Old Town Glasgow: Squalor, Agitation and City Improvements

In 1862, Glasgow Corporation initiated the first of a series of three legislative acts which would become known collectively as the City Improvements Acts. Despite having some influence on the nature of the built fabric on the expanding city as a whole, the most extensive consequences of these acts was reserved for one specific area of the city, the remnants of the medieval Old Town. As the city had expanded towards all points of the compass in a regular, grid-iron structure throughout the nineteenth century, the Old Town remained singularly as a densely wrought fabric of medieval wynds, vennels, oblique passageways and accelerated tenementalisation. Here, as the rest of the city began to assume the form of an ordered entity, visible and classifiable, one could still find and addresses such as ‘Bridgegate, No. 29, backland, stair first left, three up, right lobby, door facing’ (quoted in Pacione, 1995).

Unsurprisingly, this place, where proximity to the midden (dung-heap) was considered an enviable position, was seen by the authorities as a major health hazard and a source not only of cholera, but also of the more alarming typhoid epidemic of 1842. Accordingly, the demolitions which occurred in the backlands of the Old Town under the first of the acts, the Glasgow Police Act of 1862, were justified on health and medical grounds. But disease was not the only social problem thought to issue from this district. Reports from social reformers including Fredrick Engels suggested that the decay of the area’s physical fabric could be extended to the moral profile of its inhabitants. This was in such a state of degeneracy that there were calls for a nearby military barracks to be relocated to more salubrious climes because troops were routinely coming into contact ‘with the most dissolute and profligate portion of the population’ (Peter Clonston, Lord Provost, June 1861). Perhaps more worrying for the city fathers, however, was that the barracks’ arsenal was seen as a potential source of arms for the militant and often illegal cotton workers’ unions and organisations who inhabited the Old Town as well as the districts to the east. In fact, the Old Town and East End had been the site of numerous working class actions and riots since 1787, including a strike of 60,000 workers in 1820, 100,000 in 1838, and the so-called Bread Riots of 1848 where shouts of ‘Vive La Revolution’ were reported in the Gallowgate.

The events in Paris in 1848 precipitated Baron Hausmann’s interventions into that city. The boulevards were in turn visited by members of Glasgow Corporation and ultimately, it can be argued, provided an example for Old Town Glasgow. This paper suggests that the city improvement acts carried a similarly complex and pervasive agenda, one which embodied not only health, class conflict and sexual morality but also the more local condition of sectarianism. And, like in Paris, these were played out spatially in a extensive reconfiguration of the urban fabric of the Old Town which, through the creation of new streets and a railway yard, not only made it more amenable to large scale military manoeuvres but also, opened up the area to capitalist accumulation. By the end of the works, the medieval heritage of the Old Town had been almost completely razed, the working class and Catholic East End had, through the insertion of the railway yard, been isolated from the city centre and approximately 70,000 people had been made homeless.

Managing the transition to work: the role of the planning network in British town planning education

The development of town planning education in the United Kingdom can be traced back over at least sixty years and has always enjoyed a close relationship with practitioners, employers and the professional body, the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI). In order to ensure an intake of sufficient quality to a growing profession, the Institute offered its own exams until the 1980s and then initiated the current system of accrediting both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes of study. This system of accreditation emphasises the importance of relevant knowledge, skills and values as well as core and specialised studies. The vocational nature of town planning requires that graduates have the breadth of understanding as well as the practical skills in order to practice effectively. Thus accredited courses have over time developed strong links with employers and practitioners. Rapid developments in the scope and range of planning, and the skills needed to work in it, have reflected changes in public policy and growing number of agencies concerned with the built environment. The system of regular quinquennial visits to accredit courses has helped ensure that this acceptance of change has become part of the culture of planning schools.

The rise and fall of Monica Felton, British town planner and peace activist, 1930s to 1950s

This article reflects growing academic interest in the careers and historical significance of professional women town planners, an interest clearly registered in Planning Perspectives and other publications. Unlike other women town planners, however, the career of Monica Felton remains largely obscure. It was certainly short-lived, beginning as it did on the London County Council in 1937 and ending spectacularly while she was Chairman of Stevenage Development Corporation in 1951. Felton became an outcast from both her profession and her country when she gave up on new town development to campaign against British and American involvement in the Korean War in 1951. This article emphasizes her distinctive contribution to the evolving roles of women in British town planning during the mid-twentieth century and shows how this contribution was obscured by her fall from grace.

