Red Road (flats)

The Red Road flat complex lies in the districts of Balornock and Barmulloch in the Springburn area of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It consists of eight high rise blocks. Two are "slabs", much wider in cross-section than they are deep. Six are "points" — more of a traditional tower block shape. The slabs have 25 floors, the points 31, and taken together they were designed for a population of 4,700 people. At the time they were built, the flats were the tallest residential buildings in Europe. Views from the upper floors stretch to the Campsie Fells and the Erskine Bridge.

Construction and new hope

Designed in 1962 by architect Sam Bunton for Glasgow Corporation, the flats were constructed between 1964 and 1969. They were of unusual construction, being the only steel-framed high-rise structures in Glasgow.

From the time they were built until recent years, they were owned by the local authority.

For most of the early residents, living in the flats meant a considerable and welcome rise in their living conditions, since most had previously lived in much worse housing, often severely overcrowded, either nearby or elsewhere in the city.

Use of asbestos

During the original construction, large amounts of asbestos were used as fire-proofing. Two decades later it became widely known that the use of this material caused a number of illnesses and deaths, and most or all of it was removed.

Decline

As depression set in by the mid-1970s, the estate gained a reputation for anti-social crime, ranging from disaffected youths throwing objects from the roofs, to frequent burglaries, often carried out in support of addictions to illegal drugs. Such problems were less severe than those evident in parts of the city such as the nearby low-rise Blackhill estate, long dominated by ruthless crime gangs. But they were able to strike a nerve in the perceptions of non-residents, owing partly to the "looming" ambience of the blocks which in some ways might even be called emblematic. The slab blocks, for example, are not only 25 storeys high but also almost 100 metres wide.

Around 1980 the authorities declared two of the blocks unfit to live in, and transferred them for use by students and the YMCA respectively. These happened to be the blocks closest to the front of the complex when approached from the city centre. Being nearest the bus stop, they were also easiest to locate for those who were new to the city, to Scotland, or to the UK as a whole — as many of the YMCA guests and college students are. Some blocks received coloured steel cladding around the same time [Williamson, Elizabeth, et al. "The Buildings of Scotland: Glasgow", Penguin Books 1990, p. 477] . All occupied flats other than those in the two front blocks continued to house tenants of the local authority.

Improvements

Measures were introduced in the 1980s which gave residents increased protection. These included the control of access through the communal entrance doors by means of RFID keys and intercoms, and the installation of round-the-clock concierge facilities. The level of anti-social crime fell dramatically.

Refugees

By the turn of the 1990s residents included a number of refugees from Kosovo. Today people also live on the estate who have fled from countries elsewhere in Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Privatisation

The position changed dramatically in 2003 when the flats were privatised en masse, being handed over to new landlords in the shape of the Glasgow Housing Association Ltd. The practice of transferring housing stock from public to private ownership had initially been launched in the 1970s as a flagship policy promoted by the Conservative Party. At that time, the recipients were individual tenants who opted to buy their homes, or long-term leases thereon. Twenty years later the policy was enthusiastically backed in a more wide-ranging form by Glasgow's Labour Party council, which transferred its entire housing stock to a single company set up for the purpose. This change amounted to the largest transfer of public-sector housing stock that had ever taken place in Western Europe. Local authority publicists promised tenants that following privatisation the carrying out of necessary repairs would be expedited.

The future

Soon the the new landlords as well as the council insisted that repairs were costing more than receipts in rent, and that big changes therefore had to be made. This was very different from what they had said prior to privatisation. At that time, they made no linkage between expected rental income and the making of repairs. At no time did they state that the landlords' financial income would have any bearing on tenants' rights to live in accommodation which was publicly owned, publicly subsidised, and properly looked-after.

In 2005 Glasgow Housing Association announced its intention to demolish one of the tallest blocks as part of a regeneration of the area. [ [http://www.gha.org.uk/content/default.asp?page=s4_1&newsid=447&newstype=n1_2 website of the Glasgow Housing Association Ltd - the landlord] ] [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4333941.stm City Tower Block to be Demolished] ] .

Their idea is to demolish the entire estate in due course, which, as all are aware, sits on a potentially extremely valuable piece of real estate. The city centre is two miles away, and a major motorway is in close proximity. But far from seeking to initiate a new "low-rise" era, planners are backing the building of high-rise luxury apartment blocks elsewhere in the city, for the wealthy.

The estate was featured in the 2006 film, "Red Road", which won a BAFTA and the Prix de Jury (third prize) at the Cannes film festival. The film has been praised for shedding light on dire poverty in Glasgow, which to judge by the fact that some viewers have admitted originally thinking the Red Road was a fictitious place, and subsequently learning otherwise, must surely be true. On the other hand, its portrayal of the degradation of social values on the estate has been viewed by some as playing up to an uninformed middle-class prejudice, rather than realistically reflecting the actual knowledge and experience of residents. For instance, even if a small minority of residents wished to vandalise the lifts by scrawling huge graffiti, it would be unlikely because as part of the concierge system, CCTV cameras are operated in every lift. None of those who celebrate the film for its gritty realism appear to live on the estate.

The landlords and their publicists, together with players in the commercial property business, as well as the council, describe the flats (and therefore those who want to keep their homes) as being of the past, and (lucrative) 'development' as being of the future. Cultural figures celebrate the use of an atmospheric cinematic location.

Meanwhile, thousands of people continue to live there, among whom there is considerable opposition to the plans to demolish their homes. As one manifestation of this, the "Save Our Homes" group seeks to ensure the estate's continued existence. [ [http://www.saveourhomes.blogspot.com Save Our Homes - anti-demolition tenants' group] ] This is part of a growing movement to defend council housing in Britain. [ [http://www.defendcouncilhousing.org.uk/dch Defend Council Housing - pressure group] ]

Notes