so these 60 photographs were taken by one French photographer called Raymond Depardon, he came to Glasgow to make a photo essay that was not published at the time but the images were recently re discovered and made into a book and an exhibition, I have the book. Part of his brief was to document " social deprivation" and to that end he had a local guide who took him to the bleakest and most derelict parts of Glasgow at that time, Govan and Maryhill, and the photographer chose to focus on those two areas of the city. I was born in Govan ,Glasgow, and I also happen to be a professional photographer, I can appreciate the pictorial power of the images and the talent of the photographer , my one issue with them is looking at them as a whole they present quite a bleak and depressing impression of a very large city when in fact the images were taken in a very small area of the city, if you went to just about any UK city in 1980 you could find this kind of dereliction and social deprivation if you wanted to, every city has its more downbeat areas, the photographer had a fixed idea of what aspects of a city he was going to select with his camera lens.....and to that end I guess he succeeded in fulfilling his own brief , those streets and the people existed, but it is not what I remember about Glasgow, it looks like another planet to me in these images, great as the images are, for me they present an unbalanced view of what Glasgow was like back then, what they present is a particular view that existed in a particular area of the city. I mean if you went to the slums of Harlem NYC in 1970 and took 60 photographs you couldn't really present them as being what NYC is all about, you could present them as a detail of NYC...it is a part of the city, but not the whole part.
Most of these photos are of dennistoun ( duke st, fielden st) & the Calton ) , brings back a lot of memories, this must be a reupload I seen this video a long time ago, still great tho 👍
I remember doing my student teaching practice in Glasgow, mid 90's. I was at Jordanhill - it was lovely, leafy green and grand. As a small town Canadian girl, I was overwhelmed living in a city, full stop, so I'll never forget my first teaching practice placement in Possilpark... I was so glad that the university had sent a fellow classmate and I on the same placement (my pal was from Belfast and didn't scare easily, LOL). In the end, the kids at the school were fantastic and I met some really hard working parents. That being said, I'm sure I never walked so fast as I did from the bus stop to that school in Possilpark. I think back very fondly on my time in Glasgow. It is a city with a lot of challenges but it also has a ton of heart.
Really liked your story especially about the Belfast student because I’m from Belfast as well and it’s very nice to know what people were there and from what country makes it more interesting,, I really hope you did well in Glasgow God bless you hope your doing well
Very dark atmosphere surrounding Glasgow back then,, Really love all the old pictures and videos of hard times back then God bless everyone in these pictures really sad to see how poor the area’s were and the people were very though and made the best of what little they had,, Them two young girls in the yellow tracksuit and the other girl probably waiting on the boyfriend or something Really love pictures and thank you for posting them for all to see,,
I remembering going to London in 1981 with my wife, we were 28 and 26. We rode the buses and got a pretty good view of London beyond the historical attractions. You could still see the after effects of the blitz with charred walls where buildings were, etc. Some of these photos take me back to those first hand experiences in London. I have photographs somewhere of the buildings and the people, nothing as impactful as some of these photos, but a glipse of that reality nonetheless. I used a little Rollei that my father gave to me with it's collapsible lense. Truly a compact wonder and super sharp images. Thanks for sharing the photos!
You never see the other side of Glasgow - even in 1980 when I was a student, much of Glasgow had a good vibe going on: there were beautiful areas of town, and Glasgow had more parks than any other city in Europe. Most of the areas shown in these photos are unrecognisable now, the tenements have been cleaned and developed into lovely flats. Glasgow still has it's tough areas, but no more than most large UK cities these days.
"Glasgow had more parks than any other city in Europe” . There was a brief t.v series made based on that fact , it was called “Dear Green Place” , by the guys who did Chewing The Fat & Still Game
Did my apprenticeship in Glasgow in the 1970's - while I saw these areas - the warm people of the city compensated for it and while I lived in Edinburgh for a while - I felt at home in Glasgow !
Speaking as someone born in 1964, brought up in working class streets and reading the comments posted here, its worth pointing out that while much of the buildings in these photos are now gone or abutted by newbuilds the vibe is just as 'bleak', especially if you wander the streets of parts of Govan, the East End or Shawlands etc. on a wet, windswept January day. Which isnt to condemn but to emphasise that the same problems and imbalance perpetuate, its just that we tend to not notice, visually as we are living our own time with our distractions and internal concerns. I am an artist and streetphotographer wandering the same streets today. One other detail worth bearing in mind while viewing these images is that they are mostly poorly exposed , possibly slidefilm which makes the colours and light darker and even bleaker than the same shots had they been individually printed by hand. It's almost impossible to take shots like this nowadays on our sophisticated phones whose computers do the work for us on auto and enhanced settings.
I live in Glasgow and I've seen these before and it looks bleak. It's incredible now that many of these areas are quite developed and that tenement buildings are all factored and privately owned. Many of them are quite high value now. There are a lot of pictures taken East of Dennistoun in Glasgow in this. Dennistoun is now quite a sought after area. It's incredible how different some of these same streets are now. The black coloured tenements were all cleaned over decades to their original pink sandstone colour. It's a much more colourful place now.
