Round Ma Bit: The Gallowgate Twins
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- Опубліковано 8 гру 2013
- The Whitevale and Bluevale Towers, otherwise known as the Gallowgate Twins, are the tallest buildings in Scotland. Hundreds of people once called them home.
Due to years of neglect, they are no longer fit for human habitation and are now almost completely empty.
We climbed to the top of the towers to meet one of the last remaining residents still living in the flats. From this height you get a clear view of the history of this part of Glasgow and the direction the city is moving in.
Presented by Liam Young
Featuring Neil Gray, Margaret Jaconelli, Jim Kelman and Alasdair Gray
Made by Jack Archer, Chris Dakers and Liam Young
Fantastically put together program, it should be shown on BBC Scotland. Congratulations on making it.
Fuck BBC Scotland.
I was one of the last tenants in the Whitevale block. My walls were blighted with furry damp mould and the place was absolutely freezing in winter. I lived there during the really bad winter of around 2009-2010 when temperatures were dropping as low as -20C.
There were serious problems with the water supply in the final years and I often went without any supply for a day or two.
The block only had one stairwell as well; a veritable death trap in the event of a major fire.
There was really no way to save the buildings as they were badly designed in the first place. I watched them be slowly dismantled from the flat I moved to in Townhead. I can't say I had any sentimental attachment to what was probably the worst tenancy I ever possessed.
That sounds horrifying!
sounds as if it was very bad times for you hope its better now.
I must say that whilst I never lived in them myself, I had some friends who lived in two different flats in Whitevale, one lot on the 7th and the others on the 9th I think, and they loved living there and were sad to be rehoused out to Ruchazie. I do remember visiting them on very windy days and at times it felt like the whole block could be whipped away from beneath your feet. One thing they did not like was that for the last few years anyone could access the building and that there were a fair few squatters not just in empty flats but in the stairs and on the landings, and that there was always a high risk of a break in. Not a nice way to live. It's true that they were poorly constructed and cheaply built, and Glasgow City Council hold their hands up to that, but the people I know felt that had the flats been looked after and maintained adequately from day one, they would've continued to be nice places to live.
Wur yea aye 🙈🙈🙈
@Ian Mac agree tae fuk mate. where he said about townhouse in denistoun ...... tripe. not on that street
My Granda lived in one of these. Although it's clear to me now that it was very rough, the memories I have are a special time spent with my Granda of which there were few. Sitting in front of the telly with my dad and his, munching muscles and watching the Glasgow Rangers getting skelpt no doubt. I often still turn to look for them as I pass and just like my Granda, it's a sombre reminder they are gone.
@@tony78uk48 Happy memories at least bud!
Was this the first rangers?
@@TheMasterblaster32 First rangers?
"and watching the Glasgow Rangers getting skelpt no doubt." Love it!
This has happened here in Canada as well. In Vancouver there are luxury condominiums on the East side of the city. The owners literally look down and see poor homeless people below them. I live in a small city in Ontario. I am a senior on a fixed income. My rent for 2 tiny rooms in a basement cost 60 per cent of my income. I am just so grateful to have a roof over my head. It was 40 below zero here for weeks at a time last winter. Something needs to be done to help the poor. Decent housing, food , clothes, education and jobs are human rights. The rich get richer and become greedier with each passing year. I feel so sorry for the young people. They deserve better. We all do.
Same in Europe, The Netherlands
I used to live just off Duke Street and would walk past these every day. Broke my heart to watch them being taken down literally brick by brick. Every day a wee bit more would be gone. Given how many homeless people there are across Glasgow, Scotland and the UK as a whole, it makes no sense to get rid of these buildings. Same goes for the Red Road flats . And what with the war in Ukraine, buildings like these could easily have served as refuge housing.
The east end of glasgow has beautiful architecture.
I actually live in shettleston which has the lowest life expectancy in glasgow with a life expectancy of 52 though all I seem to see is pensioners but maybe they're just rough looking twenty year olds
Really, REALLY enjoyed this informative doc. Lots of heart and history, thanks for posting!
My Grandparents stayed in these flats from the day they opened until the early 90’s. I was born & bred in the Eastend (Haghill) & have NEVER once heard the flat called ‘the gallowgate twins’ 🤔🤔
Their accents are a giveaway no chance that guy lived there 😂
@@nicholaswhite4460 I didn’t detect that Eastend dialect either but to be fair? He might’ve lived elsewhere & his accent softened. Certainly doesn’t sound like anyone from the surrounding area I know (I live a 5 min walk up the hill from where these flats stood). I didn’t grow up here although my parents were both born in the Eastend. I grew up in the Westend & my dialect is different to my parents.
