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GlescaPal stories from our past
 Single-end hooses wi ootside toilets
  
Single-end
.houses overcrowding....
My mother was brought up in a single-end in Bridgeton with her two brothers, carrying on the 'tradition' she married and we stayed in a single-end  house in the close at Baltic Street with my sister and parents all of us sharing  the bed which was in the 'bed-recess' being the oldest I got the 'feet' end.........webmaister
                  
One GlescaPal has sent me the memory of a family of eleven who lived in a single-end in Springfield Rd and when the faither returned home late at night, by which time all the beds were down, his only means getting into his house was to climb through the windae!   
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News of the World 29/04/1934..'It is not uncommon for eight, ten or twelve persons to be herded together in a single room. There are in Glasgow 175,000 houses without baths and 105,000 houses with no inside sanitation.'   
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Daily Herald 16/08/1934   'Glasgow's infantile death rate, which was mainly caused by tenement congestion was 112 per thousand, compared with 67 per thousand in London and Birmingham. 
The infantile  death rate in tenement wards is four to six times greater than in residential areas where there are few tenements.
'

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Extract from Guestbook, Feb. 2003, Betty Murphy (nee Gray ), New Zealand,   
I just have to tell you, my best friend of yesteryear, lived in Holywell Street, her name was Betty Redmond, she lived in the  wee low closes, her family consisted of about 6 kids and the parents. I used to go down to her house around 7 0'clock as we would be going to the cafe, and all her brother and sisters friends would be there to go out with them we all had to wait in the close as there was no room for us to wait in house!
It was just a single-end, with gas light no electric at all, one day I went down on a Saturday and everyone was out except ''mum'' and I got in , all they had in the house was beds. They were a great family, really nice people, I met betty just before coming here to New Zealand, and the irony of the whole thing was her and her father had a big 4 bedroom place in Greenfields just for the two of them.
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Webmaister
Single-end houses no inside toilet
                 
Our outside toilet in the close was terrible, 
                  I remember my Da taking me out at night
                  holding a candle which was our only means of light, 
                  and using newspaper torn into neat squares as .....
                  well you know what for!   
    
Extract from messageboard, Mar 2003, Anne Calman, Canada  

yer right oboot it being cald in the calton,but when ye hid yer ma/da an 
2 brothers an 1 sister aw in a room/kitchen.my ma/da slept in the kitchen 
and me an my sister 2 brothers slept in the bed ben the room,ye cuddeled 
into yer sister fur heat,an yur brothers feet were up yer nose cos they 
were at the bottom oh the bed,there wis na privacy in they days.
The lavvie wis on the landing, but us weans hid a chanty-po under the bed 
in case we needed a pee during the night ,,,oh those were the days
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Extract from messageboard, Aug.2004, Helen Cairney, London
We lived in a single end in Poplin Street there wiz Ma Mammy, Ma Stepdad, Ma "Aunty" Sally, Me, Ma wee sister Jessie, and the baby twins Charles and Betty. At night the hale room looked like wan big bed, there wiz a recess bed wi a cot in front of it and a bed cabinet that wiz pulled doon at night furr Ma "Aunty Sally" ma wee sister and me. We goat bathed staunin in the sink, and sometimes a big tin bath wiz dragged oot, and sometimes Ruby Street fur a bath in the huge big baths therr, a loved that.
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BRIGTON   High-Rise SINGLE-END.

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