Join GCHT Director Niall Murphy to find out about the achievements of the Glasgow City Improvement Trust, as part of the Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival 2023.

 

Over the course of the 19th Century, Glasgow suffered explosive city growth, with its population increasing from 77,000 in 1801 to 762,000 by 1901. This created problems of overcrowding, poor sanitation and population health issues, with the city’s housing conditions regarded as amongst the worst in Europe.

 

To combat this, in 1866 Lord Provost Blackie led a delegation including Glasgow’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr William Tennant Gairdner, and the City Architect, John Carrick to Europe to see what lessons could be learned. Having visited Amsterdam and Brussels it was Baron Haussmann’s Paris where they were most impressed by the urban innovations being introduced for Napoleon III.

 

Upon his return to Glasgow, Carrick drew up the City Improvement Act of 1866 with a programme of slum clearance to clear out and introduce light and air to the medieval heart of the city, making Glasgow a pioneer for municipal improvements.