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Find out more about our new podcast – If Glasgow Walls Could Talk!
Out and about in the city and looking for a bit of a steer? Why not check out our interactive Gallus Glasgow trails and find out more about the fate of the buildings that are depicted on Sulman’s map?
The Gallus Glasgow project by Glasgow City Heritage Trust tells to story of the city’s Victorian heritage through the eyes of Thomas Sulman, illustrator of the incredible Bird’s Eye View of Glasgow, 1864.
These tours explore the buildings shown on the map, that have survived or been lost, and what they can tell us about Victorian Glasgow. If you download the GuidiGo app to your phone or device you can follow the trail as you walk!
Itinerary: 10 stops
Duration: 2hrs
Stops include a village razed to make way for Central Station, the Lock Hospital for Unfortunate Women and Scotland’s only ‘well managed prison’…
Itinerary: 10 stops
Duration: 2hrs
Stops include Glasgow’s own Crystal Palace, Scotland’s first shopping mall and the world’s oldest surviving music hall, hidden above a suspended ceiling trapped in time…
Is there a building in your area that you’ve always been curious about? Want to know where to find out more?
Wednesday 8th December 2021 | 7.30pm GMT | via Zoom
Focusing on architecture, window displays, and internal design, this talk will examine how Glasgow department stores, like their Parisian counterparts, became spaces not just of spectacle, but also of manipulation and disorientation.
Is there a building in your area that you’ve always been curious about? Want to know where to find out more?
Wednesday 8th December 2021 | 7.30pm GMT | via Zoom
Focusing on architecture, window displays, and internal design, this talk will examine how Glasgow department stores, like their Parisian counterparts, became spaces not just of spectacle, but also of manipulation and disorientation.
“I feel like a bird soaring over the city when I gaze upon Sulman’s map, every nook and cranny with every detail so exact.
I can see where I came from and where I’m at.”
A DIFFERENT DIRECTION Another day at the warehouse done. He’s a clerk, so there’s always lots of paperwork to get through and it requires great attention to detail. He’s a conscientious and well-organised individual though, so he enjoys it and the satisfaction he gets when a job is done well.
Wednesday 12th January 2022 | 7.30pm BST | via Zoom
Not so long ago, the lofty peaks of the Benchichins Mountains could be seen between Angus and Deeside… or could they? Chris Fleet looks at various other things on maps that might never have been really out there, as well as how maps lie, distort the truth and miss things out. How far should we trust the map, and is this a good idea?
Thomas Sulman was an English architectural draftsman. He studied at The Working Men’s College between 1854 and 1858, where he was a student of, and later an engraver for, Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Sulman drew and engraved images for newspaper and magazine advertisements. While his work may have seemed glamorous and exciting, Sulman appears to have been a modest man, and relatively little is known about him. We’ve done some digging, to try to reveal the man behind the maps.
Sulman was born on 21st July 1832 in Islington, London and raised by his parents Thomas, a watchmaker, and Mary. At the age of 18 he is described as a ‘draughtsman on wood’ in the 1851 census. The family was clearly comfortable, and has one servant.
His family were church goers and seem to have instilled in him a charitable outlook. His parents were involved in the establishment of a ‘Ragged School’ – charitable organisations dedicated to the free education of destitute children – in Waterloo, where Sulman eventually met his wife, Mary.
Sulman trained as an engraver and illustrator at the Working Men’s College in London. Founded in 1854, and still in existence today, their ethos is the provision of adult education for those who have otherwise struggled to receive it.
22 year old Sulman entered the College on its opening. Memories of his time there are captured in an article in Good Words journal (1897, pp. 547-551), where he describes art classes taught under the instruction of one John Ruskin;
“Never without an afterglow of grateful memory will the first art class of the Working Men’s College be remembered by those few living who were privileged to belong to it’.
The college boasted Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Ruskin, William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and Ford Madox Brown among its early teachers. Instruction in art at the college was thus decidedly Pre-Raphaelite.
