Tenement Housing

Tenement flats in Glasgow can be very diverse, they are spread throughout varied areas, and some are absolutely beautiful. I happen to live in a very nice one. The block behind ours was built about a hundred years ago, so I think this will be around the same age. I have a wally (tiled) close (not the best I've ever seen and a tad run down, but still a wally close), a storm door and lovely moulding on the living room ceiling, plus this very attractive etched glass in the inside front door. This isn't actually the original (ask my old flatmate and her friends' questionable friends about that!), but a replacement, the original had a woman on it, and I actually prefer this. I do have the other characteristic bits too - the long thin bathroom, and the tiny kitchen (characteristic not of how they were built, but of conversions over the years, where the bed recesses/presses (large cupboards) were turned into tiny kitchens and the original kitchens into another bedroom). The flat below mine has done an interesting conversion, having cut off the end of the bathroom to form an even tinier than usual kitchen, but the way my flat is laid out is probably more common. I love the size and space of tenement flats, with high ceilings and big windows, but really miss my kitchen table from my days in Russia, where the idea of having a kitchen too small to put a table in it is madness. To be fair the house I grew up in was a dining kitchen too, so I think that may be part of my yearning for a table!

As I write I'm listening to Radio 5 Live, go Andy!