Glasgow tenements were built to provide high-density housing for the large number of people immigrating to the city in the 19th and early 20th century as a result of the Industrial Revolution, when the city’s population boomed to more than 1 million people.
What caused tenements to be built?
The mass influx of primarily European immigrants spawned the construction of cheaply made, densely packed housing structures called tenements.
When were tenements in Glasgow built?
The earliest red, grey and beige stone tenements were built between 1850 and 1900 using locally sourced materials. Usually four stories tall, they were never taller than the width of the street and were built in blocks along streets inner-city areas creating the city’s distinctive ‘grid’ pattern.
Who built the tenements in Glasgow?
As for ‘bread and butter’ tenements, the classic four storey tenements on Minerva Street in the Finnieston area date back to around 1853, designed by architect Alexander Kirkland.
How were the tenements built?
Many tenements began as single-family dwellings, and many older structures were converted into tenements by adding floors on top or by building more space in rear-yard areas. With less than a foot of space between buildings, little air and light could get in.
What was the purpose of tenement housing?
Glasgow tenements were built to provide high-density housing for the large number of people immigrating to the city in the 19th and early 20th century as a result of the Industrial Revolution, when the city’s population boomed to more than 1 million people.
What was the impact of tenements?
Cramped, poorly lit, under ventilated, and usually without indoor plumbing, the tenements were hotbeds of vermin and disease, and were frequently swept by cholera, typhus, and tuberculosis.
Why are buildings in Glasgow black?
The soot and smoke had a welcome host in the pores of the city’s buildings, most of which were constructed of native Scottish blond or red sandstone. Though beautiful to design with and easily cut, sandstone is subject to staining from both chemical pollution and acid-producing microbes that live within the stone.
Who lived in the tenement house Glasgow?
The flat was owned by Agnes Toward from 1911 until 1965; after her death it and its contents were acquired by the Trust, which opened it to the public. The museum received 23,456 visitors in 2019.
Why do Glasgow tenements have high ceilings?
They were built for wealth merchants and other business types who wanted high ceilings because it looked impressive.
Do Glasgow tenements still exist?
The city is known for its tenements, where a common stairwell is informally known as a close. These were the most popular form of housing in 19th- and 20th-century Glasgow and remain the most common form of dwelling in Glasgow today.
What are Glasgow tenement walls made of?
stone
Tenements are characteristically of traditional construction, with stone outer walls and brick inner walls and party walls, typically four storeys high, but this can extend up to eight storeys.
Why were there slums in Glasgow?
The housing blocks sprang up in the 1840s to provide accommodation for the city’s burgeoning population of industrial workers. Conditions were appalling, overcrowding was standard and sewage and water facilities inadequate. Residents would often live four, six or even eight to a room, 30 to a toilet or 40 to a tap.
When were the tenement houses built?
New houses were not often built for the poor, and the affluent mostly built single-family homes for themselves. Tenements built specifically for housing the poor originated at some time between 1820 and 1850, and even the new buildings were considered overcrowded and inadequate.
Where did tenement come from?
In 1867 the New York State Legislature passed the Tenement House Act, which defined a tenement as any building rented out to at least three families, each of which lives independently but shares halls, stairways, and yards. 3 In the late-nineteenth century, tenements contrasted with middle-class apartment buildings.
How was tenement housing reform?
The law mandated a series of changes designed to address the dangerous and unsanitary conditions in these pre-existing tenements. Changes included improved lighting, banning second windowless interior rooms (a provision later rescinded), and requiring the addition of one toilet for every two families.
Was tenement life good or bad?
Tenement buildings were constructed with cheap materials, had little or no indoor plumbing and lacked proper ventilation. These cramped and often unsafe quarters left many vulnerable to rapidly spreading illnesses and disasters like fires.
Why did tenements have windows inside?
These windows have an appropriate name: tuberculosis windows. They were mandated by a 19th century city law requiring that tenements have cross ventilation to help reduce the spread of diseases like tuberculosis—the deadly “white plague” not uncommon in poor neighborhoods.
When did tenement housing end?
In 1936, New York City introduced its first public housing project, and the era of the tenement building officially ended.
What problems arose due to tenement houses?
The chief problems are overcrowding in single rooms and lack of adequate sanitation.
What was one effect of crowded tenement living?
Living conditions for most working-class urban dwellers were atrocious. They lived in crowded tenement houses and cramped apartments with terrible ventilation and substandard plumbing and sanitation. As a result, disease ran rampant, with typhoid and cholera common.