By 1871 Sulman is living with Mary and their three children at Chetwynd Villas, London. The house would have been brand new, in an area described by Charles Booth, the philanthropist who surveyed poverty in the capital, as ‘Fairly comfortable. Good ordinary earnings.’ They had Sulman’s mother living with them, as well as a servant, and an apprentice, Charles R Wilson. This is right in the midst of his time working for the Illustrated London News, so we can assume he’s doing fairly well.
A number of online sources tell us that Sulman became a specialist in using balloons to produce birds-eye views of cities including London, Oxford, Glasgow and New York City. However, we have no evidence of the process that Sulman used. He was an architectural illustrator, and our best guess is that he used a combination of hot air balloon, photography, and Ordnance Survey mapping to create his illustrations. These views, as hand coloured engravings produced with the help of London engraver Robert Loudan Sr., were featured in The Illustrated London News from the 1860s, and were sometimes produced to a fold-out six foot length.
Our Bird’s Eye View of Glasgow, 1864, was engraved by Sulman and included in the 24th March 1864 issue of the Illustrated London News.
Other panoramic maps produced by Sulman include:
1861 – London
1865 – Liverpool
1868 – Edinburgh
1872 – Boston
1876 – New York
1887 – Newcastle
In 1891 he produced high-level views of major London thoroughfares for Herbert Fry’s London: Illustrated by Twenty Bird’s Eye Views of the Principal Streets engraved by George William Ruffle (1838–1901).
Sulman was influenced by Positivist thinkers at the Working Men’s College and became part of the Church of Humanity, inspired by Auguste Comte’s religion of humanity in France.
Positivism captured the Victorian imagination. It held the interest of thinkers as diverse as Annie Besant, HM Hyndman, John Ruskin, Charles Booth and Beatrice Webb. The branch of the Church of Humanity that Sulman was part of was very much a ritualistic religion. It is often seen as an eccentric passing phase – a curious ‘Catholicism minus Christianity’ – is a popular quip.
Comte stated that the pillars of the religion are:
Comte “made art an integral part of his system and attributed to it a leading role” in his new Positivist society. For Comte certain social conditions were necessary for art to flourish – namely that the relationship between artist, spectator and society had to be harmonious and stable. This interpretation of the function of art was very closely related to that of Ruskin, William Morris and the followers of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
It was a response to rapid urbanisation, imperialistic wrongs and the Victorian crisis of faith.
On his sudden death in November 1900 following a seizure, a memorial sermon was preached at the Church of Humanity 16 December, 1900 by his friend Henry Crompton (CROMPTON, H. (1901). Thomas Sulman: a memorial sermon. London, Church of Humanity).
It’s clear from Crompton’s words that if Victorian Glasgow was gallus – bold, cheeky and flashy – Sulman was the opposite.
“He lived for others. He was loved by all who knew him…If he had faults we knew them not: unless the fullness of his generosity could be deemed a fault. In him it seemed a glorious virtue. In him it was a generosity which issued in true charity – charitable judgement of other lives, generous appreciation of others’ labours.”
“He was my intimate friend for more than thirty years, and yet I cannot remember a single angry word from him, spoken or written, or any gesture of impatience or anger.”
Considering the world that Sulman lived in – enjoying global travel, professional success and association with great artists and thinkers of the day – little is known about the man himself. This is borne out in Sulman’s eulogy which states that, “outside his family, there were no great events to record of him.”
“If his life has been simple, it has been beautiful : life as it should be, without great disturbing or exciting events, of constant culture, improvement, and development.”
Sulman’s youngest child, Dora, follows in his footsteps and becomes an illustrator. Dora Sulman was at the famous Slade Art School with another famous illustrator Ethel Walker, during the time often referred to now, as the “golden age of illustration” before World War 1.
Following her father’s death, Dora took over his offices near Lincoln’s Inn Fields and the Royal Courts of Justice in London, where he had shared premises with solicitors, architects & surveyors. Later, Dora had a Thames-side studio at Chelsea, and she was great friends with other artists of that period such as Clare Atwood, Beatrice Bland and Eleanor Best. She created illustrations for books and advertisements.