I grew up in Battersea (London) in the 60s and 70s and honestly I can’t tell the difference exactly the same lack of colour and total decay but the people were fabulous. These brilliant photos are our history.
another really good job of archive footage. these never fail to beg the question... where are they now, what life have they lived. wonderful thank you, and the chilled score always works perfectly.
This is history, the way it was in many cities, real people. My father lodged in both Glasgow and Coatbridge during the 50s and 60s and told us of the poverty and dangers there. But look how happy the children are, unaware of surrounding poverty. They must have been overjoyed with a few belongings my dad had asked me to donate, like my treasured stamp collection. Now I understand the resilience required by those bringing up a family in those days. We mustn't whitewash the past. Thanks for this excellent documentary film.
Ffs I was in a good mood before I started watching this. Glesga was a grim place when I was growing up in the gorbals. People had absolutely nothing and didn’t live, they existed.
Glad you are still around and beating all the odds that were stacked up against you. Keep going strong I love your channel been watching it for years now. That was one of the greatest surreal series of photos I have ever seen... A universe that I didn't know could exist in doom and gloom... Surreal it is indeed..
Good collection of pics showing the bleakness of that area. It's always lovely to see nostalgic photos of children playing in the street , something we never see in 2023. Looking at the vehicle colours in these pics it reminded me of one time when UK car manufacturers used a range of bright and eye catching range of colours to offset the sometimes dreary English weather.
@@Azhureusexactly, I was born in 2000 and most of my childhood was playing outside or going to the park etc people are just too absorbed in their phones and stuck in nostalgia to immerse themselves in the present
Glasgow is my favourite city good and bad I have seen all sides of it right back to the tenements in the gorbals and the red road flats before they were demolished and happy days trailing round the barras but most of all it’s the people that make Glasgow they are best in world 💕💕💕💕
I grew up as a lad in Glasgow at the top of Partick through the 70s and early 80s ,my parents were lucky enough move out to Livingston new town which is closer to Edinburgh, it was a breath of fresh air I had never seen so much greenery and blue sky in my life it was farmer fields as far as the eye could see nothing like it is now ,but it was a bit soulless, I did move back to Glasgow in my late teens when I got a job in Glasgow as I really missed the Glasgow people and way of life I also put myself through University in Glasgow it was not easy, you can take the boy out of Glasgow but you can take Glasgow out the boy. Unfortunately for personal reasons I had to move back to the east where I am now but I do think about Glasgow often.
@@kevinconnelly3302 because he was younger then. Possibly still had his parents who loved him unconditionally and was happy the way children are happy.
I really enjoyed these. The style and ambience reminds me of the pictures my father took around the same era in Skåne, southern Sweden. And then later my own, twelve to twenty years after that. It is true that early 80s Glasgow had a few even bleaker spots than the bleakest areas of Malmö and elsewhere at the time, but it wasn’t far off. Also here it has been a dramatic improvement both in looks and prosperity.
That little boy in the first photograph with the angst ridden face gets me every time. I just want to cuddle and comfort him. Poor thing. I wonder where he is now.
Govan was my stomping ground back in the late 70s and early 80s. Not been back since. Its odd to see these photos after all these years and realize just how run down the area was. Of course as a child you dont see any of that.
5:49 thats me I`ll be 59 in september time flies..the man stopped me and said " I`m making a documentary, is it ok to use your photo?" I obviously said aye.
Whenever I go back to my hometown I see almost all of this but with different architecture, of course. My place was a small city in Illinois. The bleakness, the grittiness, the closed factories and businesses. Yet so many never got to leave. And others, had to go there because it's the only area where the rents are still cheap. But how very profound it was to drive back through it all. It was bittersweet, for sure. So seeing this video was not only interesting to me. It was also a familiar landscape but just thousands of miles away!
My son lives in the East End of Glasgow, he moved there about 20 years ago, when I visit him I notice the friendliness of his neighbours, they will help anybody. I live in an affluent town in Worcestershire, very pretty, but people keep their own council and are suspicious if you are not "local". I know why my son chooses to stay in Glasgow, it is a very welcoming place. Shabbiness is irrelevant.
The Mini at 7:14 lasted until 1987. 😎 More seriously I lived in Glasgow about ten years after this period and have very fond memories of it. Sometimes I was taken aback by the poverty in certain areas. For example the incredibly bleak estates where there would be very few cars parked around as the people were too poor to own a car even in the early 90s. However there were very salubrious areas too and I always found the local people to be friendly and hospitable. The city had a lot of character but could be depressing. It should be said that in this era (80s) many urban areas in the UK were appallingly run down and grotty with high levels of unemployment and poverty - Glasgow was far from unique.
In 1973, after university in Glasgow, I was clueless about what to do next, so took a job as a conductor with the city buses, Glasgow Corporation Transport. I had rent to pay. When I walked through the doors of their head office and asked if they had any jobs, they almost dragged me inside. Instant interview. After a few weeks they offered me training to drive the buses. So I did. At my depot, the routes went to several of the huge estates ( aka housing schemes) that you mention. I particularly recall driving through Glasgow Cross at 22.10 ( 10 minutes after pub closing time ) on a Friday night. The bus stop was only a few yards further on. The bus filled up with people returning to Caslemilk, one of the schemes. All totally pissed, and few had any money left for the fares. The instructions from the bus inspectors were ... " Just let them on, and drive". They all piled on, and I drove them the 7 or 8 miles out to Castlemilk. Never had any problems. Just that I didn't want to get into that lifestyle, so I left Glasgow after 18 months on the buses. My education got me out.
