case Studies   The Glasgow Case Study. The Gorbals

Gorbals - history

The Gorbals is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Glasgow with a rich history dating back to 1771 when the Parish of the Gorbals was created.

The population of the Gorbals grew rapidly from being a small weaving village in 1795 to an expanding suburb in 1852, to a densely built urban centre in 1892 when it was the largest and most populous district in the city.

By the 1930s the area was a thriving community, which assimilated a range of immigrant groups, providing a home to almost 90,000 people in tenements laid out in a traditional grid-iron pattern.

However, historically the Gorbals has another dimension, since the 1930s the area has been characterised by deprivation, violence and squalor.

In the 1930s local employment was in heavy industry, mainly shipbuilding and iron works, both of which have been in decline ever since. The Dixon Blazes Industrial Estate, in the south of the area, and now home to a diverse range of small businesses was once a large iron works where the glow from the hot iron could be seen from miles around at night. At its peak 400 tons of malleable iron were turned out each week.

The collapse of these traditional industries had a massive impact on the city resulting in very high levels of unemployment and ill health.

To date the Gorbals has been subject to two development disasters –

•  The slum clearances of the 1950s when the scale of the housing problems in the city demanded bold new solutions;

•  The ‘comprehensive development' in the 1960s when the need to rehouse a large proportion of the population led the local authority to experiment with high-rise housing. This led to massive investment in building new housing blocks which were to prove unfit for the wet Scottish climate. These homes were to become known as the ‘dampies' due to the condensation problems where dampness ran down the interior walls.

Housing, or more precisely housing failure dominated the early 1990s. The last of these multi story blocks was demolished in 1993.

The 1991 population census highlighted the scale of the challenge in the area –

•  96% of the housing stock was public rented;

•  80% of the local population fell into the most deprived 10% of the population in Scotland ;

•  High levels of ill health, unemployment and low levels of achievement;

•  50% of households with children were single parent;

•  Only 9,700 people now lived in the Gorbals.

The legacy of this period, where the local community had to challenge the local authority over the unacceptable state of the housing provided, was a community, led by a small group of highly vocal activists, which had clearly demonstrated that they could really challenge the establishment and win.

These ‘local champions', both collectively and individually went on to be the voice of the community, actively involved in establishing services such as the Gorbals Credit Union and Gorbals Initiative.

A key issue we must address today is encouraging new champions. It is easy to let a small group of dedicated individuals become overloaded with committees and groups, and of course the danger is that they burn out. Gorbals Initiative has developed an introduction to community development programme which leads on to a university delivered certificate in community work to encourage more local residents to become involved. This has been incredibly successful.

Gorbals - introduction    Regeneration in the Gorbals – Key Partners and Partnerships