It's long, but it's interesting. Read on...
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From: jack@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Jack Campin)
Subject: Glasgow's Alive... but the Gorbals goes with a bang
Message-ID: <1993Sep13.180042.6594@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Followup-To: rec.music.folk
Sender: news@xxxxxxxxxxxx (News Administrator)
Organization: Dept of Computing & Electrical Engineering, Heriot-Watt
University, Scotland
Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1993 18:00:42 GMT
Lines: 73
Xref: news.cac.psu.edu misc.headlines:2540 rec.pyrotechnics:2270
soc.culture.celtic:4736 alt.architecture:413 rec.music.folk:5924
rec.arts.books:13544
[ I can't guess how far this has been reported, it was on the BBC national
radio news last night but may not have spread further?... yes, this is a
fairly wacky crossposting but read on and you'll see the point... ]
Yesterday Glasgow Housing Corporation blew its biggest single mistake to
rubble. Two of the ugliest, dampest, most unlivable blocks of mass housing
in Europe, 22 stories high, were demolished by 6000 explosive charges at
2.14pm yesterday. These blocks were designed by Basil Spence, Britain's
trendiest modernist of the postwar era, also responsible for Coventry
Cathedral and the demolition of most of Edinburgh's George Square to make
way for his own grubby concrete university buildings. Built by the typical
Glasgow outfit, transient construction firms operated in the interests of
the permanent local apparatus of racketeering and political corruption.
The spirit of tattiness and exploitation that inspired Spence's lifework
continued into the death throes of these buildings. The District Council
was forbidden by government edict from awarding the demolition contract to
a local firm (Controlled Demolition) that had already used explosive
demolition in several Glasgow tower blocks with total damage to their
surroundings of one cracked windowpane; instead they had to accept the
cheapest bid, 873,000 pounds, by a multinational (Wreckers) and an English
firm (Ladkarn). They arsed it up. Despite the spectators being kept at
the Health and Safety Executive's recommended distance (twice the height of
the buildings) one woman was killed by flying rubble, three people injured,
a disused bank hit by falling debris, and several floors failed to collapse
and stayed hanging over local shops. A few days before they'd hit a passing
car with flying rubble during a test shot.
I heard about this just before it went off, on the radio in a shellfish bar
in the Barras on the other side of the river where I was eating garlic
mussels with my girlfriend. We set off for the Gorbals but heard the bangs
before we got past Glasgow Green; when we arrived there were clouds of dust
everywhere and the police radios were blaring out messages about what had
gone wrong which the police themselves refused to admit to. What seemed
_really_ stupid to us was that there was no ambulance team on standby; just
one paramedic. The biggest controlled explosion in Europe since WW2 and
nobody takes any precautions even against an ex-resident of Spence's
shitheap having a heart attack out of an excess of joy at seeing it go
(which was certainly on the cards).
We had a look at the thing from several angles at ground level and from a
nearby tower block (where the residents had organized a "Demolition Disco")
for that evening). "Dead whale" may be a cliche but that's what it looked
like. The top few floors that hadn't collapsed didn't even have shattered
windows.
The title of this article is what the Housing Corporation people had on
their specially-printed T-shirts; "Glasgow's Alive" being the current
tourism slogan for the city (thought up at a cost of tens of thousands of
pounds by an English advertising agency clueless enough that they'd first
wanted to use the Gorbals/Calton razor slashings of the 1930s to 1950s as a
selling point). I didn't see any of them smiling after the blast.
Followups to rec.music.folk... There's a song about the building of these
blocks, and the disgusting corruption involved, by Adam MacNaughton; it
goes to the tune of "The Spanish Lady" and the punchline is "...it pays to
be Frank", after a local politico who did very well out of it. It isn't on
the LP of his songs I have, and I'm not sure there _are_ any other Adam
MacNaughton records. Does anyone have the words?
Why rec.arts.books? I've mentioned Jeff Torrington's "Swing Hammer Swing!"
a couple of times recently; that's set in the Gorbals just as it was being
demolished to make way for these. What there is there now is the biggest
wasteland in the city. Hardly anything survives from before the 1960s; the
council wants the 19th century Gorbals Church demolished too, to make way
for their urban motorway scheme. The big bribes are in roads rather than
housing construction these days.