I was a teenager in Govanhill around this time. The memory in my bones is of dampness, darkness, and the threat of violence underlying almost every encounter. One thing these pictures really brought back to me was the sight of men drunk out of their minds, just lying there in the street. Not beggars, or homeless; usually working guys or recently unemployed. They were commonplace to the point of being almost unnoticed by passers-by. Folk just walked around them, only paying attention if the man staggered to his feet and lurched towards you. I'd almost forgotten that. And all these pictures taken just as Margaret Thatcher sunk her talons into the most vulnerable. Excellent photography capturing the lives led by generations treated with contempt and neglect, dismissed as an underclass. Thank you for posting.
@@ymca4547 Good question. All that poverty and dereliction didn't appear immediately after her election the previous year. It was generations in the making. So who, or what, do you think is responsible?
@ryanhitmanfury Well, I'm not an SNP supporter but since they never held any significant power before 2007, we can hardly blame them for 1980. Labour, on the other hand, dominated Scottish politics from the late 1950s to the mid-2000s. Sadly, many of their tribunes were compromised and corrupted by the very system that created this deep degradation (and so left the door open for the SNP surge this century) but things were achieved and, to be fair, 50 years isn't long long enough to make the foundational changes necessary to tackle the complex and entrenched issues at play - especially when the Conservatives who believe in the system were controlling the purse strings for way more than half of that period. And have continued to do so for almost the entirety of the SNP's time as Scottish government. Party politics is not the even the main factor at play, though. Societies tolerate poverty because humans play the psychological trick on ourselves by blaming the poor and often by thinking of the most vulnerable and desperate as somehow less human - or indeed less than human. This helps justify our own most atavistic instincts for survival, trampling on others not just so that we survive, but gain power to protect what we have and position ourselves to acquire more. It is part of our condition, I fear, and the very thing that may ultimately cost us everything as we lay waste to the very soil, seas and air that makes human life viable.
@jemimallah2591society was epic and everything got better and better by the day till 2001 then it all went down hill fast to what garbage we have now and tech is to blame 📱
I was Glasgow born & raised, the old Gorbals then Pollok. My deprivation & hardship took a new "low" when the Englandistanis inflicted their Thatcherite dictatorship on us, costing me my job & everything else. So in 1988 I fled to Australia. 🇦🇺 The best move I've ever made.
I used to live in a place called shipley in west Yorkshire in the early 2000s these pictures remind me of shipley...i live in Manchester now...but if i won the lottery i would go back to shipley..my first love was there too
Grew up in the east end, never had a pot to piss in , even into the 90,s we couldn't afford a phone, clothes were hand me downs. Would I change it? Not a chance!. People were/are salt of the earth. Glasgow will always be home, wherever I am.
Hi, I grew up in a housing scheme in the 70s must admit it looks pretty bad in these pictures but It really wasn’t at the time. 2023 is far more depressing
This was life and reality for the people who lived there. Might seem depressing but it was lives and places that were, once upon a time, loved and treasured x
This is what makes people yes these lives might of been hard,but our country had industry's real people all,,you can name now what's expected in the households, these wonderful people were not overspending, living beyond means, and food was real etc
Went to Glasgow Uni 1980, I loved it. The people were sound. I was on a bus one time and asked someone the best stop to get off for my destination. The whole top deck had a debate, came to a consensus and then informed me when to get off, so friendly.
The photos reminds me of West Belfast. I also lived for a time in Maryhill in the 90s. A great community. Everyone knew everyone else. Yeah there was poverty but everyone was so nice to me, an Englishman. The tenements I stayed in are all long gone and still not replaced with affordable housing. Progress, eh?
Grew up in Roston Road in the 80s so these pics hit hard. It was incredibly bleak and deprivation was a constant companion, but you knew who you were and you knew where you were. We were all the same. Nowadays that community and identity is erased and despite the better living conditions, we've all lost something we can't get back.
What about the Southside, Battlefield, Kingspark, Croftfoot, Queenspark, lovely beautiful areas, well-kept gardens, stunning parks. These photos (although true) give the impression that Glasgow is one big slum which it most definitely is not...
The year I graduated in that city which had known since a young kid. Do not remember it being quite so bleak but if lucky enough to live in The West End and just frequent the city centre you could try to avoid the squalor. A quite different place these days. 4:44
As depressing as these pictures are, the video closed with one that is at the same time as poignant as it is optimistic; the wedding couple - most probably, I'd surmise, both of them previously widowed. I do hope they got a good run before their old age and ill health inevitably naused things up!
Very interesting photos. One thing I'd like to know though. Did the architects purposely design this place to make people manically depressed? If yes, they did a bang up job.
