(All images by Stuart McKinnon (Flickr set 1 and 2), reproduced with permission)
Once known for their high rates of anti-social crimes, the Red Road flats in Glasgow are now set to be demolished, with the first of the imposing tower blocks demolished on June 10, 2012. The flats were originally designed in the 1950s to replace of overcrowded tenement slum housing. In the initial planning stages, Red Road was only supposed to be four storeys high – yet the end result was the completion of eight tower blocks which, at the time, were the highest in all of Europe.
After the depression of the mid-1970s, burglaries, vandalism and gang violence were rife on the estate and, coupled with the imposing nature of the buildings, the Red Road flats quickly gained notoriety among local residents. In 1980, two of the blocks were sold off for use by students and the YMCA, while the rest remained inhabited by local authority tenants.
In 2003, the flats were transferred to a private housing association. Even after initial promises that vital repairs would be made to the dilapidated structures, the association quickly decided that the costs were too high to reconcile. The eight buildings were condemned for demolition and the plans will be completed by 2017.
Keep Reading – check out these Abandoned Buildings & Places Infiltrated by Urban Explorers, and be sure to wander these Abandoned Streets and Overgrown Avenues.