In the directions Thomas Sulman left for his family upon his death, he wrote the words,
“Think of me always as saying to you all, Love is enough.”
Is there a building in your area that you’ve always been curious about? Want to know where to find out more?
Wednesday 8th December 2021 | 7.30pm GMT | via Zoom
Focusing on architecture, window displays, and internal design, this talk will examine how Glasgow department stores, like their Parisian counterparts, became spaces not just of spectacle, but also of manipulation and disorientation.
Wednesday 29th September 2021 | 7.30pm BST | via Zoom
Thomas Sulman’s Bird’s Eye View of Glasgow (1864) is perhaps the most famous of all such views of British cities. The splendid, panoramic detail underlines Victorian Glasgow remained both commercial and industrial city: steam and sail ships sit on the Clyde at the Broomielaw, whilst the smog from new chemical industries compelled the affluent ranks to decant from the old ‘Merchant City’ to newer residences in the leafy west end.
However, one of the major forces in Glasgow and Scotland’s shift from commerce to industry – transatlantic slavery – remains hidden in plain sight. Sulman’s Bird’s Eye View of Glasgow was completed in 1864, thirty years after chattel slavery was abolished in the British West Indies, and one year before slavery was abolished in the United States of America. Yet, the transformation of the Victorian city – landed estates, urban property, textiles, railways – was shaped by elite’s wealthy from Atlantic slavery, and the panoramic detail reveals such legacies.
This talk, therefore, examines Sulman’s Bird’s Eye View of Glasgow in a new way: moving from east to west, assessing the importance of Atlantic slavery to the urban, commercial and industrial development of Victorian Glasgow.
Dr Stephen Mullen holds a Ph.D. from the University of Glasgow, which examined Glasgow-West India merchants, planters and sojourners, 1776-1846. He is currently employed as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the same institution. Stephen has published a number of general and academic articles on Scotland’s connections with Caribbean slavery.
Free, booking required, donations welcome.
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You will receive instructions on joining the event by email. If you haven’t received anything by midday on the day of the event, please check your spam folder and then contact us.
Is there a building in your area that you’ve always been curious about? Want to know where to find out more?
Wednesday 8th December 2021 | 7.30pm GMT | via Zoom
Focusing on architecture, window displays, and internal design, this talk will examine how Glasgow department stores, like their Parisian counterparts, became spaces not just of spectacle, but also of manipulation and disorientation.
Wednesday 20th October 2021 | 7.30pm GMT | via Zoom
Free, booking required, donations welcome.
[ESPRESSO_TICKET_SELECTOR event_id=18018]
Please note: Payment is taken via PayPal but you do not need to have a PayPal account to pay online.
We are using Zoom to broadcast our live talks. You can join these events as a participant without creating a Zoom account. You do not need to have a webcam or a microphone to join the event as a participant.
All events are subtitled. We aim to make our events as accessible as possible but if you feel that you might need some additional help, please let us know when you book your ticket or get in touch in advance. We’re open to feedback and would welcome your ideas on how we can improve in this area.
You will receive instructions on joining the event by email. If you haven’t received anything by midday on the day of the event, please check your spam folder and then contact us.
Ever wondered which buildings in your neighbourhood are listed, or even on Scotland’s Buildings at Risk Register? Our new interactive map shows data collated between February and April 2018 which gives a snapshot of the current state of Glasgow’s historic built environment.
Read our latest blog post about our Ghost Signs of Glasgow project, pondering the nature of ghost signs and what they tell us about the urban landscape.
Wednesday 24th November 2021 | 7.30pm GMT | via Zoom
The photographer Thomas Annan (1829-1887) established his photographic business in Glasgow in 1857 and for the next thirty years documented the city at a time of exponential growth.
His interest in the Second City of the Empire covered all areas: from the slum housing of the working classes and immigrants settled in the east end to the mansions and country houses of the wealthy landowners located in the suburbs. His photographs astutely recorded the city, its people and the social changes occurring during the second half of the nineteenth century.
The talk will cover the various Glasgow projects that Annan embarked on, including Photographs of Glasgow College, The Old Country Houses of the Old Glasgow Gentry and Photographs of Old Closes and Streets.
