Goodbye Red Road

Built in the 1960's to tackle the city's housing crisis, and once the tallest residential buildings in Europe, they were home to around 5,000 people.

Two blocks had already been demolished in 2012 and 2013, today the remaining six were to come down in one controlled explosion.  A lot of concern locally, some protesters staying in their homes within the exclusion zone, to be evicted by sheriff officers and police.  

Safedem weren't giving a time, but rumour had it at 11am, then 12 noon, then 2 pm. "Naw, 3 pm. Naebody really knows!" 

I took this shot from Queen's Park around 10.30 am, went back just after 12 noon, hung around until 1.45 pm and gave up.  Loads of people there hoping to witness the moment.  

"Nae warnin' or nuhin", no claxon or signal as they were about to come down, then suddenly just after 3.15 pm, they were down in a matter of two or three seconds.  Extra shot taken as the dust filled the air across the city.  The top sections of two buildings didn't crash down, not sure if that was supposed to happen or not.  Interesting that it took around ten seconds before we heard the loud "bang" on the southside.  

Great shot from Stuart Robertson here.