Your spot on georgina, never was called the gallowgate twins, it was 'the flats", i.e. ,meet u at the flats, born n bred there, i know wullie n irene aswell, also one of my friends hung himself in the stairs many many years ago, i also seen the guy jump from the 21st landing aswell, nothing to do with drugs either 👍
@@DMcC-lw1tc I have amazing memories of playing there in the 80’s. We used to race my late Father , he would go down in the lift & we would run down all the stairs to see who would get to ground first LOL. My Gran lived in the Whitevale flat, 23 stories up. Gran moved to Bathgate street after she went blind & her house was broken in to two months in a row. They took her temazepam prescription- twice! 🤬. It certainly changed for the worse like everywhere did but I still have the fondest of memories there. Happy New Year.
@@georginaohara5666 👍, happy new year too
22:27 Alasdair Gray is talking about the people that gathered at my mum’s (Janette McGinn) garden in Rutherglen to oppose the Poll Tax warrant sales. I wish he had said her name as she was proud of that! Brilliant documentary.
Excellent film makers . Only just found this . Extremely compelling viewing. I'd love to watch more of your work .
What a fantastic wee film, thoroughly enjoyed it and made extra special by the appearance of both James Kelman and Alasdair Gray - what a man! Love him!
In the mid 1970s I worked in Barrowfield and often walked past these flats on my way to and from Duke Street station. Immediately opposite the towers on the other side of Millerston Street was a foundry whose chimney was less than half the height of the flats. When the wind came in from the east the blocks were shrouded in thick, acrid, grey fumes that seemed to cling to the structures. Just walking through this cloud left me spluttering and coughing: god knows what it was like for the tenants. The decision by Glasgow City Council to build these flats so close to a works producing large amounts of noxious fumes illustrates how little thought was given to the welfare of the people who would be housed there.
I really enjoyed that Video. I was born in Duke St Hospital and lived at 36 Annfield Street just off the Gallowgate until being rehoused in Easterhouse in 1958.
Really enjoyed this. Spent a lot of my youth in Gallowgate, Calton and Duke St. great seeing the twins again, brilliantly done 🎨👍🏻
Just watching him look over that walkway edge makes me feel dizzy
Stupid idiot
Really well done. Thank you.
I used to go to the swimming in whitevale,three times a week,it was the only way to keep clean as our house had no bathroom,played football on the car park at the flats every Sunday,my pal who was only 40 died in one of the flats,alcohol related,I moved away in 76 and have never lived in the east end since,love a weekend in Glesga but would never consider moving back.
Born in Glasgow but brought up down south, these being back happy School holiday memories of staying with my Auntie & Cousins in the flats on Millerston Street underneath the shadow of these flats, I could always find my way back as you could see the flats for miles. Also evokes memories of the General Wolfe pub and Terry’s Tattoo Parlour!
What a gem of a film!
Born & bred in Haghill & have never heard anyone local call whitevale flats “gallowgate twins”. Great doc though.
Aye, always knew them as Bluevale and Whitevale. Gallowgate twins has a nice ring to it though, even if it's a wee bit late.
Fantastic, well done to all involved. A really heartfelt exploration of the East End and its problems.
People who left these houses would most probably have been rehoused in schemes like Easterhouse or Ruchazie, where the living conditions, or even the flats themselves wouldn't be much of an improvement. Glasgow City Council claim the reason for demolishment was that it would cost more to renovate them than it would to demolish them and rehouse tenants in the afore mentioned areas. I think this is far from true; yes renovation would have been costly, but I think a large part of it comes down to the outside perspective - I'll admit they're not the most attrctive of buildings, and over the last 20 years areas surrounding Bluevale and Whitevale have become more prosperous; for example a lot of Dennistoun is now housing middle class professionals, the upward-socially-mobile, and students... that is, people who look at the buildings every day and consider them an eyesore, yet have never stepped foot in them or ever spoken to anyone who lives in them. I think it came from protests of this type of person that GCC listened to and therefore demolished them... a sorry excuse for a solution to something that wasn't really a problem. Flats should've been invested in as part of the Commonwealth regeneration programme. .
Well presented and informative programme .
Great video.
Well made documentary - learned much.
The old Bin Towers.