Anne Lyden is Chief Curator, Photography at the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh where she is responsible for a collection of 55,000 photographs. Prior to joining NGS, Annie was associate curator of photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. She has curated numerous exhibitions, including the work of Hill and Adamson, Paul Strand, and Diane Arbus. She is the author of several books including, Railroad Vision: Photography, Travel and Perception (2003), The Photographs of Frederick H. Evans (2010), A Royal Passion: Photography and Queen Victoria (2014) and most recently, A Perfect Chemistry: The Photographs of Hill & Adamson (2017).
Free, booking required, donations welcome.
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Please note: Payment is taken via PayPal but you do not need to have a PayPal account to pay online.
We are using Zoom to broadcast our live talks. You can join these events as a participant without creating a Zoom account. You do not need to have a webcam or a microphone to join the event as a participant.
All events are subtitled. We aim to make our events as accessible as possible but if you feel that you might need some additional help, please let us know when you book your ticket or get in touch in advance. We’re open to feedback and would welcome your ideas on how we can improve in this area.
You will receive instructions on joining the event by email. If you haven’t received anything by midday on the day of the event, please check your spam folder and then contact us.
Is there a building in your area that you’ve always been curious about? Want to know where to find out more?
Wednesday 8th December 2021 | 7.30pm GMT | via Zoom
Focusing on architecture, window displays, and internal design, this talk will examine how Glasgow department stores, like their Parisian counterparts, became spaces not just of spectacle, but also of manipulation and disorientation.
He finds his work at the match factory boring and it’s hard to keep his concentration during the long shift, he gets distracted easily. At least he gets a couple of breaks. Most go home to get something to eat but it’s too far for him, so he brings a piece with him. He finds himself getting sleepy sometimes, especially the last couple of hours. Usually one of the others will give him a nudge if he does drift off, and he does the same for them. Mummy usually has a hot meal waiting for him when he gets home, depending on her shift pattern at her own work.
He knows he has to work so that his family can pay their bills and have enough food to eat, but he’d like to have more time for playing with all the other weans that live about him. Between work and Sabbath School on Sundays there’s not much time for enjoying himself. There’s a lot of big families, so when he does get the chance there’s always plenty of them around, to kick a ball with or play chasies. Often someone will get the skipping rope out and they’ll all take a turn, signing rhymes as they do. Just the other day his pal Alice was showing them all a new toy she’d got. Her sister works out in the West End just like his, for one of those rich families, and she’d got given it because the child she looks after didn’t want it anymore. He can’t remember the proper name for it, but it was a circle of card with two threads attached. On one side of the card was a bird and on the other was a cage. When she spun it quickly it looked like the bird was in the cage! He thought it was magic. They all nearly broke it fighting over each other to have a turn of it, so Alice hasn’t brought it out again, she says she wants to keep it nice. He doesn’t blame her. He’ll need to remember and tell his Lizzie about it next time she visits, see if she can get one for him. Or maybe she’d be able to make one- she’s clever with things like that.
He spends a lot of time outdoors when he’s not working or at school, his Mummy shoos him out so she can get on with the cleaning and cooking without him causing a mess. He doesn’t mind so much as it’s a bit dull at home these days anyway now Lizzie has gone. She used to play with him and make up stories to tell him. His brother Edward’s not much fun, he’s always telling him to be quiet and that he has to behave. Edward’s not at home very often these days either though, what with his work at the warehouse and his meetings in the evenings. He doesn’t quite understand what the meetings are all about, other than its something to do with people like his Dad who drink too much. Edward doesn’t drink at all and is always telling him that’s the best way to succeed in life, along with working hard and keeping your head down. It doesn’t sound very exciting to him.
