Stirling, Riverside, Riverside Council House Estate

The first council house estate in Stirling, thought to be amongst the first constructed in Scotland, following the passing of the landmark 1919 Housing and Town Planning (Scotland) Act. Riverside council house estate is situated on a plot to the north-east of the city centre, on a flat area bounded on three sides by the Forth River. Stirling Council Archives retain an initial feu plan and housing type plans for Riverside along with photographs of the estate under construction.

The layout of the estate is much as proposed in the initial feu-plan, influenced by the garden city movement, it features streets radiating out from a recreation space opposite a tree lined riverside walkway. The housing provided was a mixture of four-in-a-block flats and semi-detached houses, in cottage style to standardised designs, set in garden plots. All are of rendered (probably tinted grey to reduce maintenance) brick with slated roofs, timber windows and doors.

Construction began in 1919 in Shiphaugh, commemorated with 1920 date plaques to properties here and on Sutherland Avenue. In deviation from the original feu two cul-de-sacs in Riverside Drive and Waverly Crescent were introduced, presumably to increase the number of available plots.

A number of individual changes to windows, doors and boundaries are now evident, suggesting many of the properties have since moved into private ownership, reflecting changes to national housing policy introduced through the ‘right to buy’ initiative launched in 1980.

Visited by HES Survey and Recording (IF & LM) 11 June, 2018 as a general record update as the estate approaches centenary year.