The actual tenement blocks (notwithstanding that they've been wrecked!) don't look like they were intrinsically that bad. I suppose it doesn't especially help that they're in a part of the World that is grey, wet and dreary most of the time! I bet that at the time they were built, those tenements were probably much more attractive then most of the contemporary housing - unless of course landlords rammed in dozens of large families, like happened in the Dublin tenements for much of the 19th and 20th Century. Then again, the Dublin version had never been purpose built as tenements, but were the once affluent townhouses of the city's Georgian squares, which became increasingly run down as the British gentry, and later the British themselves, decamped. I expect the Glasgow, and Dundee, tenements (and probably those in other Scottish cities as well) actually stood the test of time a lot better than the local authority high rise schemes that can be seen in these pictures (and a lot of the low rise ones, too!) In fact I'm given to understand that a lot of these tenement flats, refurbished, obviously, now command very considerable prices/rents indeed!
Fantastic photography. Choosing as backdrop the ugly brown buildings along with the dingy damp weather and then having bright colored objects/people in the foreground just does it for me.
I grew up in the 1950s in the Gorbals and Govanhill. It was just the same as these photos, but it must be said Glasgow is unrecognizable now from what it was.
Hi, don't live in Glasgow but not a carrier bag,all the children playing in the street,rain sleet or shine, no computer games mobile phone, better class of people god speed glasgow,regards from Greenock 🙏❤️
The picture of the three people sitting drinking beside the fire was taken at stevenson street at the barras. If you go on google maps you'll see a blue van sitting there which is where the three are sitting having a drink in the photo.
it was 😅 this area, the North East, was the most "social and economically deprived area of Western Europe" from the 60's through the 80's ...all while I was living and growing up there
so these 60 photographs were taken by one French photographer called Raymond Depardon, he came to Glasgow to make a photo essay that was not published at the time but the images were recently re discovered and made into a book and an exhibition, I have the book. Part of his brief was to document " social deprivation" and to that end he had a local guide who took him to the bleakest and most derelict parts of Glasgow at that time, Govan and Maryhill, and the photographer chose to focus on those two areas of the city. I was born in Govan ,Glasgow, and I also happen to be a professional photographer, I can appreciate the pictorial power of the images and the talent of the photographer , my one issue with them is looking at them as a whole they present quite a bleak and depressing impression of a very large city when in fact the images were taken in a very small area of the city, if you went to just about any UK city in 1980 you could find this kind of dereliction and social deprivation if you wanted to, every city has its more downbeat areas, the photographer had a fixed idea of what aspects of a city he was going to select with his camera lens.....and to that end I guess he succeeded in fulfilling his own brief , those streets and the people existed, but it is not what I remember about Glasgow, it looks like another planet to me in these images, great as the images are, for me they present an unbalanced view of what Glasgow was like back then, what they present is a particular view that existed in a particular area of the city. I mean if you went to the slums of Harlem NYC in 1970 and took 60 photographs you couldn't really present them as being what NYC is all about, you could present them as a detail of NYC...it is a part of the city, but not the whole part.
But the fact that it existed is more than enough justification. That's how it was. Bleak.
Most of these photos are of dennistoun ( duke st, fielden st) & the Calton ) , brings back a lot of memories, this must be a reupload I seen this video a long time ago, still great tho 👍
Agreed, it’s only depiction of a small part of the city and it could be seen in every city in the 1970’s and 1980’s. 😎👍
Exactly...he had an Agenda
Nothing about a fair representation of the city
@@dmcc757Dennistoun, you sure most of these photos are from there?
The Carlton? Maybe the Calton….
I remember doing my student teaching practice in Glasgow, mid 90's. I was at Jordanhill - it was lovely, leafy green and grand. As a small town Canadian girl, I was overwhelmed living in a city, full stop, so I'll never forget my first teaching practice placement in Possilpark... I was so glad that the university had sent a fellow classmate and I on the same placement (my pal was from Belfast and didn't scare easily, LOL). In the end, the kids at the school were fantastic and I met some really hard working parents. That being said, I'm sure I never walked so fast as I did from the bus stop to that school in Possilpark. I think back very fondly on my time in Glasgow. It is a city with a lot of challenges but it also has a ton of heart.
I used to live in Possilpark
Saracen street
Really liked your story especially about the Belfast student because I’m from Belfast as well and it’s very nice to know what people were there and from what country makes it more interesting,,
I really hope you did well in Glasgow
God bless you hope your doing well
Very dark atmosphere surrounding Glasgow back then,,
Really love all the old pictures and videos of hard times back then
God bless everyone in these pictures really sad to see how poor the area’s were and the people were very though and made the best of what little they had,,
Them two young girls in the yellow tracksuit and the other girl probably waiting on the boyfriend or something
Really love pictures and thank you for posting them for all to see,,
In such a grey scenery, any colorful object stands out. Glascow looks extremely photogenic through these beautiful photos
I remembering going to London in 1981 with my wife, we were 28 and 26. We rode the buses and got a pretty good view of London beyond the historical attractions. You could still see the after effects of the blitz with charred walls where buildings were, etc. Some of these photos take me back to those first hand experiences in London. I have photographs somewhere of the buildings and the people, nothing as impactful as some of these photos, but a glipse of that reality nonetheless. I used a little Rollei that my father gave to me with it's collapsible lense. Truly a compact wonder and super sharp images. Thanks for sharing the photos!
I was 15 then and remember the 80s in Glasgow with fondness
Fantastic!.....Hauntingly beautful images.