But he’ll admit he doesn’t like it much when he runs into drunken people on his way to work or back. That, along with the smells and all the other things he encounters as he passes through the wynds and closes is why he usually makes a dash for it. If he runs the whole way he can avoid any trouble. He always keeps his eyes open though, occasionally he’ll spot a penny someone has dropped, or a discarded newspaper he can sell on. He enjoys seeing the delight on his Mummy’s face when he gives her an extra penny. What she doesn’t know is that he sometimes keeps a bit back for himself to buy a few sweeties…
THE LUCIFER MATCH WORKS
In 1862, on the wishes of Queen Victoria, the Children’s Employment Commission was instructed to investigate child labour and the conditions in which they were working in. Their first report includes details of the Lucifer Match factory on Duke Street in the East End. At the time it was thought to be the only place in Britain at which the whole process of match making was undertaken, from sawing large timbers into planks to completing the boxes. There was also some trade in timber.
The report details the work pattern of Robert Cameron, aged 10: “Hours are from 6 to 6. Sometimes till 7 or 8. Has worked up to 6 in the morning. Only did that once, and had an hour’s sleep then at 2 o’clock.…Has breakfast at 9, three-quarters of an hour. Dinner at 2, three quarters of an hour. Goes home to them. A bell rings for them to go and come back. Tea at home afterwards. Washes at a trough in the yard.”
TIME FOR SCHOOL
It wasn’t until the 1872 Education Act that schooling became compulsory for those aged five to thirteen. At this time Scotland moved to a system of state funded, mostly free, schools, run by local school boards. Overall administration of this was in the hands of the Scotch (later Scottish) Education Department in London.
The Glasgow School Board reduced the number, but improved the quality and size of schools. The remaining legacy of the Board can be seen in the large red sandstone buildings still bearing the name that can still be seen across the city. Sadly, several of these are now empty and languishing on the Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland.
To find out more about some of the remaining board schools, check out the Buildings at Risk register for Scotland
We’ll be releasing more resources for children and schools later in the project. For now, why not check out our range of Kids Heritage Trails, covering areas such as the Merchant City, Dennistoun and Govan.
Is there a building in your area that you’ve always been curious about? Want to know where to find out more?
Wednesday 8th December 2021 | 7.30pm GMT | via Zoom
Focusing on architecture, window displays, and internal design, this talk will examine how Glasgow department stores, like their Parisian counterparts, became spaces not just of spectacle, but also of manipulation and disorientation.
His work on the dockside is exhausting, especially now he’s not a young man anymore. He’s glad of it though, and will take whatever he can get. Some of his pals are getting past it now, their bodies ruined by the many years of hard toil, or debilitated by injuries acquired during the course of their work.
Many a day he’s stood at those gates at calling on time and been passed over by the foreman- they take the young ones first, those who are physically strongest. He wishes they would consider the experience the older men can bring to the job. Sometimes there’s a terrible scramble when the foreman appears. He finds it demeaning, grown men reduced to pushing and shoving each other to get their hands on the metal ticket that will secure them employment for a day. It can be brutal, and the desperation palpable.
It’s casual labour, you’re taken on to get a specific job done, then paid off once it’s complete, or can be finished by fewer hands. The wages are low too. It means he doesn’t have a regular income and there’s constant uncertainty about how much he’ll make. The consequence is that the rest of his family have to go out and work to supplement his income. It’s a source of shame for him, that he can’t provide for them all. But then, there’s few other options out there and most of the families he knows are in the same position.
Those are the worst days, when he doesn’t manage to get a place. On those days he’s embarrassed to go home to Heather and tell her he’s nothing to contribute, instead he’ll usually drift into one of the pubs along his route home. He tends to drink in the Irish pubs, amongst his own people. He feels most comfortable with them, they’ve been through the same hardships, they’ve also had to leave their home and family long behind them.
He often reminisces about his childhood in the countryside, such a contrast to the noise and relentlessness of the Quayside- the endless shouting, the crashes and bangs of crates being lifted, the pressure to get ships loaded and unloaded, to keep the flow of goods on the river Clyde moving. He wonders sometimes what his life would have been like had he been able to remain in his native Ireland. It’s easy to romanticise the past though, especially when the present is so fraught with risk and uncertainty.
