Home life: The Gorbals

PART OF:
The Andor Kraszna-Krausz Collection of over 6000 books and photographs
Made:
31 January 1948 in Liverpool and Glasgow
maker:
Bert Hardy

Vintage silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, titled "Home life: The Gorbals." A sixteen-year-old girl sits at a kitchen table in the Gorbals area of Glasgow, while another child lies on a makeshift bed behind her.

Photographer's stamp on verso.

31st January 1948: A sixteen-year-old girl sits at a kitchen table in the Gorbals area of Glasgow, while another child lies on a makeshift bed behind her. A packet of Sifta salt is on the table. The Gorbals tenements were built quickly and cheaply in the 1840s, providing housing for Glasgow's burgeoning population of industrial workers. Conditions were appalling; overcrowding was standard and sewage and water facilities inadequate. The tenements housed about 40,000 people with up to eight family members sharing a single room, 30 residents sharing a toilet and 40 sharing a tap. By the time this photograph was taken 850 tenements had been demolished since 1920. Redevelopment of the area began in the late 1950s and the tenements were replaced with a modern tower block complex in the sixties. Original Publication: Picture Post - 4499 - The Forgotten Gorbals - pub. 1948 (Photo by Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Details

Category:
Photographs
Collection:
Andor Kraszna Krausz Collection
Object Number:
1990-5131/11335
Materials:
paper (fibre product)
Measurements:
overall: 248 mm x 195 mm
type:
photograph
credit:
Focal Press Collection, National Science and Media Museum, Bradford