Needed pulled doon decades before they were.
Should do a doc on that Bellgrove “Hotel”.
How in this day and age that is still a thing is a stain on oor city.
They were for a programme called abandoned scotland then got the shock of thier lives to realise people lived there
@@starrchild254 What is the Bellgrove Hotel now? Is it a homeless hostel?
great film
For regeneration read "Modern day clearances"
Watched this a few times and it is very well made, bbc quality
Brilliant video that
Last shot was excellent foreshadowing with the 2 towers, from the view of the necropolis amongst the tombstones.
That was fantastic that video! Gutted that they've pulled down Scotland's tallest buildings to date! The red road flats second to that. Glasgow is starting to look like a pancake! Fantastic video though I must say!
Scotland Through The Camera Shut up you fool it's great that they've knocked those monstrosities down.
well would you have wanted to stay in them? aye didnae think so
Well, maybe in the good all days when it were happy homes and nice people around as neighbours🙂
I passed by there the other day. The twins are away, and the other flats are all boarded up now
I played wae a ouija board one night in those flats. I'm a total sceptic but i will say it was a fucking interesting night.
What happened?
Great film and points well made. Where are the real people these days?
Great documentary! Are there more of these from the same film crew?
11:52 that space has now been filled with new houses
Should do an updated one mate
Used to stay 22 up in bluevale street.
very good film and its so true about how many people from the east end will use the sporting facilities built for the commonwealth games?
hahaha on yersel wullie. i can just imagine irene shouting in the lift
nice on liam ever thought of civil servicde job and being tv presenter !!
I always picture these flats when I think of the twins in game of thrones
If the red road flats were still standing then bluevale were not the highrst in scotland because red road were 30 to 32 high
they should of just done the old houses up - Victor McDaid
I didn't realise they were slightly taller than the Red Road Flats.
Loved the program, the walkway was so dangerous! I found the music a bit overpowering and the sound too low. Older people have problems with competing sounds! Great job, more please!
Wonderful film Liam.
Could I share a link to a short drama I made set in the Bluevale flats.
The Pigeon
I watched it, very arty. I liked it
i always thought that the 32 storey red road flats were the tallest
Red Road were already demolished by the time this film was made, so these were the tallest at that point.
@@lisa-mariec.mulhall7412 Incorrect on both points. This video was made in 2012, 3 years before the red road flats were demolished (they are actually shown in this film)
The red red flats were the 2nd tallest building in Scotland at 292 ft vs 298 ft for the Gallowgate flats.
Though, the Red Road flats seemed much higher at first sight.....
GAve yae a sub bud
Isnt it funny how whether it's private housing schemes of tick tack boxes built on flood plains, or tearing down and breaking up communities, private landowners and developers always come out of it with their pockets well lined? I'm told that some of the houses being built in my area win' last twenty years. We' ve got houses being built on flood plains of the Firth of Forth and on top of mines, but no one's talking about how we can't get doctors just now, how much of our countryside gets built over, and whether our roads can cope. We will get some public art though. Who needs doctors or jobs when we'll have more sculptures? Good luck to the folk who have the Forth in their living room in ten years' time.
Regeneration great social gesture but in reality they never prevented homelessness from occurring.
Good man Liam,great video,being going over to Glasgow since the mid 90's mostly to CELTIC games.............the place is unrecognizable ,from the first times we went over.......Brian Hogan,CSC,Nenagh Co.TIPPERARY.............
They high flats are gone now
Soon the wee flats that were around the Gallowgate Twins will be demolished in a few months
who knows what is in that dust.........
All the players were 30 miles from celtic park. Bobby Lennox was fae Saltcoats
8 like it
Sad why they got demolished =(((
boonie the bunnyツ No it's great that they demolished them. They were a fucking eyesore.
Its a disgrace what the council did to Mrs Jaconneli - they robbed the woman blind while happy enough to line the pockets of well known Glasgow business men with their dodgy wink wink deals
Jack a I’d like to know what your thoughts are on wiping out a generation? The kids born on late 60s 70s ? & housing split the community up without thought! & given all new builds to European culture folk it seems! But they live in there lavish community’s ! Even the housing officers got residents to join the committee! So it looks as if the community agreed with plans! Fact is they were hoodwinked with a free trip to glen eagles hotel expenses paid ! No meeting to vote! Just railroaded! & if questions well locals were on board with committee! We’re are the majority of these local kids of the 80s ? Silent bomb the drugs wich no one wants to discuss!
