Castlemilk - Development of The Modern Estate

Development of The Modern Estate

Castlemilk and the other peripheral housing schemes in Glasgow had their origins in the city’s housing crisis after the end of the Second World War. Many inner city areas contained street after street of sub-standard tenement housing and the city as a whole had a shortage of affordable good quality accommodation. In 1947 a delegation from Glasgow visited Marseilles to see the new social housing designed by the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier, who was a pioneer of modern urban planning. The group examined how his ideas could be applied to Glasgow with the proposed development of new “townships” on the outskirts of the city.

In December 1952, Glasgow Corporation approved a sketch layout plan for the construction of a new township at Castlemilk with an estimated cost of £16m. It was planned to ultimately comprise some 8,300 houses. In early 1953 more detailed plans for the development of Castlemilk were prepared by Archibald George Jury, who had been appointed as Glasgow’s first City Architect in 1951, a post he held until his retirement in 1972.

There was a very limited range of different house types planned for the initial Castlemilk scheme. Most of the accommodation was to be contained in 3 or 4-storey tenement blocks. There were also to be 3-storey terraced houses intended for larger families and a few other house types designed for the elderly and other groups such as the local fire service personnel. The original 1950s flats, entered from common closes, seem to have been designed as modern versions of the traditional Glasgow tenements. Unlike many of the Victorian tenement dwellings, however, these flats came with interior bathrooms and hot and cold water.

The multi-storey blocks in Castlemilk did not arrive until the 1960s. Archibald Jury was the architect responsible for the creation of the three 20-storey tower blocks in Dougrie Road, from the planning stage in 1960 to their completion in 1966. The Mitchelhill high-rise blocks at Ardencraig Road were designed and built by George Wimpey Ltd, between 1963 and 1965, Wimpey was also responsible for the construction of Bogany Flats in 1966.

Public housing policy in Scotland was radically changed by the Tenants' Rights, Etc. (Scotland) Act 1980, which gave tenants the right to buy their council houses for the first time. Since then, renovation, demolition and refurbishment of Castlemilk’s existing housing stock has taken place, as well as the development of areas of new build houses for owner-occupation. Tenure has diversified with home ownership transferred from the City Council to local Housing Associations and owner-occupiers.

The township centre at Castlemilk Arcade / Dougrie Drive was developed by Ravenseft Properties Ltd between 1961 and 1963 on a 5-acre (20,000 m2) site which was formerly the location of the large country houses at Castleton, west of Castlemilk House. The centre was designed to contain about 60 shops at an estimated cost of £3m to £4m. The shops are still standing, with an 80% occupancy rate. The centre now contains Castlemilk’s one and only pub, the Oasis, in Dougrie Drive.

The original neighbourhood shops were built at the ground floors of the tenement blocks, following the old Glasgow pattern. Ownership of these small shops has been transferred from the Council to the Glasgow Housing Association, who have let the surviving blocks of shops in Stravanan Road, Tormusk Road and Machrie Road to various tenants.

According to the current Glasgow City Plan, the completion of the physical regeneration of Castlemilk will be completed by 2012. The plan also recognised that it will be important that the process is complemented by sustainable social and economic regeneration. Castlemilk has never contained a hotel, cinema or other facilities which would have been expected in a planned township. There was, briefly, a petrol filling-station on Castlemilk Drive, opposite the Community Centre, but this is long gone.