Self-reported health status and lifestyle behaviours of the residents of the Town of Fort Erie, Ontario, as related to the Canadian Community Health Survey

The purpose of this cross sectional survey design was to examine self-reported health status and lifestyle behaviours of the residents of the Town of Fort Erie, Ontario, as related to the Canadian Community Health Survey. Using a mail-out survey, entitled the Fort Erie Survey of Health (FESH), a probability cluster sampling technique was used to measure self-reported health status (present health, health conditions, health challenges, functional health limitations) and lifestyle behaviour (smoking, alcohol use, drug use, physical activity, fruit and vegetable consumption, body weight, and gaming). Each variable was described and analyzed in relation to socio-economic variables, age and gender. The findings from this study were compared to the Canadian Community Health Survey 2000/2001. Overall, 640 surveys were completed. The majority of Fort Erie residents rated their present health as good and were satisfied with their overall health and quality of life. The main chronic conditions reported were arthritis, back pain and heart disease. Other main health problems reported were vision, sleeping and chronic pain. Overall, 14.6% smoke; 58.8% engaged in physical activity either occasionally or never as opposed to regularly engaging in physical activity; 52.1% did not eat the required daily fruits and vegetables; and 40.0% were in the overweight category. Persons who practiced one healthy lifestyle behaviour were more likely to practice other healthy promoting behaviours. Therefore, health promotion programs are best designed to address multiple risk factors simultaneously. The ffiSH was generally consistent with the Canadian Community Health Survey in the overall findings. A small number of inconsistencies were identified that require further exploration to determine if they are unique to this community.

The citizen soldiers at North Point and Port McHenry, September 12 & 13, 1814. Resolves of the citizens in town meeting, particulars relating to the battle, official correspondence and honorable discharge of the troops. Also, celebration of the seventy-fifth anniversary, 1889. Reprint. --

First edition printed by Nathaniel Hickman.

Letter from George W. Campbell, esq., late Secretary of the Treasury, to the Chairman of the Committee appointed to inquire into the causes and particulars of the invasion of the City of Washington, and the neighboring town of Alexandria, in the month of August last. --

Laid before the House by the Chairman of the said Committee, and ordered to be printed January 2, 1815.

By Laws of the Corporation of the Town of Welland, 1878 [fragment]

The fragment appears to be part of a larger group of bylaws for the Town of Welland, 1878. The fragment includes bylaws Cap. I and Cap. II. Cap. I is a bylaw appointing auditors for the town for the year 1878. Due to paper loss only a portion of the title of the Cap. II bylaw is extent but appears to be a bylaw appointing a Hey…….trustee for the town. Welland was incorporated in 1858 as a town and became a city in 1917.

Charles Larned letter, April 3, 1813.

