The Gallowgate

A district associated with one of Glasgow City's four principal Mediaeval streets, The Gallowgate was provided access to the city from the east and leading out towards the city gallows at Gallow Muir, a location at some distance from the city centre.

In the 19th C. this was a densely populated area for workers in the surrounding factories and their families. By the middle of the 20th C. this housing had degenerated into slums and was cleared in the 1960s to be replaced by an extensive public housing scheme, including deck-access maisonettes and a pair of 31-storey blocks (Bluevale and Whitevale) which were built in 1969 and were the tallest in Scotland at 85m (278 feet) in height. 348 flats provided homes for those cleared from slums but their brutalist concrete architecture was loathed by their residents and they suffered from the same problems as most of the other high-rise blocks in the city - poor maintenance and social problems. The flats were demolished in 2014 - not spectacularly, rather carefully floor-by-floor because of their proximity to other homes and a railway line

Today, the Gallowgate forms the northern edge of the Barras market and leads out east towards Parkhead. It comprises a mix of Victorian tenements, some of the 1960s housing which was refurbished and more recent development. The Barrowland Ballroom is located on the Gallowgate.


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