Hard times,but there’s an incredible beauty in the resilience and fortitude in these wonderful pictures
You never see the other side of Glasgow - even in 1980 when I was a student, much of Glasgow had a good vibe going on: there were beautiful areas of town, and Glasgow had more parks than any other city in Europe. Most of the areas shown in these photos are unrecognisable now, the tenements have been cleaned and developed into lovely flats. Glasgow still has it's tough areas, but no more than most large UK cities these days.
"Glasgow had more parks than any other city in Europe” . There was a brief t.v series made based on that fact , it was called “Dear Green Place” , by the guys who did Chewing The Fat & Still Game
Did my apprenticeship in Glasgow in the 1970's - while I saw these areas - the warm people of the city compensated for it and
while I lived in Edinburgh for a while - I felt at home in Glasgow !
Speaking as someone born in 1964, brought up in working class streets and reading the comments posted here, its worth pointing out that while much of the buildings in these photos are now gone or abutted by newbuilds the vibe is just as 'bleak', especially if you wander the streets of parts of Govan, the East End or Shawlands etc. on a wet, windswept January day. Which isnt to condemn but to emphasise that the same problems and imbalance perpetuate, its just that we tend to not notice, visually as we are living our own time with our distractions and internal concerns. I am an artist and streetphotographer wandering the same streets today. One other detail worth bearing in mind while viewing these images is that they are mostly poorly exposed , possibly slidefilm which makes the colours and light darker and even bleaker than the same shots had they been individually printed by hand. It's almost impossible to take shots like this nowadays on our sophisticated phones whose computers do the work for us on auto and enhanced settings.
Thanks for the video. Depardon is a master of photography
I live in Glasgow and I've seen these before and it looks bleak. It's incredible now that many of these areas are quite developed and that tenement buildings are all factored and privately owned. Many of them are quite high value now. There are a lot of pictures taken East of Dennistoun in Glasgow in this. Dennistoun is now quite a sought after area. It's incredible how different some of these same streets are now. The black coloured tenements were all cleaned over decades to their original pink sandstone colour. It's a much more colourful place now.
I grew up in Battersea (London) in the 60s and 70s and honestly I can’t tell the difference exactly the same lack of colour and total decay but the people were fabulous. These brilliant photos are our history.
Damn, beat me to it. I was going to say areas of East London looked identical to this is in the 80's and 90's.
I remember the Worlds End Estate back then. It was grim.
Littlest of kids are around 44 years old now and their young mom's pushing 70.
You have the no 1 channel for a look at the past with the best choice of music to accompany it. Never stop posting my friend. 👍
another really good job of archive footage. these never fail to beg the question... where are they now, what life have they lived. wonderful thank you, and the chilled score always works perfectly.
Brutally honest answer is most of them are probably gone. Life expectancy for Glasgow isn't good even today.
Really enjoyed that, fantastic captured photography.
Boss tunes too.
Lived across the Clyde in the mid 80’s. Glasgow was in such better shape by then. The friendliest people you could ever meet.
Whenever I have met a Glaswegian they have always been so lovely. xx
This is history, the way it was in many cities, real people. My father lodged in both Glasgow and Coatbridge during the 50s and 60s and told us of the poverty and dangers there. But look how happy the children are, unaware of surrounding poverty. They must have been overjoyed with a few belongings my dad had asked me to donate, like my treasured stamp collection. Now I understand the resilience required by those bringing up a family in those days. We mustn't whitewash the past. Thanks for this excellent documentary film.
I remember these days so well, we had nothing!. Although I never lived in Glasgow, Newport, South Wales was equally grey!....great photos! ;)
Was it the buildings, or did the weather back then make it feel bleaker?
it's an amazing fact that the people that live in such depravation are the friendliest you could ever hope to see in a city
lol
Did you ever visit Glasgow 😂
I'm Canadian but I've lived all around Britain with my work. Believe me Scottish people are the friendliest and kindest people you will ever meet
The Cockneys were very friendly before they got era sed.
@@detectiveh7399 They can be absolutely horrible too. Sectarianism is a huge problem.
Sheffield people are very friendly too, but I think the Glaswegians score higher.
Love these sort of photos, all natural, no posing for the camera
Ffs I was in a good mood before I started watching this. Glesga was a grim place when I was growing up in the gorbals. People had absolutely nothing and didn’t live, they existed.
I know! Fond times though seemingly 😬
Your right people existed
Great pictures, show the 80's as i remember them as a teenager perfectly.
Glad you are still around and beating all the odds that were stacked up against you.
Keep going strong I love your channel been watching it for years now.
That was one of the greatest surreal series of photos I have ever seen...
A universe that I didn't know could exist in doom and gloom...
Surreal it is indeed..
Good collection of pics showing the bleakness of that area. It's always lovely to see nostalgic photos of children playing in the street , something we never see in 2023. Looking at the vehicle colours in these pics it reminded me of one time when UK car manufacturers used a range of bright and eye catching range of colours to offset the sometimes dreary English weather.
I see kids playing outside every day here in the place I live. People just dont pay attention to it any more, burried in phones all the time.