He hopes things might be a bit easier for his children, less of a struggle. He knows Heather misses Lizzie something terrible, but she’s doing well over in the West End. He feels like his eldest son Edward looks down on him sometimes, he makes him feel a bit inadequate. Edward’s smart, and his fastidiousness will ensure he never knows hard labour. He’s got himself involved with the temperance movement, and he lectures his father sometimes about the trouble with drink and the problems it causes. He knows deep down that he’s probably right, and he tries to go a bit easier on the drink these days under Edward’s influence. It’s not easy though, drink’s his escape from reality and the trauma of his past. Then there’s wee George, who always makes him feel positive. He’s always up to something, coming up with this scheme and that. He’s got entrepreneurial spirit alright, he’ll definitely land on his feet…
Also known as the Famine, the Great Hunger or the Irish Potato Famine, The Great Famine was a period of mass starvation and disease in Ireland which lasted from 1845-52. Estimates vary, but during that time around a million people perished and another million left their homeland. By 1855 the number who had emigrated had reached 2 million. Often it was the younger and more capable members of the family who emigrated first. Unlike similar previous emigrations, women left as often and as early as men. The expectation was they would secure work and be able to send money home to the rest of the family. Thomas would have been in his early twenties when he left Ireland for Scotland.
Emigration during the famine years was primarily to North America, but for those who couldn’t afford to cross the Atlantic, Scotland was the nearest port of call. Even that journey could be perilous, with overcrowding and poor conditions onboard boats that were not fit for purpose. Many, already substantially weakened by the Famine, did not survive the journey. Due to their poverty and often poor state of health, Irish immigrants tended to settle near their point of disembarkation, which in Scotland meant the west coast.
Glasgow’s industry was a pull for immigrants as it provided a range of employment opportunities.
Irish men tended to settle in jobs that required strength, such as dock work. It’s been estimated that in Great Britain in 1851 somewhere between a half to three-quarters of all dock-labourers were Irish (www.sath.org.uk). Many Irish women worked in the textile industry or in domestic service.
The Catholic Irish tended to keep themselves to themselves, creating their own community with strong ties and setting up their own churches and schools. The Church was a focal point in their lives and provided a range of social and recreational opportunities. In 1887 Celtic Football Club was founded in a church hall in the Calton by Brother Walfrid, an Irish Marist Brother. The purpose was to alleviate poverty in the immigrant Irish population in the East End of the city by raising money for a charity Brother Walfrid had set up, the Poor Children’s Dinner Table. Establishing the club as a means of fundraising was inspired by the example of Hibernian, which was formed out of the immigrant Irish population a few years earlier in Edinburgh.
A new memorial to those who died in the Famine was unveiled outside St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in the Calton in July 2021, the very same church where Celtic was founded.
Read Irish: The Remarkable Saga of a Nation and a City by John Burrowes.
Explore Sulman’s map here. Zoom in to see the amazing detail along the river Clyde and get a sense of how busy it was.
Head over to our online shop where you’ll find prints of Sulman’s map, including the Tradeston and High Street areas. Every purchase supports our work!
Is there a building in your area that you’ve always been curious about? Want to know where to find out more?
Wednesday 8th December 2021 | 7.30pm GMT | via Zoom
Focusing on architecture, window displays, and internal design, this talk will examine how Glasgow department stores, like their Parisian counterparts, became spaces not just of spectacle, but also of manipulation and disorientation.
She’s spent her morning so far getting the household chores done. It’s the best time for it- wee George heads out to the match factory at the crack of dawn, then Thomas and Edward aren’t long behind him, so she does what she can whilst the house is empty. It’s a room and kitchen they’ve got, so a bit more space than those families stuck in the single ends, but still cramped with the four of them there. They tend to spend most of their time in the kitchen and she tries to keep the ‘good room’ nice, although the boys have to sleep in there of course.
Now she’s on her way to her shift at the carpet factory. It’s demanding and exhausting work, so she’s glad of this wee breather as she walks through Glasgow Green- a moment to clear her mind between the demands of home and work.
