No British city has struggled with its housing longer or harder than Glasgow. A century and a half ago it had the worst overcrowding in Europe, its people crammed into one- and two-room tenement houses; then it built council homes on a scale few cities anywhere could match, threw up tower blocks among the tallest in Europe, and knocked many of them down again. From the single-ends of the Victorian slums to the demolition of the Red Road flats and today’s renewed shortage, the story of Glasgow’s housing is very largely the story of the city itself.
This page traces that long struggle: the Victorian slums, the great clearances, the coming of council housing, the tower blocks and their fall, and the housing crisis of the present day.
The worst overcrowding in Europe
As Glasgow’s population exploded during the nineteenth century, its housing became notorious as some of the worst in Europe. Families were packed into the tenements at astonishing densities, most of them living in a ‘single-end’ of one room or a ‘room-and-kitchen’ of two. So acute was the crowding that the city introduced ‘ticketed houses’, with a metal ticket fixed to the door stating the maximum number of people legally allowed to sleep there, checked by inspectors on night-time raids. In such conditions, disease flourished, and epidemics of cholera and typhus swept the closes again and again.
Clearing the slums
The first great attempt to tackle the problem came in 1866, when the City Improvement Trust was given sweeping powers to demolish the worst of the old town. Whole warrens of medieval wynds and closes around the High Street, Trongate and Saltmarket were swept away and rebuilt with wider streets and new tenements. It made parts of the city healthier and handsomer — but it also displaced thousands of the very poorest, who simply crowded into whatever cheap housing remained. Clearing the slums, it turned out, was easier than housing the people who had lived in them.
The state steps in
The decisive shift came in the early twentieth century, when housing became a matter for the state. The 1915 rent strikes forced in rent control, and in 1917 a Royal Commission delivered a damning verdict on Scottish housing, concluding that private enterprise had failed and that the state must step in. Out of this came the Housing Act of 1924, steered through Parliament by the Clydesider John Wheatley, which for the first time made large-scale, subsidised council-house building possible — the beginning of a revolution in how ordinary Glaswegians would be housed.
Council housing at scale
Over the following decades Glasgow became one of the great council-housing cities of the world. Between the wars it built pleasant garden-suburb estates such as Knightswood; after the Second World War it went much further, throwing up vast new estates on the city’s edges — Drumchapel, Castlemilk, Easterhouse and Pollok among them — to rehouse families cleared from the inner-city slums. These schemes offered light, space and indoor bathrooms undreamed of in the old tenements, but they were often built with too few shops, jobs or amenities, storing up fresh problems for the future.
The tower blocks
From the late 1950s the city turned to wholesale demolition and rebuilding, clearing districts such as the Gorbals and replacing them with high-rise flats. The most famous were the Red Road flats, built in the 1960s and, for a time, among the tallest residential buildings in Europe. At first they seemed a bold, modern answer to the housing question. But the high flats aged badly, and many came to be seen as isolating and unloved; the Red Road blocks were themselves demolished between 2012 and 2015, a striking symbol of a solution that had risen and been razed within a single lifetime.
Saving the tenement
By the 1970s attitudes were changing. Rather than sweeping the old tenements away, community-based housing associations began to rescue and modernise them, installing bathrooms and central heating while keeping the handsome sandstone streets intact. It proved that the traditional Glasgow tenement, so long condemned as a slum, could make excellent housing after all. In 2003, in one of the largest transfers of its kind in Europe, the city handed its entire remaining council stock to the newly formed Glasgow Housing Association, opening yet another chapter.
The crisis today
Glasgow’s housing struggle is far from over. After decades in which the problem seemed to be easing, the city once again faces a serious shortage of affordable homes, rising costs and pressure on temporary accommodation. Alongside this sits the enormous task of bringing its ageing tenements and estates up to modern standards of comfort and energy efficiency in the drive towards net zero. From the single-ends of the 1860s to the retrofit challenge of today, Glasgow is still, as ever, fighting to house its people well.
At a glance
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| The Victorian slum | One- and two-room tenement houses |
| Notorious for | The worst overcrowding in Europe |
| Key verdict | The 1917 Royal Commission |
| The answer | Mass council housing (Wheatley Act, 1924) |
| The big estates | Drumchapel, Castlemilk, Easterhouse, Pollok |
| The symbol | The Red Road flats, risen & razed |
| Today | Shortage, retrofit & renewal |
Frequently asked questions
Why was Glasgow’s housing so bad?
Rapid industrial growth drew huge numbers of people into the city faster than decent homes could be built. The result was some of the worst overcrowding in Europe, with most families living in one or two rooms, and repeated epidemics of disease in the crowded tenements.
What was a ‘single-end’?
A single-end was a one-room tenement house, in which an entire family might live, cook and sleep. A two-room home was known as a ‘room-and-kitchen’. Both were typical of Glasgow’s overcrowded Victorian housing.
What did the 1917 Royal Commission say?
It delivered a damning verdict on Scottish housing, finding that private enterprise had failed to house working people decently and that the state must take responsibility. Its report paved the way for large-scale council housing.
What was the Wheatley Housing Act?
Passed in 1924 and steered through by the Clydesider John Wheatley, it provided government subsidies for council housing and made possible the mass building of good-quality homes for rent — a turning point in Glasgow’s and Britain’s housing.
What were the peripheral estates?
They were the vast council estates built on the edges of the city after the Second World War — Drumchapel, Castlemilk, Easterhouse and Pollok among them — to rehouse families from the inner-city slums. They offered better homes but often lacked shops, jobs and amenities.
What were the Red Road flats?
They were a group of high-rise blocks built in the 1960s, for a time among the tallest residential buildings in Europe. Once hailed as a modern solution, they later fell out of favour and were demolished between 2012 and 2015.
What is Glasgow’s housing situation today?
The city again faces a shortage of affordable homes, rising costs and pressure on temporary accommodation, alongside the major task of upgrading its ageing tenements and estates for energy efficiency and the move towards net zero.