The Macdonald (and My) Family Home - Albert Street, in 1948
In the early 1930s Mary (Ramsay) Macdonald was given one of the new council houses ( a flat, in fact) in Albert Street - a stone's throw from 5 Glamis Road where she was living with her seven children. The Albert Street (to become Craig o' Loch Road) connection lasted for about 60 years, my mother taking over the tenancy after gran died, and then Hannah after my mother moved to Viewmount. Hannah lived there until she moved into a nursing home in the 1990s.
Our 'house' was at the bottom of Albert Street, on the ground floor of the first of the three white houses in the centre of the photo. (I would have been about 9 when it was taken.)
When the family first moved in they must have thought it was paradise - 3 rooms, a kitchen and a bathroom after their cramped 2-room quarters in Glamis Road. Their need must have been great. Although this was what these days would be called "social housing", several of the tenancies were allocated to business people in the town. My gran's three immediate neighbours all owned their own businesses - a butcher's (Wood), a plumber's(Whyte) and a seedsman's (Robbie) - an illustration that living in a "cooncil hoose" was not regarded as a stigma at that time. The 'Macdonaldies' must have felt they'd taken a step up in the world.
For me, growing up there - once I got out of the house - was also a kind of paradise. To the back were the West Greens with swings and the "ninies": almost straight across the road was the "Myrie", a landfill site early in the war, then landscaped and used for recreation; and at the bottom of the road, the lochside - say no more!. There was an ample source of pals - from Watt Street, Charles Street and the whole of Albert Street. And then it was the war, so we had lots of freedoms compared to the restrictions placed in children that started with the peace. Leisure too, hadn't yet been commodified. Although it's commonplace to romanticise your own childhood - but misery sells better - I wouldn't have changed anything about Albert Street. (Well, admittedly an amusement arcade would have been nice!)
The Macdonald (and My) Family Home - Albert Street, in 1948
In the early 1930s Mary (Ramsay) Macdonald was given one of the new council houses ( a flat, in fact) in Albert Street - a stone's throw from 5 Glamis Road where she was living with her seven children. The Albert Street (to become Craig o' Loch Road) connection lasted for about 60 years, my mother taking over the tenancy after gran died, and then Hannah after my mother moved to Viewmount. Hannah lived there until she moved into a nursing home in the 1990s.
Our 'house' was at the bottom of Albert Street, on the ground floor of the first of the three white houses in the centre of the photo. (I would have been about 9 when it was taken.)
When the family first moved in they must have thought it was paradise - 3 rooms, a kitchen and a bathroom after their cramped 2-room quarters in Glamis Road. Their need must have been great. Although this was what these days would be called "social housing", several of the tenancies were allocated to business people in the town. My gran's three immediate neighbours all owned their own businesses - a butcher's (Wood), a plumber's(Whyte) and a seedsman's (Robbie) - an illustration that living in a "cooncil hoose" was not regarded as a stigma at that time. The 'Macdonaldies' must have felt they'd taken a step up in the world.
For me, growing up there - once I got out of the house - was also a kind of paradise. To the back were the West Greens with swings and the "ninies": almost straight across the road was the "Myrie", a landfill site early in the war, then landscaped and used for recreation; and at the bottom of the road, the lochside - say no more!. There was an ample source of pals - from Watt Street, Charles Street and the whole of Albert Street. And then it was the war, so we had lots of freedoms compared to the restrictions placed in children that started with the peace. Leisure too, hadn't yet been commodified. Although it's commonplace to romanticise your own childhood - but misery sells better - I wouldn't have changed anything about Albert Street. (Well, admittedly an amusement arcade would have been nice!)