Gorbals

Gorbals Scottish Gaelic: Na Gorbals
OS grid reference	NS591640
Council area	Glasgow City Council
Lieutenancy area	Glasgow
Country	Scotland
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	GLASGOW
Postcode district	G5
Dialling code	0141
Police	Scotland
Fire	Scottish
Ambulance	Scottish
UK Parliament	Glasgow Central
Scottish Parliament	Glasgow Shettleston Glasgow

The Gorbals (Scottish Gaelic: Na Gorbals) is an area on the south bank of the River Clyde in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. By the late 19th century, it had become over-populated and adversely affected by local industrialisation. It became widely known as a dangerous slum and was subject to efforts at redevelopment, which contributed to more problems. In recent decades, some buildings have been demolished for a mixture of market and social housing; others are being refurbished and restored to a higher standard.

The Caledonia Road Church, one of the finest examples of architecture in Glasgow, is located in the Gorbals. Designed by Alexander 'Greek' Thomson and built in the 1850s, the former Presbyterian church was gutted by fire in 1965. It is now an impressive ruin.

Meaning of placename

The name is first documented in the 15th and 16th centuries as 'Gorbaldis', and its etymology is unclear. It may be related to the Latin word garbale (sheaf), found in the Scots term garbal teind (tenth sheaf), a tithe of corn given to a parish rector. The taking of garbal teind was a right given to George Elphinstone in 1616 as part of his 19-year tack (lease). The placename would therefore mean "the Sheaves". The name is remarkably similar to a Lowland Scots word gorbal/gorbel/garbal/garbel (unfledged bird), perhaps a reference to lepers who were allowed to beg for alms in public. Any Gaelic form of the name is conjectural, since none survives from medieval times. Gort a' bhaile (garden of the town) conforms with certain suggestions made by A.G. Callant in 1888, but it is possible to produce a list of other interpretations.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the area was home to large numbers of immigrants from Italy and Ireland, attracted by the industrial jobs and leaving social problems and poverty in their homelands. In particular, huge numbers of Irish Catholic immigrants from County Donegal in Ulster poured into the Gorbals from the mid-nineteenth-century onwards. This huge immigration from County Donegal continued for most of the twentieth-century. The area also housed the new wave of Jewish immigrants from eastern and central Europe, and housed the great majority of Scotland's Jewish population. The Jewish population moved out of the area as it rose in educational and social class; although the Irish Catholic population has diminished to an extent, many have remained since the area's redevelopment.

History

Govan parish was one of the oldest possessions of the church in the region. The merk land of "Brigend and Gorbaldis" is referred to in several sources. The village of Brigend was named after the bridge which Bishop William Rae had built in 1345 over the River Clyde; it lasted until the 19th century. Lady Marjorie Stewart of Lochow was said to have had a hospital built for lepers and dedicated to St Ninian in 1350, although this year is contested by current historians' estimates dating her life and activities. The lands on which the hospital was built were named St Ninian's Croft, and they were later to be incorporated into Hutchesontown.

Gorbals as it appeared in 2006. Much of the area has been redeveloped, and it now has a modern library and learning centre. Some tower blocks remain but the city plans to redevelop some and demolish others.

After the Protestant Reformation, in 1579 the church granted the land for ground rents (feued the land) to Sir George Elphinstone, a merchant who was Provost of Glasgow (1600–1606). The barony and regality of the Gorbals was confirmed in 1606 by a charter of King James VI, which vested Elphinstone and his descendants. These powers descended to Sir Robert Douglas of Blackerstone, who in 1650 disponed (legally transferred) the Gorbals to Glasgow's magistrates for the benefit of the city, the Trades' House, and Hutchesons' Hospital. The magistrates from then on collected the rents and duties and divided them: one fourth to the city, one fourth to the Trades' House, and the remaining half to Hutchesons' Hospital.

In 1790 the lands were divided into lots for development; the City acquired the old feus of Gorbals and Bridgend, and also the Kingston portion of the Barony of Gorbals; the Trades' House obtained a western section; and the remaining section lying to the east and south was allocated to Hutchesons' Hospital. The Hutcheson's Trust then sub-feud a portion of their lands to an ambitious builder, James Laurie. (His grave, along with those of many other builders of Gorbals, is marked with well-carved masons' implements, indicating his Master status. The gravestones are visible at the Burial Ground, established in 1715 and now called the Gorbals Rose Garden). Laurie built the first house in St Ninian's Street in 1794.

The districts are now known as the Gorbals, Laurieston, Tradeston, Kingston, and Hutchesontown. What was once known as Little Govan to the east is now known as Polmadie. It was a successful industrial suburb in the late 19th century, and attracted many Catholic immigrants from Ireland and Italy, as well as Jewish immigrants from Russia and eastern Europe. At one time this area had the great majority of all Jews in Scotland. Industrial decay and over-population overwhelmed the area, which became a center of poverty. The Gorbals railway station opened on 1 September 1877. Changes in the area meant a decrease in business, and it closed to passengers permanently on 1 June 1928.

Main Street, Gorbals, 1911

Eglinton Street, Gorbals, 1939

The Gorbals has long had a reputation as a gritty and rough area of Glasgow. The City Improvement Trust first cleared some slum tenements in 1866. Industrial restructuring meant a loss of jobs, while old factories and support buildings fell into ruin. The Glasgow Corporation's replacement of old, outdated and crowded housing with new high-rise towers in the 1960s did little to improve the area. In the twentieth century, the problems of concentrated poverty and lack of jobs contributed to high levels of crime. Those people who managed to advance in education and economic status left the area for newer housing and work elsewhere.