@@Azhureusexactly, I was born in 2000 and most of my childhood was playing outside or going to the park etc people are just too absorbed in their phones and stuck in nostalgia to immerse themselves in the present
Glasgow is my favourite city good and bad
I have seen all sides of it right back to the tenements in the gorbals and the red road flats before they were demolished and happy days trailing round the barras but most of all it’s the people that make Glasgow they are best in world 💕💕💕💕
I grew up as a lad in Glasgow at the top of Partick through the 70s and early 80s ,my parents were lucky enough move out to Livingston new town which is closer to Edinburgh, it was a breath of fresh air I had never seen so much greenery and blue sky in my life it was farmer fields as far as the eye could see nothing like it is now ,but it was a bit soulless, I did move back to Glasgow in my late teens when I got a job in Glasgow as I really missed the Glasgow people and way of life I also put myself through University in Glasgow it was not easy, you can take the boy out of Glasgow but you can take Glasgow out the boy. Unfortunately for personal reasons I had to move back to the east where I am now but I do think about Glasgow often.
Given the choice I'd return to 1980 at the drop of a hat!
Why? 😂
Because we wouldn't on here wasting our time ...and living a life
@@kevinconnelly3302 because he was younger then. Possibly still had his parents who loved him unconditionally and was happy the way children are happy.
@@richardbradley3684 aye but, look at the state of the place
@@kevinconnelly3302 exactly.
I really enjoyed these. The style and ambience reminds me of the pictures my father took around the same era in Skåne, southern Sweden. And then later my own, twelve to twenty years after that.
It is true that early 80s Glasgow had a few even bleaker spots than the bleakest areas of Malmö and elsewhere at the time, but it wasn’t far off. Also here it has been a dramatic improvement both in looks and prosperity.
Excellent photography. Every picture tells a story. Tenement life must have been quite grim.
Really enjoyed that . Good tunes too. Atmospheric.
Omg that second bit of music is dire.
That little boy in the first photograph with the angst ridden face gets me every time. I just want to cuddle and comfort him. Poor thing. I wonder where he is now.
Probably dead.
@@sandersson2813 I sincerely hope not. I pray he is happy and free.
@@MSchichinitsa Glasgow has one of the lowest life expectancies in Europe.
@@Spectrophia……..that’s considered a ripe old age in Glasgow !🫣
Govan was my stomping ground back in the late 70s and early 80s. Not been back since. Its odd to see these photos after all these years and realize just how run down the area was. Of course as a child you dont see any of that.
Great 'mood' music and not a blue sky to be seen - RESPECT 😎
5:49 thats me I`ll be 59 in september time flies..the man stopped me and said " I`m making a documentary, is it ok to use your photo?" I obviously said aye.
Didye aye?
Whenever I go back to my hometown I see almost all of this but with different architecture, of course. My place was a small city in Illinois. The bleakness, the grittiness, the closed factories and businesses. Yet so many never got to leave. And others, had to go there because it's the only area where the rents are still cheap. But how very profound it was to drive back through it all. It was bittersweet, for sure. So seeing this video was not only interesting to me. It was also a familiar landscape but just thousands of miles away!
My place of birth has come a long way since those days, a great city.
My son lives in the East End of Glasgow, he moved there about 20 years ago, when I visit him I notice the friendliness of his neighbours, they will help anybody. I live in an affluent town in Worcestershire, very pretty, but people keep their own council and are suspicious if you are not "local". I know why my son chooses to stay in Glasgow, it is a very welcoming place. Shabbiness is irrelevant.
Try small town Cambridgeshire, St Ives, friendliest people on Earth.
@@ianinkster2261 I shall have to try it, lived in Cambridge many moons ago , but I found people were distant.
@@jeannemillsom9300 Not Cambridge, small town Cambridgeshire, e.g. St Ives
Have lived in Glasgow also st ives ,st ives is more affluent but Glasgow wins on friendliness @@ianinkster2261
Have lived in both, Glasgow more friendly by a country thingmyjig
Amazing pics thanks for sharing ..oh and that bloody background music = WTF . watch without sound or you'll go nuts
That was eye opening, excellent photographs!
These were bleak days it’s so lovely to see how much Glasgow has changed x
As an italian i visited Scotland in the mid '80s. Back then it struck me as a very sad and depressing place with grey bulidings and skies...
Nice work on this project
The Mini at 7:14 lasted until 1987. 😎 More seriously I lived in Glasgow about ten years after this period and have very fond memories of it. Sometimes I was taken aback by the poverty in certain areas. For example the incredibly bleak estates where there would be very few cars parked around as the people were too poor to own a car even in the early 90s. However there were very salubrious areas too and I always found the local people to be friendly and hospitable. The city had a lot of character but could be depressing. It should be said that in this era (80s) many urban areas in the UK were appallingly run down and grotty with high levels of unemployment and poverty - Glasgow was far from unique.
... ESPECIALLY DECEMBER 31st EH? EH?... 🍻🍻🍻🏴
In one of the biggest oil producing nation on earth Scotland.
