Red Clydeside: A history of the labour movement in Glasgow 1910-1932

Literature

Housing of the Labouring Classes, 1899

by Peter Fyfe

This booklet, published in 1899, condemns the unsanitary and unhealthy housing conditions in which the majority of Glasgow's labouring classes were forced to live at this time.

The author, the chief sanitary inspector for Glasgow, argues that greater use be made of housing acts to force private developers and building companies to construct superior housing for the working classes with better sanitation and more spacious living conditions, and housing with rental charges that took into account the ability of the working classes to pay.

The publication of these findings were seized upon by the Independent Labour Party to highlight the exploitation of the poorest sections of society by unscrupulous landlords and to demand government action to ensure the provision of better-quality housing for the working classes.

Source: Gallacher Memorial Library, Glasgow Caledonian University Special Collections and Archives