Tight Spaces (Thomas Annan: The Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow)

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Plate 15: Close, No. 28 Saltmarket: photo by Thomas Annan, 1868, from The Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow, 1871 (British Library)

I have seen human degradation in some of its worst phases, both in England and abroad, but I can advisedly say, that I did not believe, until I visited the wynds of Glasgow, that so large an amount of filth, crime, misery, and disease existed in one spot in any civilised country. The wynds consist of long lanes, so narrow that a cart could with difficulty pass along them; out of these open the 'closes', which are courts about fifteen or twenty feet square, round which the houses, mostly three or four storeys high, are built; the centre of the court is the dunghill, which probably is the most lucrative part of the estate to the laird in most instances, and which it would consequently be esteemed an invasion of the rights of property to remove. In the lower lodging houses, ten, twelve, or sometimes twenty persons, of both sexes and all ages, sleep promiscuously on the floor in different degrees of nakedness. These places are generally, as regards dirt, damp, and decay, such as no person of common humanity would stable his horse in.


Friedrich Engels: from Conditions of the Working Class in England, 1844-1845

Plate 18: Close, No. 29 Gallowgate. Bystanders observe Annan as he captures a shadowed alley: photo by Thomas Annan, 1868, from The Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow, 1871 (Glasgow University Library)

Plate 10: Close, No. 101 High Street. Damp trousers hang motionless while dry clothes are moved by a breeze during an exposure: photo by Thomas Annan, 1868, from The Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow, 1871 (Glasgow University Library)

Plate 8: Close, No. 83 High Street. A tenement is supported by struts from a house built in a back court: photo by Thomas Annan, 1868, from The Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow, 1871 (Glasgow University Library)

Plate 7: Close, No. 75 High Street. Washing was hung to dry in back courts which also contained gutters for sewage: photo by Thomas Annan, 1868, from The Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow, 1871 (Glasgow University Library)