Council Houses

Council Houses

Another bite sized chunk of Blantyre History

Logan Street consisted mostly of council houses 4 to a block, 2 up and 2 down. Most of the homes that I know of had 2 bedrooms. There were also larger homes for the larger families. A large bedroom, smaller bedroom, living room with fireplace, scullery with double sink and gas stove, bathroom, with all of the rooms directly off the hallway. (Total sq ft of our home 640 sq.ft, according to Blantyre area housing office)

The downstairs home had a small room which was for storing coal in but very few people used it for this purpose, they usually converted it into a storage or coat room or a combination of both. The coal was then stored outside under the stairs leading up to the home on the second floor.

This was a big, big house to us when you consider what we had just come from. The size of a single-end miners raw house had been about 225 sq ft in total, these homes were nearly three times the size of the Raw’s.

The Council Houses to-day in Logan Street are mostly privately owned and when you consider their size when compared to the size of the average house build to-day they were at that time a fairly large attached house. Statistics show that the size of new houses built in the British isles is 30% smaller than those built back in the 1930. To-day the average size of a home in the U.K. is around 815 sq.ft Although we did not know it, we were getting a very good deal then.

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“Anyway, away up Logan we went, an’ altho’ they wur still building the top half o’ the scheme, the street wis busy wi folk, maisly fae Dixon’s Raws. moovin’ intae the hooses that wur already built.  Walkin’ up the street yir mither wis sayin’ that she hid gote the brawest hoose in the street, an ‘we  aw’ looked at each ither as we thought that she wis jist sayin’ this because  she hid been  gien’ a new hoose, but ah’ must say that when the cairt stopped at no. 41 Logan Street, we aw’ looked at each ither an’ nodded oor heids, she wis right. It wis a braw wee hoose, wi’ its front an’ back doors an’ a 15 gless panneld door inside the front wan! An’ aw’ the rest o’  thon modern stuff, ye ken whit ah’ mean? Some o’ us hid never been in a hoose where ye’ jist pressed doon a switch an’ a light came oan! Wan o’ the men shouted  ‘watch whit yir daeing ye’ might get a shock aff that thing!’  It wis a lot different fae the raws where we wir aw’ boarn an’ brought up in” from Wee-Fat-Wummin by James Cornfield.

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Continuing the conversation between Thomas Dunsmuir Hartman in Chicago, formerly Logan Street, (known as TDH or Drapadew) and Margaret in Queensland Australia on TalkingScot.

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Your Social Comments:

John Mitchell: Best Street in Blantyre.. Fact

Mary Odonnell: The best street in Blantyre xx

Thomas Hamilton-Hailes: I’d love tae say Naw it isnae … but ma granda’ lived there so A hiftae agree grin emoticon

Helen Ward Gartlan: My aunty Linda ward stayed in Logan Street, she just died in January this year R.I.P aunty Linda, also my cousin wee Linda who was buried on Sat xxx

Jim Wilson: Aye Darren it’s missing ah few. Of our own ie. the Mcneills.

Ian Cunningham: My grannies lived in Nursery Place, High Blantyre similar sort of Corporation housing. That was back in the 50’s. She had a garden to the side where she grew vegetables and certainly had the coal groom where she did keep coal, logs and bricked which were formed from coal dust.
Those were the days when there were two farms in High Blantyre, one was known as Tammy Weir’s but I cannot remember the other.

Maryon Allan: love the place. heart emoticon

Sadie Dolan: My Grannie Dolan stayed in 77 Logan Street, a big 5 apt she had, great st and great neighbours.

Maggie Tallis: Stayed there for years like u liz meet some good friends xx

Robert McLeod-Wolohan: I stayed in Logan Street for many years, and everybody in the street knew everybody there, I went to look at it recently and I think its really went down hill since those days I lived there.

Darren Mcneill: Shitehole!! Now a days.

Liz Ali Ali: Great wee street with great best friends love you all x

James Mcguire: The geezer out of Sweet used to hang about there can’t remember his name, but sure he had some relations there.

Bruce Baldwin: Hi, Brian Connelly he came from Watson Street, Blantyre.

James Mcguire: Of course, couldn’t remember his name but remember meeting him and he wore the same gear he did on stage, or at least thats how i remember him.

Moira Macfarlane: Hi James, was his name Brian Connelly

Margaret Stewart: Brian was a connection of my partner John Connolly and he says Bruce is right he came from the timber houses and he was adopted. I might be wrong but I seem to remember the group lived in a big house down the dandy. I think this is where he died of an overdose. What shame he was a talented guy.

Jim Wilson: Still best street about, God knows who half the folk are now. Not like old days.

Moira Macfarlane: My mum and your granny were best friends Sadie we stayed in 85.

Louise McLachlan: It’s amazing reading proper Scots, my son is 12 and although he is a typical kid and speaks “slang” he struggles with this. So sad that its been slowly educated out.

Yvonne Doonan: Love this street & my wee house x

Frances Porter: Same hunni ‘n plus good neighbours xx

Mary Odonnell: Cheers Liz, ur my best friend too x

Mary Odonnell: Nice to c u to Helen, maybe the next time will be a happy event xx

Mary Odonnell: Thats her house in the picture Helen xx

Deborah Stark: My dad was born on Logan Street. Has some great memories of the people around.

Marianne Stark Aitken: Deborah Stark the post has a poem included which Uncle James Cornfield penned xx

Bruce Baldwin: Great street, lived there 80 to 85 at no 25 .. Molly Coyle, Anne Mcguinnes and wee Alice.. John and Netta over other side..

James Mcguire: who knew the McCarols?

Liz Foster: Child hood memories when I was wee, didn’t look like the way it does now.

Margaret Brown: My gran stayed in 47 Logan Street Maggie Allan and Jimmy Allan, loved going there every day at lunch time from school, happy days, my gran would be waiting at the gate for us.

Marianne Stark Aitken: I was born in 102 in 1966

Tracy Keenan: Love my wee street x

Kate Boyle Monteith: I was born in Logan St x

Liz Ali Ali: The best friends I meet all lived in Logan Street. I did at one point also but I was a Beech Place lass but loved loogy x

Steven Johnstone: Trolley street lol

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