There’s Agnes her neighbour, busy getting her washing hung up. She gives her a wee wave and a hello. She’ll need to get down here herself tomorrow with her own washing. Oh, it’s never ending, but at least she can have a gossip with the other woman whilst she sorts the laundry. She’s glad her daughter Lizzie has found a good situation out in the West End, but she misses the female company in the house, and the extra pair of hands in the battle to keep it clean. She hopes Lizzie’s head’s not turned by the splendour of her new environment. She tells some stories on the rare occasions she makes it home for a visit. It’s a different world, and yet only a couple of miles away…
She’s so proud of her Edward too. Rarely touches a drink that one, and he’s always heading off to one of his Temperance Society meetings. He’ll make something of himself, of that she’s sure.
She’s coughing again. It’s getting more persistent these days, she fears the fluff from the carpets she weaves has got into her lungs and dear knows what damage its doing. It’s not just her own health she’s worried about, she’s concerned about the phossy jaw some of them used to get from working at the match factory, although apparently it doesn’t happen so much these days. She hates sending George out to work at his age, but they just can’t manage without his wages, meagre as they are.
Thomas isn’t getting any younger either and recently there’s more often been days when he hasn’t been taken on by the foreman. She knows it makes him feel wretched so she tries to keep his spirits up and makes sure he doesn’t know how anxious it makes her, trying to work out how they’ll balance the shortfall. It caused a bit of a fuss when she announced to her family she was marrying an Irish man, and there was some consternation from his lot too. The Irish tend to keep to themselves when it comes to marriage, and find someone within their own community. But they’ve toughed it out for over 20 years now the pair of them.
The carpet factory is in sight now and she knows the brief respite is over. She fills her lungs as she looks around, surveying the vast and ever expanding industrial landscape. Everywhere you look there’s chimneys, pelting out endless streams of smoke. Below the chimneys there’s warehouses, factories, mills and workhouses, full of hard working people just like her.
Frederick Engels, writing in his famous Conditions of the Working Class in England, 1844, had this to say about the condition of working class housing in Glasgow:
“I have seen human degradation in some of its worst phases, both in England and abroad, but I can advisedly say, that I did not believe, until I visited the wynds of Glasgow, that so large an amount of filth, crime, misery, and disease existed in one spot in any civilised country….In the lower lodging houses, ten, twelve, or sometimes twenty persons, of both sexes and all ages, sleep promiscuously on the floor in different degrees of nakedness. These places are generally, as regards dirt, damp, and decay, such as no person of common humanity would stable his horse in.”
This vivid description gives some indication of the hardships working class families would have faced just to keep their homes clean and respectable. Overcrowded and damp tenements encouraged tuberculosis and rheumatic diseases. Fever epidemics regularly raged through the city until the 1870’s.
Living conditions weren’t the only thing detrimental to people’s health in those days. Respiratory illness rose as heavy industry led to unprecedented level of environmental pollution. Without the Health & Safety regulations that govern employment today, those working in 19th century Glasgow would have faced exposure to a range of dangerous and potentially life threatening situations. ‘Phossy jaw’, or phosphorus necrosis of the jaw to give its proper name, was an occupational disease affecting those who worked with white phosphorus without proper safeguards. It was most commonly seen in workers at match factories. Textile industry workers often suffered from rheumatism and asthma.
Glasgow Green dominates the bottom right hand corner of Sulman’s map. Amongst the crowded streets and riverside, filled with buildings, boats and people, it stands out as an open and relatively empty space, a haven in the hustle and bustle of the industrial city. By the late-1800s, Glasgow was one of the fastest growing cities in the world. The people who made up this new community needed employment and homes, but they also needed recreation, and so many more parks were set out in the decades after Sulman’s map was made. Just like Heather, present day Glaswegians enjoy getting a breath of fresh air at the Green, or at one of the over 90 other green spaces in the city. No wonder that Glasgow is still known as the ‘dear green place’.
Is there a building in your area that you’ve always been curious about? Want to know where to find out more?
Wednesday 8th December 2021 | 7.30pm GMT | via Zoom
Focusing on architecture, window displays, and internal design, this talk will examine how Glasgow department stores, like their Parisian counterparts, became spaces not just of spectacle, but also of manipulation and disorientation.