It's all part of the White privilege. Sickens me how those experiences are now the norm & being forced upon people, mainly in schemes. The new builds are now given to people that have never paid a penny and/or have any roots. Just given away while our own remain on the streets & poverty stricken barred from advancing out of it by oxymoronic quotas & agendas. A real shame.
Omg I'm the boy what went past at 2:00 minutes in
Are u Declan
tiegans cool channle exposed
What do u mean
Naaaaaw yurny!
one by one scotland are tearing down iconic buildings, its sad
Iconic maybe but unliveable.
@@TheWendable Nothing a developer couldn't have fixed. When my dad used to work at BT we would go to Glasgow from Birmingham and one thing i loved about going as a kid was all the tower blocks, all different in design and structure. I'd hate to see the skyline now. Red Road and Gallowgate were my favourites and both are gone. I liked ones we called the 'Ibrox triplets' that have also gone by the looks of it. Its so sad.
I enjoyed this video as it looks like America is heading into socialism. This is what we will get. You have to listen closely to understand what is being said.
Well put together , forget to mention big jock knowing though
Hys
Large John was aware.
big jock knew
That fucking accent man 😂😂😂
BIG JOCK FUCKIN KNEW
"but, still at the same time I think there was an attempt to house people who didn't have a lot of money."
As always, socialists have never understood economics, all the government intervention drove costs through the roof, including the private sector and then after socialists create that problem they then act like they weren't the culprits, so then act as the saviour where they try to justify the failure. Here we have the prime example, he starts off by saying:
"and a lot of it wasn't very good in terms of its architecture and design and building quality..."
As always, when it comes to socialism, there follows the "but". It's picture perfect of the socialist pish like the NHS, there is always the 'but,' because to accept the truth is to accept that it's a disaster. Just like the NHS, it's always "but look at American..." the American healthcare system is not capitalist. Just like this, there's always the but.
This is the price you pay for public ownership. The major fault of public ownership is that it's propped up, it is subsidised, so there's never an incentive to look after it because it is guaranteed funding, whereas, with private ownership there is the economic reality that your property can appreciate or depreciate in value and you individually are left to pay the brunt of that if the property devalues. Which is why there is the incentive for the individual property owner to look after their own property.
Public ownership is absent from this, people just think: "Oh, I don't need to bother, other people pay for it." So what you end up seeing with public housing is that the quality deteriorates over time because it is subsidised, it's paid for by the taxpayer of the private sector. Mind you, this was a large reason our economy was in such shit state, the taxpayer was being bled dry and for what? Substandard, ugly, piss poor quality like that? Classic example of economic central planning, it never works.
Say that again 😁
Leave the anger to the socialists... it doesn't suit your Thatherite outlook.
Now hardly anyone can afford private housing, social housing is incredibly hard to get, and the only people benefitting are private landlords. Council housing built in the sixties and seventies was a disgrace but that built earlier was good quality and replaced a lot of derelict privately rented housing which wasn't fit for habitation. Private ownership only works if house prices and rents can be capped - either that or wages, benefits etc are increased to keep pace. What's really sad is private landlords benefitting from providing temporary housing, paid for at extortionate rates by housing benefit. Unfortunately, at least in my town, lots of the better quality social housing was sold - and I can't blame people for buying cheap when they had the chance but as government policy it was extremely short sighted. It seems to me like we had the chance, the council schemes and houses built from the twenties to the fifties were pretty good - and we threw it away with both over-ambitious social engineering schemes of the sixties and seventies and the sale of council housing in the eighties and nineties.
Hate that place
9:21 You can see the Stadium of Scotland's most successful team. 👍🏻
ask donald duck about thAt
Good riddance to these so called housing blocks damp box living
I was enjoying this until you started waffling on about Celtic, then I gave up and switched it off
Not everything has to be about THEM you know
Awww... angry wee hun
@@stuartberesford3585 whits yer point, caller?
@@halfwayloyal speaks for itself, no?
I'm not getting into any tit for tat spatz with some bitter wee scruff from Carntyne or Easterhouse or whichever part of Timmyland you come from
@@halfwayloyal you already have mate 😉 also I think you’re the bitter one, getting upset because the documentary touched on (briefly!) your dominant rival. Anyway if you’re no wanting any discussion then I’ll go back to my Easterhouse tenement or wherever you think I’m from. Guessing you’re a Bridgeton Billy Boy or some other nonsense