In 1973, after university in Glasgow, I was clueless about what to do next, so took a job as a conductor with the city buses, Glasgow Corporation Transport. I had rent to pay. When I walked through the doors of their head office and asked if they had any jobs, they almost dragged me inside. Instant interview. After a few weeks they offered me training to drive the buses. So I did. At my depot, the routes went to several of the huge estates ( aka housing schemes) that you mention. I particularly recall driving through Glasgow Cross at 22.10 ( 10 minutes after pub closing time ) on a Friday night. The bus stop was only a few yards further on. The bus filled up with people returning to Caslemilk, one of the schemes. All totally pissed, and few had any money left for the fares. The instructions from the bus inspectors were ... " Just let them on, and drive". They all piled on, and I drove them the 7 or 8 miles out to Castlemilk. Never had any problems. Just that I didn't want to get into that lifestyle, so I left Glasgow after 18 months on the buses. My education got me out.
Thank you! They sure looked like they had it rough.🥺❤
I was a teenager in Govanhill around this time. The memory in my bones is of dampness, darkness, and the threat of violence underlying almost every encounter.
One thing these pictures really brought back to me was the sight of men drunk out of their minds, just lying there in the street. Not beggars, or homeless; usually working guys or recently unemployed. They were commonplace to the point of being almost unnoticed by passers-by. Folk just walked around them, only paying attention if the man staggered to his feet and lurched towards you.
I'd almost forgotten that. And all these pictures taken just as Margaret Thatcher sunk her talons into the most vulnerable.
Excellent photography capturing the lives led by generations treated with contempt and neglect, dismissed as an underclass. Thank you for posting.
I noticed one taken in Govanhill, facing down Cathcart Road, I was born and bred in Govanhill.
Who was to blame for Scotland's problems before the Thatcher government?
@@ymca4547 Good question. All that poverty and dereliction didn't appear immediately after her election the previous year. It was generations in the making.
So who, or what, do you think is responsible?
@@drewcampbell8555 I don't know. What I can say is that it looks like all the years of Labour rule and SNP rule didn't do much for Scotland either.
@ryanhitmanfury Well, I'm not an SNP supporter but since they never held any significant power before 2007, we can hardly blame them for 1980. Labour, on the other hand, dominated Scottish politics from the late 1950s to the mid-2000s. Sadly, many of their tribunes were compromised and corrupted by the very system that created this deep degradation (and so left the door open for the SNP surge this century) but things were achieved and, to be fair, 50 years isn't long long enough to make the foundational changes necessary to tackle the complex and entrenched issues at play - especially when the Conservatives who believe in the system were controlling the purse strings for way more than half of that period. And have continued to do so for almost the entirety of the SNP's time as Scottish government.
Party politics is not the even the main factor at play, though. Societies tolerate poverty because humans play the psychological trick on ourselves by blaming the poor and often by thinking of the most vulnerable and desperate as somehow less human - or indeed less than human. This helps justify our own most atavistic instincts for survival, trampling on others not just so that we survive, but gain power to protect what we have and position ourselves to acquire more.
It is part of our condition, I fear, and the very thing that may ultimately cost us everything as we lay waste to the very soil, seas and air that makes human life viable.
Would be great to see an updated photo of these places.
And people 🙏
I went to high school here in Australia with a lass from Glasgow in the mid 80s. Looks like they left a pretty bleak looking town behind.
Everywhere has shitehole areas Glasgow Scotland was one of the wealthiest cities in Europe by the 1500,s
Av son parts of oz mate
Not a flex bud
Av seen parts of Australia
Typo
Also I was born here lighten the fuck uo
The 80’s the best decade there ever was
@jemimallah2591society was epic and everything got better and better by the day till 2001 then it all went down hill fast to what garbage we have now and tech is to blame 📱
The little boy at the start....heartbreaking...I hope everything turned out well for him❤
Something tells me it didn’t 🙁
He'd be around 50 now, if he's survived.
He was most probably just playing hide and seek .
Great images, however Glasgow of the 70,s and eighties was rough as hell!
I was Glasgow born & raised, the old Gorbals then Pollok. My deprivation & hardship took a new "low" when the Englandistanis inflicted their Thatcherite dictatorship on us, costing me my job & everything else. So in 1988 I fled to Australia. 🇦🇺 The best move I've ever made.
I used to live in a place called shipley in west Yorkshire in the early 2000s these pictures remind me of shipley...i live in Manchester now...but if i won the lottery i would go back to shipley..my first love was there too
Great social history photos xx
Love these
Grew up in the east end, never had a pot to piss in , even into the 90,s we couldn't afford a phone, clothes were hand me downs. Would I change it? Not a chance!. People were/are salt of the earth. Glasgow will always be home, wherever I am.
Love Glasgow and it's people. Brilliant craic 👌🏻💚
Now that's depressing
Hi, I grew up in a housing scheme in the 70s must admit it looks pretty bad in these pictures but It really wasn’t at the time. 2023 is far more depressing
This was life and reality for the people who lived there. Might seem depressing but it was lives and places that were, once upon a time, loved and treasured x
Totally agree so dull very scruffy what a shit hole
This is what makes people yes these lives might of been hard,but our country had industry's real people all,,you can name now what's expected in the households, these wonderful people were not overspending, living beyond means, and food was real etc
Went to Glasgow Uni 1980, I loved it. The people were sound. I was on a bus one time and asked someone the best stop to get off for my destination. The whole top deck had a debate, came to a consensus and then informed me when to get off, so friendly.
