The Tenement House

Many Glaswegians lived – as many still do - in tenement houses like the one at 145 Buccleuch Street. It’s not so much a museum as a fascinating time capsule, which is delightful for children, as well as older people with first-hand memories of tenement life in the last century.

 

Miss Agnes Toward was an ordinary Glasgow lady who worked as a shorthand typist. She moved into the first floor flat with her widowed mother in 1911 and stayed on after her mother’s death until 1965.

 

Apart from installing electricity in 1960, she made very few changes to her house, and she kept all kinds of things that most people throw away.

 

The house is a treasure trove of social history: Agnes kept her Victorian furniture, held on to old letters and household bills, wartime ration books, recipes, photographs and newspaper cuttings.

 

All the original fixtures and fittings of the three roomed flat have been preserved, including coal fires and a cosy box bed in the kitchen.

 

When the National Trust for Scotland bought the flat in 1982, they restored the decoration and changed back to the original gas lighting.

 

Afternoon tea is laid out on a lace cloth in the Parlour with its rosewood piano, the grandfather clock is ticking and Agnes’s toiletries and medicines are arranged in the bathroom. It’s as if she were coming home any moment.

 

The Trust now owns the two ground floor flats.  One is the reception and exhibition area, the other is used for educational visits.