In today’s Urbandoned video, we are covering a lineup of historic abandoned buildings that are
connected by being spawn of the Glasgow School Board in Scotland that dates back to the 1870s.
This new educational development removed control of teaching from the Catholic Church,
instead placing it into the hands of popularly elected members of council.
It transformed the school system for the better.
Over 75 schools were built between 1873 and 1918, and many today lie in ruins, either due to cost of
upkeep or location. Join us today as we step inside some of them to discover their state.
Our most recent question was ‘Should homeless people be
allowed to stay in recently shut abandoned buildings?’
We had more responses than ever before, but this one from ‘sph_holl26’ stood out.
They spoke about the reality of this question. Despite it being ideal for homeless people to
have a place to stay, the money involved in securing a building like this makes
it far more plausible to just provide support funding to services and charities for the same
cause, but might aim to help people in need begin living independently. Thanks for your comment.
In relation to today’s video, we would like to ask for any personal connections or stories about
the schools shown? Be sure to comment below to be in with a chance of featuring in our next upload.
After months of planning, on one day in our late Summer road trip to Scotland,
we set out to see how many disused Glaswegian schools we could manage.
At the time, we were accompanied by The Excursionists, but if you missed our
recent announcement, they are now apart of Urbandoned as 2 explorers becomes 4.
The city boasts some incredible architecture that has been preserved over centuries,
but also a lot of abandoned buildings. Months ago, we discovered that one sort of building
in particular seems to thrive in dereliction in Glasgow, schools.
Like Sir John Maxwell School in Pollokshaws
shown here, many of these structures sit neglected and shuttered off to the public.
We were immediately fascinated by the towering buildings that are dotted all around Glasgow,
but also surprised at the deterioration that has been allowed to take place at some of them.
Of course, it isn’t easy to keep a Victorian structure inhabited. Although the architecture is
impressive, it is mostly outdated and not equipped to survive centuries like the modern buildings we
see today. The cost of upkeep or rennovation for the schools is very high, and for the
council it seems that they would rather leave it alone to crumble to the ground inevitably.
In 1872, the Education Act of Scotland would create the foundation for today’s
education system. It took control of teaching away from the church, so that members of the
newly founded Glasgow School Board could make decisions, who were elected by popular vote.
Before the Act, in the city, 40% of children didn’t attend school which was more than 35,000.
10% of the attending students were regular absentees. This contributed to
acknowledged illiteracy of people leaving school and moving into their future.
Urgently, the school board wanted to reduce these figures, and made schooling compulsory for ages
5-14, as well as free which allowed families with little money to send their children into
education. Within 30 years from the Act’s passing, illiteracy had been eliminated in Scotland.
Between 1873 and 1918, 75 schools were built, each accommodating between 800-1000 students.
The construction was funded by loans from the Scotch Educational
Department.
Glasgow’s School Board completely revolutionised education in the country. By the end of the 19th
century, schooling was the norm for children and could only improve to the standard it is at today.
It seemed as if we were getting nowhere with our troubles, as every
school we had visited was sealed tight. Finally, we arrived at the imposing St
James Primary School, where our luck would change.
This school was built in 1895. It felt like fate made this the one that would turn out to
be accessible, as it is a perfect example of the potential of these abandoned structures.
The amazing three floor, balcony design was iconic with these schools.
It appeared especially surreal in St James’ due to light from the skylight
being the only natural source let into the building, with every other window boarded.
The deterioration in the building is some of the worst we have
ever seen, making many rooms inaccessible. We decided to stick
to the concrete staircases, doorways and balcony as it seemed safest.
Away from the atrium, two identical, ornate staircases carried students to higher floors.
With little furniture inside, some of the friendly wall art was our best glimpse into the past.
St James’ school closed in 2009, but was B-listed in the early 90s,
due to its fine stonework detailing. We can’t be certain but we assume the
closure relates to maintenance fees as the property has quickly fallen into disrepair.