Beautiful 👏
Brought back a few memories there, those were grim times
The photos reminds me of West Belfast. I also lived for a time in Maryhill in the 90s. A great community. Everyone knew everyone else. Yeah there was poverty but everyone was so nice to me, an Englishman. The tenements I stayed in are all long gone and still not replaced with affordable housing. Progress, eh?
It could be any working class area in the 80’s, northern town or even NYC, not just West Belfast. I’m assuming you served in the army.
I wonder if any of these thought that 43 years later there would be some random people all over the world seeing them..
Grew up in Roston Road in the 80s so these pics hit hard. It was incredibly bleak and deprivation was a constant companion, but you knew who you were and you knew where you were. We were all the same. Nowadays that community and identity is erased and despite the better living conditions, we've all lost something we can't get back.
Every young person in these photos must be getting older now just like me
Fantastic fotos
I knew a guy from this part of glasgow, a kinder and more generous man you couldn't meet, he was real salt of the Earth.
Glasgow. My City. My Glasgow.
Those kids at 0:24 are almost like an early Banksy in colour.
Wonderful, thankyou.
What about the Southside, Battlefield, Kingspark, Croftfoot, Queenspark, lovely beautiful areas, well-kept gardens, stunning parks. These photos (although true) give the impression that Glasgow is one big slum which it most definitely is not...
aye mate people get off on the misery
It makes there crummy life’s feel better
Was born in bridgeton it was fine no worse than anything else
I like the second track, as it sums up the bleakness of 1980 really well.
THIS PICTURES MADE TO BE EVEN MORE DEPRESSING BEING SO DARK....
😬😬😬😬
The year I graduated in that city which had known since a young kid. Do not remember it being quite so bleak but if lucky enough to live in The West End and just frequent the city centre you could try to avoid the squalor. A quite different place these days. 4:44
As depressing as these pictures are, the video closed with one that is at the same time as poignant as it is optimistic; the wedding couple - most probably, I'd surmise, both of them previously widowed. I do hope they got a good run before their old age and ill health inevitably naused things up!
What is the music used in the background?
Very interesting photos. One thing I'd like to know though. Did the architects purposely design this place to make people manically depressed? If yes, they did a bang up job.
The actual tenement blocks (notwithstanding that they've been wrecked!) don't look like they were intrinsically that bad. I suppose it doesn't especially help that they're in a part of the World that is grey, wet and dreary most of the time!
I bet that at the time they were built, those tenements were probably much more attractive then most of the contemporary housing - unless of course landlords rammed in dozens of large families, like happened in the Dublin tenements for much of the 19th and 20th Century. Then again, the Dublin version had never been purpose built as tenements, but were the once affluent townhouses of the city's Georgian squares, which became increasingly run down as the British gentry, and later the British themselves, decamped.
I expect the Glasgow, and Dundee, tenements (and probably those in other Scottish cities as well) actually stood the test of time a lot better than the local authority high rise schemes that can be seen in these pictures (and a lot of the low rise ones, too!) In fact I'm given to understand that a lot of these tenement flats, refurbished, obviously, now command very considerable prices/rents indeed!
Fantastic photography. Choosing as backdrop the ugly brown buildings along with the dingy damp weather and then having bright colored objects/people in the foreground just does it for me.
Legend has it that the man lying on the ground in the photo at 9.45 is still lying there and still hasn't yet sobered up.
Yes, that ‘joke’ has sunk like a lead balloon, you balloon
@@BlowinFree Alright and calm down and don't get your knickers in a twist.
Oh those 80's,they knew how to funk/boogie,fantastic!
These photos look so bleak. Where are the trees and parks? I thought they got rid of tenements in the 60's and 70's.
He has a talent for capturing red against a monochromatic background.
I grew up in the 1950s in the Gorbals and Govanhill. It was just the same as these photos, but it must be said Glasgow is unrecognizable now from what it was.
5:12 One fresh Adidas top. Kid had a lot of style for 1980.
I have the exact same jacket to this day 😂
Something romantic about simpler, less complicated times
Hi, don't live in Glasgow but not a carrier bag,all the children playing in the street,rain sleet or shine, no computer games mobile phone, better class of people god speed glasgow,regards from Greenock 🙏❤️
He captured the horror well.
Yes indeed your comment is precise
This video always ends up getting taken down.
Eh? I believe you but I dont understand why.
Negative stereotyping?
Any photos of Queens Park Secondary School at 10 Glenburn Avenue , Toryglen?
living the dream!
The picture of the three people sitting drinking beside the fire was taken at stevenson street at the barras. If you go on google maps you'll see a blue van sitting there which is where the three are sitting having a drink in the photo.
For all the poverty and grime, it was still a Scottish city. In 2023 not so much.
This is why, in the 1980s, people from Glasgow would go on holiday to Craggy Island.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Is this the holiday brochure?
Stunning
What a stunning time capsule.
Great photos , love the bleakness
Daeye aye?
After like the 6th photo, I'm thinking: "Okay, I get it. Glasgow in 1980 was Eraserhead irl, an urban dystopian hell."
it was 😅 this area, the North East, was the most "social and economically deprived area of Western Europe" from the 60's through the 80's ...all while I was living and growing up there
I like the way they have added colour to it. It seems so real, as if it was yesterday
🤣
The images do look tinted though