Throughout the 1980s, the Gorbals was often referred to as the most dangerous place in the UK, as street gangs and casual violence were rife. The poor design and low-quality construction of the concrete, 20-storey flats led to innumerable social and health problems in the area; many of the blocks developed mold and structural problems, and the design prevented residents from visually controlling their internal and external spaces, adding to the social issues. The most infamous of the towers, the Queen Elizabeth Square flats designed by Sir Basil Spence, was demolished in 1993 to make way for a new generation of housing development. In 2004, Glasgow Housing Association announced plans to demolish more of the decaying high-rise blocks, and to comprehensively refurbish and re-clad others. As of 2011, all but one of the four Laurieston blocks had been demolished, and the two Sandiefield Road towers of the Area "E" estate have recently been condemned. Two of the four Area "D" blocks had also been razed, and in the longer term, these and the entire Area "B" estate (scheduled for a further refurbishment) will be the only tower blocks left in the Gorbals.

Much of the area, particularly Hutchesontown, has now been comprehensively redeveloped for the third time, providing a mix of private and social housing. Earlier phases of this recent redevelopment tended toward yellow-brick reinterpretations of traditional tenements, in a post-modern style. More recent phases, masterplanned by Piers Gough, have employed noted modern architects such as Page/Park, Elder & Cannon and CZWG, resulting in more bold and radical designs, accompanied by innovative street plans and high-quality landscaping. They incorporated many pieces of public art. The Gorbals Leisure Centre opened in January 2000 and the number of shopping facilities in the area is on the rise. In 2005, fire destroyed the Catholic church of Blessed John Duns Scotus as a result of a fallen candle. The church was restored and reopened for worship in September 2010.

Since 1945, the well-known Citizens Theatre has been based in the area at the former Royal Princess's Theatre, an historic Victorian building. The area also has a local newspaper Local News for Southsiders. The area is served by Bridge Street and West Street subway stations and numerous bus routes. Plans were unveiled in March 2007 to provide another subway station, in the heart of the redeveloped Hutchesontown.

A famous (and controversial) pub in the district is The Brazen Head, located at the northern end of Cathcart Road. The pub (formerly a railway pub known as The Granite City) is particularly associated with Irish Republicanism. The pub is very near the famous Caledonia Road Church, a now derelict mid-Victorian structure.

Notable natives and residents

• Alexander Watson Hutton (10 June 1853 – 9 March 1936) was a Scottish teacher and sportsman and is considered the father of Argentine football.
• Allan Pinkerton (1819–1884), who achieved fame in the United States by establishing Pinkerton's detective agency.
• Sir Thomas Lipton (1848 – 1931), grocery mogul, perennial America's Cup contender and founder of Lipton's Tea.
• John Maclean, the renowned Scottish socialist politician, stood for election in the area in the 1918 general election.
• Benny Lynch (2 April 1913 – August 6, 1946), boxer, became the British, European and World Flyweight Champion.
• Tommy Docherty (b. 24 April 1928), Scottish football player and manager (Celtic F.C., Preston North End and Chelsea F.C.)
• Ian Brady, the Moors Murderer, was born at The Gorbals as Ian Duncan Stewart.
• Robert Millar (b. 13 September 1958), cyclist, was the first and only English-speaking "King of the Mountains" champion in the Tour de France (1984).
• Michael McGurk (1958—2009), Australian businessman, murdered by a single gunshot to his head outside his Sydney family home.
• Brothers Phil (b. 1937) and Derek Shulman (b. 1947), musicians, of the 1970s British progressive rock band Gentle Giant, were born here.
• Alex Harvey (b. 1935 d. 1982)

Cultural references

• The autobiography Growing Up in the Gorbals (1986) by Ralph Glasser, child of a Lithuanian Jewish family, who describes his impoverished childhood and adolescence amid Glasgow's slum tenements in the 1920s and 30s.
• The novel No Mean City (1935) is set in the Gorbals.
• The ballet Miracle in the Gorbals (1944), to choreography by Robert Helpmann and music by Arthur Bliss, is set there.
• The play The Gorbals Story (1946) by Robert McLeish is set there. Originally produced by the Glasgow Unity Theatre, it was adapted as a film by the same name released in 1950.
• A scene of the promotional documentary short The Frasers' Return (1962), directed by Harvey Harrison, was shot in Gorbals council housing.
• The novel Swing Hammer Swing! (1992) by Jeff Torrington, decades in the writing, is set in the Gorbals.
• John Buchan's novel Huntingtower (1922) was adapted in 1978 as a popular TV series called The Gorbals Die-Hards, which changed the setting from Carrick in southwest Scotland to Glasgow.)
• The character Kristine Kochanski from the UK TV Series Red Dwarf grew up there. (1997).
• The 20th-century poet Edwin Morgan set his poem "Glasgow Sonnet" in the Gorbals.
• Top Chef Season 2 winner Ilan Hall named his first restaurant "The Gorbals" (in Los Angeles) after his immigrant Russian-Jewish father's neighborhood in Glasgow.
• The television special Blackadder's Christmas Carol refers to the Gorbals in a scene where Prince Albert (played by Jim Broadbent) claims to be Glaswegian.
• The BBC documentary Poor Kids (2011) tells the story of a 10-year-old girl living in a moldy, high rise council flat in the Gorbals. The high rise is demolished during the filming of the documentary.

External links

• Citizens' Theatre
• Southern Necropolis Cemetery
• Gorbals Heritage Environment Trust
• Gorbals history - Clyde Waterfront Heritage
• National Library of Scotland: SCOTTISH SCREEN ARCHIVE (archive films relating to the Gorbals)