Easterhouse
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- This article is about the district in Glasgow, Scotland. For the 1980s band, see Easterhouse (band).
Easterhouse is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is picturesquely situated north of the River Clyde on the watershed between that valley and the River Kelvin.
The Bishops of Glasgow were given the lands by King David of Scotland in the 1100's. The ruins of the bishops palace have been revealed by archaeologists from the University of Glasgow next to the SSI, Bishops Loch. Other waterways and country parks around the area include Lochend Loch, Woodend Loch, Hogganfield Loch and Drumpellier Country Park.
The name Easterhouse was taken from the village of Easterhouse. Some cottages and other buildings (a public house) can still be found on Easterhouse Road, next to the Easterhouse train station. The village itself was named after local farms (wester and easter house) on which the current estate was built. Other farms, villages and country estates included Maryston, Queenslie, Nethehouse, Provanhall and Blairtummock.
Provanhall and Blairtummock both contain listed mansion houses. Provan Hall is the best preserved medieval fortified country house in Scotland. It has a roman-barrel roof and a medieval herb garden and is Grade A listed.
Blairtummock House is Grade B listed and has a charming rose garden with a garden pavilion created from an Adams house on Queen Street, central Glasgow.
The grade B St Benedict's Church is a supreme example of modernism and has recently been renovated and given a new copper roof and function rooms.
Large scale building commenced in the mid 1950s by the Corporation of Glasgow to provide housing for inner city dwellers living in sub-standard accommodation. Its population peaked at over 60,000 in the early 1960's.
Easterhouse, along with other large housing projects built at that time by Glasgow Corporation, came to prominence in the wider world through its social problems and became a case study for social planners hoping to avoid the same types of problems. For example, the lack of basic amenities, e.g cinemas, cafe's and other popular entertainments and shops. Building was mainly of the two/three bedroom tenement type, off a common close. The lack of variety of housing types, such as detached and semi detached villa types also contributed to a lack of social cohesion and home ownership.
Families who had been rehoused from Glasgow inner city found little in the way of amenities on arrival in Easterhouse. This along with a lack of any stable pre-existing community structure in the area tended to encourage the rise of youth gang culture which became so notorious in the 1960's that celebrities including Frankie Vaughan became involved in community issues (much to local bemusement as it actually served to focus public attention on surface problems but failed to draw attention to grass root problems) in attempt to bring order and attract resources to the area.
Since the early 1980's Glasgow City council and more recently Glasgow Housing Association has begun a program of selective demolition and refurbishment of housing stock in an attempt to rejuvenate and transform the area. This has attracted a significant amount of privately owned property and investment into the area.
Shopping centres include Glasgow Fort and Shandwick Square. Business Parks include Glasgow and Westwood. Queenslie has a large industrial park.
Parks include Blairtummock, Provahall, Bishopswood and Garthamlock.
New leisure facilities include the Easterhouse swimming pool, sports centre, library, an arts centre (which includes a lecture hall)
The area is served by several denominational and non-denominational primary schools and one High School, Lochend Community High School. The John Wheately College has two campuses in the area - next to Westwood business park and in Queenslie Industrial Park.
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