Tenement House, Glasgow

The Tenement House
Glasgow Lanarkshire
National Trust for Scotland
Grid reference:	NS581661
Information
Website:	Tenement House

The Tenement House is a National Trust for Scotland property on Buccleuch Street in Glasgow, Lanarkshire (near Charing Cross (Glasgow) Station and Cowcaddens underground station). It is a fine, preserved example of a Victorian tenement house.

The Tenement House is not a museum as one might commonly understand the term but is an original 19th-century house divided into flats, within which is a four-room home furnished in the style of the early twentieth century when it was a most respectable residence of the better sort.

This flat was owned by a respectable Glasgow lady who never married and who lived here for over half a century. She furnished the flat as for her day, the early twentieth century, and as time passed barely changed it, so the Tenement House today provides a fascinating glimpse of the life of an ‘independent woman’ in the first half of the 20th century.

The Trust owns both ground floor flats as well as the Tenement House; the flat that had been owned by Agnes Toward. One ground-floor flat is used as a reception area with exhibitions on tenement life and the history of the tenement in Glasgow while the other has an education room for school groups, and office and storage space. The rest of the building is private as there are still people living in their own homes.

The Tenement House provides an experience how ordinary folk lived, where one may appreciate how many of the household amenities we now take for granted were considered luxuries less than a century ago. Authentic gas lighting has been installed to recreate the atmosphere of the house, which had no electric lighting until 1960.

Story of the house

The red sandstone tenements of Buccleuch Street were built towards the end of the Victorian period. Glasgow tenements were built in white or red sandstone and usually had three or four floors, with two or more separate flats on each floor. That at 145 Buccleuch Street was built in 1892, of red sandstone and it has four floors with two flats on each floor.

In 1911, Agnes Toward and her widowed mother moved into Number 145. It was considered a rather 'posh' home at the time because it had its own bathroom. Agnes was brought up by her mother, who made a living by dressmaking and taking in lodgers. Miss Toward remained there for over 50 years and, during that time, she looked after everything very carefully, furnished to her modest taste as in her young years with barely a change in all her years. She kept her grandparents' Victorian furniture, and some older pieces.

When Miss Toward died, in her will she left the house to the church, which intended to sell it to raise funds. It was only on inspection of the house that its potential was realised as a window on the not-so-distant past, and decided to preserve it.

The Tenement House is also an important example of local architecture and design. It is the only tenement of its kind to survive, from the early 20th century, with its original fittings and contents.

Museum

An exhibition on the ground floor makes the most of Miss Toward’s extensive personal archive, providing a valuable time capsule for visitors today.

Outside links

• Tenement House - National Trust for Scotland