Snapshot to Edwardian life in Glasgow (Tenement House Glasgow)

Member Name: tconnor

Product:	Tenement House Glasgow
Date:	19/09/08 (64 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: gives genuine edwardian experience

Disadvantages: costly at £5 for non NT members

I moved to the West End of Glasgow 6 years ago & live in a main door flat of a tenemant block. My flat has only been occupied by 4 sets of people including myself and when I moved in the original carpet was still in place. when I moved this carpet I found some newspaper from the early 1900s. It also seems that no-one stripped wallpaper over the years they have just papered over it.

Having never lived in a house older than those built in the 60s I find it fascinating to look into the history of how people lived back in Victorian times. My own flat was built in 1874 and its first occupiers were wealthy wine merchants. The kind of tenement flats that most people associate with Glasgow are not my kind but the old disease ridden 1 or 2 roomed slums.

I went to the tenement flat to catch a glimpse of how people may have lived in my own flat many years ago.

The history of the tenement flat is that a Miss Agnes Toward lived there for over 50 years from 1911. During that time she did little to renovate with the exception of getting electricity in in 1960. The national trust now owns this house as it gives a window into the past way of life in Glasgow. This tenement is actually an example of a 4 roomed house so is not typical of the hundreds/thousands of 1-2 roomed slums that existed in Glasgow at the time.

I was a wee bit disappointed at the size of this house, but that is purely from a selfish point of view; I wanted to see a replica of my own flat from the turn of the century! What was fascinating though was that things like the cast iron bath were very similar to my own and the wallpaper in the kitchen is exactly the same as that in my own kitchen (one of the layers anyway!) it was also really interesting to learn that my big cupboard in the living room would have house a bed in its day. My kitchen no longer contains its range cooker although the original larder & storage cupboards are exactly the same.

At £5 I thought it was quite an expensive entry when there are only 4 small rooms to look at; however I would still pay the same again to look around. For those people in Glasgow whose family lived in a tenement or still do for that matter then it really is an interesting way to spend an hour. Its free to NT members

Summary: Window to a bygone era