Glasgow addresses

[greenrig]

Happy to help.   But no luck, sorry 

Pollok St - nothing listed between 41 and 59
Bright St - nothing between 3 and 17

[yokerbrian]

Thanks for checking anyway Greenrig

[ziggie]

Hi greenrig

Thank you for looking up 1933-34 directory - I see that J Lavery was resident at 84 Hathaway Street in the 1927 directory also.  I understand from the Mitchell library that one had to pay to be included in the directories so it is a fair assumption that most people chose not to probably because they couldn't afford it.  I didn't realise that there were two Cardowan Roads in Glasgow but the information I have is definitely Carntyne and not Steppes.  It looks like my best option is to go for the electoral registers.

ziggie

[greenrig]

Yes you're right about the PO directories.  It is primarily a BUSINESS document. 

There is a Street Directory but the first part of the book is an alphabetical list of Businesses.  In the Street Directory, many of the names are of the same people who were also in the business section.  If you ran a shop, a pub, a doctors,  or any kind of business you would pay to be in.   

If you were just an ordinary working family,  sharing a rented close, stair, flat or rooms, then I think it is less likely that you will be in the PO directory.    As the directory moves out of the tenement streets and into streets of owner-occupier detached and semis, then the coverage becomes more comprehensive, but still not complete - there are many missing house numbers.


All the above is my interpretation; I welcome other views.

[ziggie]

Could you tell me what a rented close is - I am not familiar with Scottish terminology.

[greenrig]

A typical Glasgow tenement  is a long terrace - it is frequently four or five stories high. A common stairway would give access to four or so apartments (or flats, in Glasgow terminology), on each floor.
The stairway was at the back of the building and a corridor reached from the street (or pavement) to the stair foot.
This corridor was called "the close" - and, by association, the close came to mean "all the people in the flats on my stair"    - "...she and I live in the same close..."   It was the close that carried the house number.   

Thus a close might house anything up to 20 families (or more, as in bygone times more than one family might share a flat).  Each stair landing would have the one, and only, toilet for all the flats. or the toilet may have been downstairs and out the back ("the cludgie", and many other names)....
A common washhouse (for clothes washing) would also have been out the back.


... and some people say their is no such thing as progress.....

[gordon5]

For a good description (albeit possibly idealised) of life in a Glasgow tenement in the early 20th century, read Molly Weir's autobiography "Shoes Were For Sunday" - it gives a great sense of the ordinary person's way of life.

[ziggie]

Thank you for the explanation.

[stripey]

Hello I just joined today and saw your post.

In 1937 at 238 cardowan road the occupant was Hunter Wm. Wilson and at 84 Hathaway Street the name is listed as Fletcher Joseph.

I have a copy of Kelly's directory of Glasgow 1937 so not sure about 1935.

stripey