Publication Account
Date 1985
Event ID 1016555
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016555
From the outside, No. 145 Buccleuch Street is like many thousands of other Glasgow tenements that were built towards the end of the last century to provide comfortable accommodation for the growing numbers of lower middle class families. But, unlike its neighbours, it has not been modernised, and still remains much as it was in the early decades of this century. This is not a recent recreation of a 'twenties' interior but is the untouched home, containing the personal effects of an unremarkable Glasgow spinster, Miss Agnes Toward, who lived here from 1911 until she entered hospital in 1965. She died ten years later and in that time her home remained untouched, until one of her beneficiaries arrived, accompanied by his niece Anna Davidson, to collect a bequest Miss Davidson was fascinated by the period piece flat, bought it, and preserved the day to day paraphernalia of Miss Toward's life.
Miss Davidson sold the flat to the National Trust for Scotland, who recognised the unique opportunity to conserve a complete household which exemplified a way of life that was rapidly disappearing.
By modem standards the flat is rather small, comprising parlour, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom, but by comparison with the cramped housing conditions of much of Glasgow populace in 1892, when the tenement was built, it was spacious, and properties of this type would have been much sought after.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: The Clyde Estuary and Central Region’, (1985).
