Bang crash kerboom!
Categories: glasgow
Tags: photos, demolition, Glasgow
Date: 02 June 2008 21:03:46
This photo is also appearing on my Glasgow Daily Photo blog tomorrow, but I thought I'd give you a sneak preview. Yesterday I went up to town to watch the demolition of a towerblock in the Gorbals, and it was really quite an experience! I only managed to get this one picture of the actual falling-down bit, as I'd decided I wanted to actually watch it, rather than look at it through the camera viewfinder, and so I forgot to concentrate on pressing the button! I guess I'd better not give up the day job just yet!
My flickr set of the demolition is here - I was better at photographing the dustcloud in the aftermath of the demolition. And there's a great video clip of the demolition here. Make sure you watch it with the speakers turned up to get the full effect - it was very very loud!
I had mixed feelings watching the blocks go down. On the one hand, it was really exhilarating, and they were horrible blocks which felt every bit as ugly and horrible and threatening as similar blocks in large cities up and down the country. Certainly there are plenty of people who are delighted to see them go. But when they were first built they were intended to replace the tenement slums, and for the people who first moved into the tower blocks they were really lovely and luxurious. So as well as seeing the negative crap come crashing down, I also thought about the life stories that were tied up with that place as well - now the people who lived there, and formed real communities there, only have their memories.