Housing in Greater Easterhouse

Housing has always been a controversial subject in Easterhouse. When the schemes opened, people coming from the old tenements were delighted with their new homes, especially their indoor toilets! Easterhouse was a highly desirable option to families living in the cramped single-ends of the inner city. Its two-bedroomed flats were very spacious, and the experience was promoted as ‘like living in the country’. People had to earn a certain amount before even being considered for a house in the area. But the joy of these modern luxuries soon wore thin for many, as little consideration was given be planners to the needs of the new residents.

At this time, there were few local amenities. There were no supermarkets, and residents of Coxton Gardens Sheltered Housing remember buying food and provisions for their families at the small local grocery stores. The proposed shopping centre at Bogbain and Shandwick Street was delayed for years because of coal seems supposedly underneath it.

Even when the population of the scheme rose to 60,000, there was still no police station.

Education in Greater Easterhouse

Until the nineteenth century, children received very little education in Greater Easterhouse, and indeed, throughout the whole of Scotland. An Act of Parliament was passed in the mid-seventeenth century which made landlords responsible for providing a school in every parish, but most of them ignored it.

In 1872, an Education Act gave School Boards, elected by ratepayers, power over teaching provision. Old Monklands School Board in Ballieston took over the running of three private and four church schools.

Swinton Primary School opened on the 27th of August 1929. Pupils from the small schoolhouse in Easterhouse moved there, as well as children who had previously attended Ballieston School.

Gartloch Hospital

Gartloch Hospital was situated on the Gartloch Road near the village of Gartcosh. “Gart” in old scots means a Garden. The name probably arose because the estate had extensive gardens near Bishop’s Loch.

In 1889 the City of Glasgow bought Gartloch Estate for nearly £8,600. Here the Glasgow District Lunacy Board built an asylum. In 1896 the first patients were admitted.

A tuberculosis sanitorium was opened in 1902 and closed after World War II. During the War, Gartloch was transformed into an Emergency Medical Services hospital. Psychiatric patients were transferred to other hospitals and a number of “temporary” hutted wards built.

When Gartloch joined the National Health Service in 1948 it was placed under the Board of Management for Glasgow North-Eastern Mental Hospitals. When the Greater Glasgow Health Board was created in 1974 Gartloch was placed within the Eastern District. From 1993 Gartloch was under the Greater Glasgow Community and Mental Health Services NHS Trust.

Gartloch Hospital closed in 1996.

Mental Health Care in the Nineteenth Century

When Gartloch Asylum opened in 1889, treatment for mental health problems was very different than what it is now. There are records of patients being treated with ‘purgitives, bleeding of the temples with leeches, shaving of the head and cold applications to the head.’

This straight jacket was made by the late James McCafferty, a local tailor. Glasgow Museums do not have a straight jacket in their collections. When it became illegal to restrain patients in such a way, most straight jackets were disposed of.

Deserts wi’ Windaes?

Easterhouse became internationally known for its poor housing and lack of amenities. Billy Connolly called such housing schemes as ‘deserts wi’ windaes’. Many tenants in Greater Easterhouse are still living in the houses that were constructed by the council in the 1950’s.

‘Old metal windows, drafts, dampness…I like the area, but I want the property improved’
Margaret, resident of Barlanark

New housing, both public and private, is being built all over Greater Easterhouse today to replace the old buildings that are rapidly decaying. More changes are ahead, following the vote to proceed with Glasgow’s housing stock transfer. Whatever happens, the lucky residents who get flats in the new schemes are delighted.

‘I’ve got my own back and front door and two toilets now…It’s your own property and everyone looks after it well.’
Ian, resident of Hilltop View Housing