{"id":224280,"date":"2025-06-29T15:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T15:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/224280\/"},"modified":"2025-06-29T15:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T15:18:09","slug":"emotional-locals-react-to-caledonia-road-flats-demolition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/224280\/","title":{"rendered":"Emotional locals react to Caledonia Road flats demolition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds\u00a0of onlookers gathered\u00a0in the Gorbals\u00a0to watch the two Caledonia Road high-rise blocks of flats be demolished.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some of them arrived hours earlier to secure a good view of the explosion, and crowds filled the closed streets around the exclusion zone.<\/p>\n

There was a tension in the air as anticipation rose for the controlled explosion, and an emotional atmosphere as many locals shared stories about\u00a0the high-rise flats.<\/p>\n

Tales are being exchanged, including stories of people growing fruit on their verandas.<\/p>\n

The Glasgow Times was among the crowds, and we spoke with a few locals, some of whom still lived nearby or had moved away.<\/p>\n

The flats were levelled today, June 29 (Image: Julie Howden)<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Caledonia Road high rise flats in Glasgow’s Gorbals have been demolished<\/a><\/p>\n

William Semple, 32, had lived in the flats with his mum. He said: “It’s emotional. Very emotional.<\/p>\n

“I spent the best part of like two to three years in my life in the flats with my mum, and then I got my own house.<\/p>\n

“But coming back here and seeing them come down, yeah, it’s a really emotional experience.<\/p>\n

“You could see them towering over everything, and it’s going to be weird not seeing it anymore, honestly.<\/p>\n

“Bring on the new, I say, though, and it’s all going to be social housing, I think, so it’s all going to be for a good cause as well.”<\/p>\n

Glasgow reacts to Caledonia Road flats demolition in Gorbals (Image: Newsquest)<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Major road outside Scottish city closed as emergency services race to scene<\/a><\/p>\n

Terry Porter grew up in the maisonettes on Caledonia Road next to the blocks but has since moved to Linwood<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Terry, 56, was there with his wife Annemarie, 55. He\u00a0said: “I watched the other two blocks come down with my kids 10\/12 years ago.<\/p>\n

“The\u00a0skyline of the Gorbals\u00a0is now utterly changed with\u00a0these\u00a0coming down.<\/p>\n

“But they were put up for a reason, and a lot of people say it’s a lot nicer coming down, and people get a chance at decent houses with gardens, etc.<\/p>\n

“It’s hard to see the last fingerprint of the Gorbals\u00a0highrises coming down.<\/p>\n

“It was important to come here, I felt like I had to underline\u00a0things just to see them coming down.”<\/p>\n

Terry spoke about the\u00a0Queen Elizabeth Square towers being\u00a0blown up in a controlled explosion in September 1993.<\/p>\n

A family friend, Helen Tinney,\u00a0was part of a large crowd watching the demolition of the 22-storey flats when a piece of flying debris struck her.<\/p>\n

Mrs Tinney, 61, died in the Victoria Infirmary after collapsing at the scene of the blast.<\/p>\n

Demolition of High Rise Flats in Queen Elizabeth Square, 1993 (Image: Newsquest)<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a09 high rise demolitions that reshaped Glasgow’s skyline as Caledonia Road next<\/a><\/p>\n

Scott Maclean, 30, stays at the edge of Richmond Park and could see the flats from his window.<\/p>\n

Scott said: “I think it’ll be quite historic. It’s in our skyline, from the windows, that we can see it from the house.<\/p>\n

“It’s very interesting to see it change. They were\u00a0very prominent.<\/p>\n

“They’ve been empty for a couple of years.<\/p>\n

“So, it’ll be nice to see the area used for something. Don’t know what that is, but I’m sure it’ll be better than two empty highrises.”<\/p>\n

Gary Mason, 53, also lives nearby and agreed that the demolition was the right thing to do.<\/p>\n

He said: “I think it’s actually probably good to go. Some people that probably have lived here for a long time, it’s a landmark, isn’t it?<\/p>\n

“But then I think to see them go there, it’s\u00a0like clearing away trees and all that. It’s new growth.<\/p>\n

“It allows new people to come in and get the benefit from the new places.<\/p>\n

“It is the end of an era, but I think it’s better, it’s nice to maybe see that they could have something a little bit different than that.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds\u00a0of onlookers gathered\u00a0in the Gorbals\u00a0to watch the two Caledonia Road high-rise blocks of flats be demolished. Some of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7826],"tags":[748,88515,88517,918,4884,88518,712,88516,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-224280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-glasgow","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-caledonia-road","10":"tag-controlled-explosion","11":"tag-glasgow","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-queen-elizabeth-square","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-terry-porter","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114767324992043430","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}