City living

As Glasgow rapidly grew the heath and the housing of Glasgow citizens went hand in hand. Like other rapidly growing cities all over the world people flooding into poor quality housing resulted in a concentration of slum areas.

By the mid 19th Century overcrowded Glasgow was effected by epidemics of Cholera which prompted early reform of the cities water supply and the movement , of those rich enough, west from the city’s old heart.

By the time of the Boer War, 1899-1902, Glasgow was the second city of the biggest empire the world had ever seen. When the Empire needed recruits to fot its wart, child physical development had been so badly effected by the poverty that most working people lived in that a large proportion of the young men from industrial cities were found unfit for the Army.

...Health and Bad Housing

The Sociological Side of Housing - The ill-effects of bad housing require no stressing. Statistics of bad health and disease show their close relationship to bad housing. Expenditure on new hospitals and sanatoria could be much reduced if bad housing could be eradicated. Similarly, juvenile delinquency would be expected to diminish with the substitution of good homes for the present unsatisfactory ones. The environment of the home affects a person’s habits, outlook, and sense of citizenship and it would be hard to overstate the benefits which would result from the provision of good homes for those who meanwhile must reside in buildings which are quite unfitted for decent occupation.

First Planning Report, 1945, Housing, page 60.

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