Castlemilk back in time: The history of Castlemilk in 8 old pictures

Castlemilk was developed by Glasgow Corporation (the progenitor to Glasgow City Council) from 1953 as one of the ‘big four’ post-war housing estates on the outskirts of the city for families displaced by slum clearances alongside the booming population.

The idea behind Castlemilk as we know it today was to provide open space, fresh air, and even houses with indoor bathrooms - something working class Glaswegians had pretty much never had in their delipidated slum tenement housing in areas like the Gorbals. The history of Castlemilk goes back far beyond just the 1950s however, and boasts ties to the ancestral ancient royal family of Scotland.

Castlemilk was, for many generations, the country estate of the Stuarts - who had several blood ties and other connections to the ancient royal family of Scotland.

Their home was the plush Castlemilk House - which was bought over by a compulsory purchase order from Glasgow Corporation in 1936, shortly before the outbreak of WW2. The old Glasgow Council held on to the land for nearly two decades before they decided to anything with it.

It wasn’t until after the war, in 1947, that Glasgow sent a delegation to Marseille in France to consider the new revolutionary social housing concepts designed by Swiss-French architect, Le Corbusier.

Lending ideas from Le Corbusier, Glasgow Corporation applied the idea of building ‘townships’ within the city bounds on old land they had lying around. Thus Castlemilk, Pollok, Easterhouse, and Drumchapel were born - around the same time the new towns of Cumbernauld, East Kilbride, and Irvine were conceptualised under a similar ethos.

By December 1952, Glasgow Corporation had approved a sketched layout for Castlemilk - with an estimated cost of construction of £16m. Around 8,300 houses were to be built.

Castlemilk was principally designed and prepared by Archibald George Jury, Glasgow’s first City Architect appointed in 1951 - a post he held until his retirement in 1972.

Much of the accomodation built was of similar concept to the rest of the big four - essentially the corporation (council) housing was meant to be a modern version of the traditional Glaswegian tenements found in the inner-city. The original 1950s flats were entered from common closes much like old tenements, just now with the added benefit of interior bathrooms with running hot and cold water.

The castle that Castlemilk was built around fell into disrepair after years of neglect - eventually being demolished in 1972.

Fun fact: many of the street names in Castlemilk (Ardencraig, Ardmaleish, Birgidale, Dougrie, Dunagoil, Machrie) were derived from existing places on the Isle of Bute.

Take a look below as we explore the origins of Castlemilk as we know it today in 8 old pictures.