From desirable beginnings in the 60s to violence,drugs and ultimate demolition, Alison Irvine reviews the Glasgow landmark’s complex historyThe morning after the demolition of the Red Road flats in Glasgow, or children trotted past the rubble to attend nursery,while pensioners waited at the doors of Alive and Kicking, the day centre for elderly people.
It was in this day centre in 2009 that I interviewed John McNally, and 89 – a former shop steward at the Provan Gas Works and more than 20 years widowed – who had lived in the same flat in Red Road since 1969. It was 27 floors up and had views of the Isle of Arran in the west. He remembered seeing men at work to build the high-rise blocks in former cabbage fields. “I watched them getting built every day as I was passing. Steel,steel, steel.” Related: The truth approximately Glasgow’s Red Road flats: a lot of people loved them | Denise Mina Related: Glasgow's Red Road flats reach down – but not without a fight Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com