--
-- Jack Campin -- Room 1.36, Department of Computing & Electrical Engineering,
Mountbatten Building, Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton, Edinburgh EH14 4AS
TEL: 031 449 5111 ext 4192 FAX: 031 451 3431 INTERNET: jack@xxxxxxxxxxxx
JANET: possibly backwards BITNET: via UKACRL BANG!net: via mcsun & uknet
- - The original note follows - -
Newsgroups:
misc.headlines,rec.pyrotechnics,soc.culture.celtic,alt.architecture,rec.music.fo
lk,rec.arts.books
Path:
psuvm!news.cac.psu.edu!newsserver.jvnc.net!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!doc.ic.a
c.uk!uknet!festival!hwcs!jack
From: jack@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Jack Campin)
Subject: Glasgow's Alive... but the Gorbals goes with a bang
Message-ID: <1993Sep13.180042.6594@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Followup-To: rec.music.folk
Sender: news@xxxxxxxxxxxx (News Administrator)
Organization: Dept of Computing & Electrical Engineering, Heriot-Watt
University, Scotland
Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1993 18:00:42 GMT
Lines: 73
Xref: news.cac.psu.edu misc.headlines:2540 rec.pyrotechnics:2270
soc.culture.celtic:4736 alt.architecture:413 rec.music.folk:5924
rec.arts.books:13544
[ I can't guess how far this has been reported, it was on the BBC national
radio news last night but may not have spread further?... yes, this is a
fairly wacky crossposting but read on and you'll see the point... ]
Yesterday Glasgow Housing Corporation blew its biggest single mistake to
rubble. Two of the ugliest, dampest, most unlivable blocks of mass housing
in Europe, 22 stories high, were demolished by 6000 explosive charges at
2.14pm yesterday. These blocks were designed by Basil Spence, Britain's
trendiest modernist of the postwar era, also responsible for Coventry
Cathedral and the demolition of most of Edinburgh's George Square to make
way for his own grubby concrete university buildings. Built by the typical
Glasgow outfit, transient construction firms operated in the interests of
the permanent local apparatus of racketeering and political corruption.
The spirit of tattiness and exploitation that inspired Spence's lifework
continued into the death throes of these buildings. The District Council
was forbidden by government edict from awarding the demolition contract to
a local firm (Controlled Demolition) that had already used explosive
demolition in several Glasgow tower blocks with total damage to their
surroundings of one cracked windowpane; instead they had to accept the
cheapest bid, 873,000 pounds, by a multinational (Wreckers) and an English
firm (Ladkarn). They arsed it up. Despite the spectators being kept at
the Health and Safety Executive's recommended distance (twice the height of
the buildings) one woman was killed by flying rubble, three people injured,
a disused bank hit by falling debris, and several floors failed to collapse
and stayed hanging over local shops. A few days before they'd hit a passing
car with flying rubble during a test shot.
I heard about this just before it went off, on the radio in a shellfish bar
in the Barras on the other side of the river where I was eating garlic
mussels with my girlfriend. We set off for the Gorbals but heard the bangs
before we got past Glasgow Green; when we arrived there were clouds of dust
everywhere and the police radios were blaring out messages about what had
gone wrong which the police themselves refused to admit to. What seemed
_really_ stupid to us was that there was no ambulance team on standby; just
one paramedic. The biggest controlled explosion in Europe since WW2 and
nobody takes any precautions even against an ex-resident of Spence's
shitheap having a heart attack out of an excess of joy at seeing it go
(which was certainly on the cards).
We had a look at the thing from several angles at ground level and from a
nearby tower block (where the residents had organized a "Demolition Disco")
for that evening). "Dead whale" may be a cliche but that's what it looked
like. The top few floors that hadn't collapsed didn't even have shattered
windows.
The title of this article is what the Housing Corporation people had on
their specially-printed T-shirts; "Glasgow's Alive" being the current
tourism slogan for the city (thought up at a cost of tens of thousands of
pounds by an English advertising agency clueless enough that they'd first
wanted to use the Gorbals/Calton razor slashings of the 1930s to 1950s as a
selling point). I didn't see any of them smiling after the blast.
Followups to rec.music.folk... There's a song about the building of these
blocks, and the disgusting corruption involved, by Adam MacNaughton; it
goes to the tune of "The Spanish Lady" and the punchline is "...it pays to
be Frank", after a local politico who did very well out of it. It isn't on
the LP of his songs I have, and I'm not sure there _are_ any other Adam
MacNaughton records. Does anyone have the words?
Why rec.arts.books? I've mentioned Jeff Torrington's "Swing Hammer Swing!"
a couple of times recently; that's set in the Gorbals just as it was being
demolished to make way for these. What there is there now is the biggest
wasteland in the city. Hardly anything survives from before the 1960s; the
council wants the 19th century Gorbals Church demolished too, to make way
for their urban motorway scheme. The big bribes are in roads rather than
housing construction these days.
--
-- Jack Campin -- Room 1.36, Department of Computing & Electrical Engineering,
Mountbatten Building, Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton, Edinburgh EH14 4AS
TEL: 031 449 5111 ext 4192 FAX: 031 451 3431 INTERNET: jack@xxxxxxxxxxxx
JANET: possibly backwards BITNET: via UKACRL BANG!net: via mcsun & uknet