At the top floor, we were overwhelmed by some of the craziest natural decay we have come across.
Beneath the Greek styled skylight, the floor was mossy and a huge bush had developed over time.
It’s the sort of nature caused development that would cause a collapse of this balcony in the
future, because of the weight pulling on the walls the plant is attached to.
This was the ideal start to our exploration of Glasgow schools.
The interior had shared the same degree of architecture that the outside shows
to the public and there was hardly any human destruction.
Plans are out there suggesting the refurbishment of the school into a learning environment.
It would feature twelve teaching spaces, a three court sports hall and a drama room with a stage.
With the state of the building, it seems unlikely to us that a lot of
the architecture would be saved. Also, it would cost an almighty fee to complete such
a transformation as well as a lot of time. Whether this will go ahead, we can’t be sure.
After succeeding in a walkthrough of the derelict property, it was time for us to
move on with so many other schools to check. Luckily, our next one was just down the road.
On our usual exploring days, we manage to visit two or three places before daylight runs out.
The fact we were able to see so many of these structures in one day
stresses how many of them are out there across Glasgow.
Despite our coverage of what we would consider the main ones,
we still think that we hardly scratched the surface of the sites. There are definitely
others out there, and time also for the ones we found sealed on this day to open up.
If you would like us to make this video into a series and revisit Glasgow,
let us know in the comments, but we’d say it’s very likely.
It didn’t take us long to find our way into another. This time we found ourselves face
to face with Golfhill Public School, possibly the most well known of all.
Again, located in a residential area, the three storey property, that closed in the early 2000s,
towers over its surrounding homes. Built in 1902 with red sandstone brick,
it is a good example of a School Board structure and we were excited to see what lay inside.
The difference we noticed instantly was the lack of boarding on the outside,
except for the bottom floor. This would mean that we would hardly need torches
in Golfhill, and could enjoy the building with natural lighting.
Upon entering, we triggered a motion sensor that you might be able to hear. This at least shows
that somebody is caring for the property as they arrived shortly after we had vacated the school.
We were wrong. The separated staircase was one of the strict regulations that the Scotch Educational
Department wanted in their buildings: to have separate entrances and stairs for boys and girls.
This was the normal for Victorian schools all across the UK,
as men were expected to earn a living with women staying at home.
With all the good that the S.E.D. did for education in the country, it is important to
look at this opinion they had as plainly wrong, and one that is right to be kept in the past.
It definitely felt as if some construction work was going on inside Golfhill school,
as we could find building materials and the typical yellow lights you
see during construction work. The building is also categorised as one
with restoration in progress on the Buildings At Risk register.
Compared to St James’ Primary School, this one was in a much better condition
although still falling apart in places. We were able to enter each room without worry
that the floor would be unstable which could be an affect of safety work that has gone ahead.
In Golfhill, the roof of the skylight shone light down to lower floors but was of a different make.
It’s bright red design was wooden with beam arches holding it up,
in comparison to the stone design of the school we visited prior.
Plans are underway to convert the exceptional structure into housing,
with the development team expressing how important it is to them to protect some
of the rarer details, such as the school’s towers and facade.
It would be an incredible job if successful and one we would only
want to see in years to come if we were passing.
With correct concerns that someone would be entering the structure soon
to assess the alarm, we decided to exit the building whilst still alone.
The day had gone very well, considering how well we anticipated the sealing of the schools to be.
We would love to return in the near future to
visit more and hope to bring you another video like this.
If you enjoyed, be sure to like the video and be welcome to share
any thoughts of what we could add to future videos showcasing the Glasgow School Board.
Here are some of our photographs captured on the day. If you like the look of them,
check out our Instagram page in the description where we post
images from our explores months before they are seen on YouTube.
Thanks for watching this video! Hope you liked a different sort
of exploration video as we were aiming for more of a documentary.
If you would like to see more, remember to let us know. See you next time!