Charles Larned (1791-1834) was a lawyer and American military officer who served during the War of 1812. He was the son of Simon Larned (1753-1817), who served as a captain in the Revolutionary War and was a member of the United States Congress from Massachusetts from 1804-1805. Charles studied law in the office of Henry Clay in Kentucky, and was dining with a group of prominent citizens when word was received that General William Henry Harrison could soon be overpowered by General Henry Proctor. Colonel Owen, a member of the group, organized a regiment to reinforce Harrison’s troops. Larned became a member and subsequently survived the River Raisin Massacre and was later present at the Battle of the Thames. He was also part of a group of men who learned of General William Hull’s plan to surrender Detroit to the British and planned to overtake him should this occur. However, the plan failed, Hull did surrender and the men became prisoners of the British. After the war, Larned became a lawyer, and served as Attorney General of Michigan Territory during the Black Hawk War. During the cholera epidemic of 1834, he worked tirelessly to assist others, but was stricken with the disease and died. Letter Transcription: Pittsfield, April 8, 1813 I think that by this time my dear Charles you will allow I have some reason to give you a gentle reprimand for breach of duty—but I will not censure you upon suspicion maybe you have substantial reasons—at any rate one cannot very graciously reproach the other for negligence I for one am healthy as ham & that we have so seldom exchanged letters during your absence & on my honor promise to be a better girl in future—but the truth is my Dear Charles I am secretary for the Family—Mama you know never writes & James but seldom & they are all dispersed in different directions, consequently I have many calls upon my time—this to be sure is a pleasant duty & I urge it only as a slight palliation for my remissness if you should consider it as such—now I have finished my preface—I will try to be more interesting & doubtless I succeed. Our dear Father we hope & trust is now in Green Bush, where he will probably remain a month perhaps & from thence he expects to go to Sacket’s harbor—at which place you know our troops are fast collecting-- We shall hope to see him either here or there before he goes. Brother George I believe is [still] at Plattsburgh but expects soon to be removed to some other military part perhaps with Papa (I hope so at least). We have just got letters from Brothers Sylvester & Joseph at Middlebury—they are in good health. Mama has for some weeks been afflicted with an inflammation in her eyes but seems now to be convalescing. Sister Martha has been somewhat unwell for a few weeks but is now tolerably recovered. James & myself are both in our usual good health & at this time seated by the same stand, one reading, the other writing. Thus my Dear Charles have I given you an abstract history of our Family—but here indeed is a wonderful omission; not a word about Miss Harriet Hunt, who in truth ought to have been noted first but the last she’s not the least in my memory. She is much grown since you saw her, but does not speak as fluently as we could wish—a few word she can say. Probably before this you have been informed of the great loss your friend Sherrill has sustained in the death of his mother—also of the revolution that has taken place in Hackbridge as it respects the religion & morality of the place that more than one hundred on the plain have become religious converts & c—indeed I am at a loss what to say that will afford your pleasure—a narrative at this time must be gloomy indeed. The distressing situation of our country at this time would make almost any recital melancholy. The prevailing epidemic has swept off many of your acquaintance no doubt. Mrs. Dewey of Williamstown, the sister of Mrs. Danforth, has left a Husband, Children & many Friends sincerely to lament her loss—some few have died in our village, but we have escaped astonishingly –it has raged in every town about us--If we are unwilling to acknowledge a God in his mercies. I fear she shall be compelled to do it in the awfulness of his judgments.--------I am much [pleased] with our new neighbors the Parsons Wife & a Miss Woodward her cousin is a fine girl, I think, Mrs. Allen has not a handsome face but something in her manner that interests one her person I think the handsomest I ever saw & the Parson seems well pleased with his selection—Mrs. Ripley is with them this winter & will probably remain thro the summer—Her husband at [Sackett’s Harbor] little or no alteration is apparent since her marriage—she seems as gay & fond of company as ever.-------Mrs. [McKnight] it is expected will commence housekeeping in about three weeks in the house formerly occupied by Mr…. [Report] says that Mr. Goodman & Clarissa Weller are soon to be married & many other things that I must omit to mention for Mama wants a… PS reserved--now my Dear Charles remember you are considerably… & I am confident you have as much leisure as I have –… be ceremonious but write whenever I find time not & I beg… the same – I tell James I shall not send his love for he must write himself. I shall anxiously expect you to write & do not disappoint your affectionate, sister--H One word my Dear Charles from your affectionate Mother who longs to see Her Dear son Charles—but being deprived of that rich blessing at present—begs Him so to conduct that she may hope for it ere long—do you search the Scriptures and keep the Sabbath holy unto the Lord—and all the sacred Commandments of God—it is my ardent desire…He would protect, support and provide for your soul and body and believe me your affectionate friend and Mother. R Larned.

Order to create a General Board of Health in the Town of Niagara, June 25, 1832

In the early nineteenth century, a widespread outbreak of cholera occurred in continental Europe, eventually spreading to the British Isles. The disease subsequently spread to Canada as impoverished British immigrants seeking a better life arrived in the country. To help curb the spread of the disease, local Boards of Health were created.