Up Oor Close: Memories of Domestic Life in Glasgow Tenements, 1910-1945

This book dispels the image of slums and destitution that clings to the Glasgow tenement. Working-class home life is explored through the recollections of people who grew up in these cramped one and two roomed houses. Narratives full of vitality and detail record the routines and rituals of previously disregarded lives, covering everything from shopping and housework to childbirth and death. Though the tenements were by today's standards unfit to live in, there are important lessons here about the kinds of housing that enable close-knit communities to flourish.