Calton, Glasgow
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Calton is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. The name Calton is derived from the Gaelic "coillduin", which means "wood on the hill".
It is situated north of the River Clyde, and just to the east of the city centre. Calton's most famous landmark is the Barras street market and the world famous Barrowland Ballroom, one of Glasgow's principal musical venues. The area was an Burgh of Barony from 1817 to 1846, when it was annexed by the City of Glasgow.
The lands of Blackfaulds, on which Calton now stands, originally formed part of the lands of the Archbishopric of Glasgow, but were annexed to The Crown in 1587. In 1705 the owner, John Walkinshaw, began to feu the lands of Blackfaulds (part of the Barrowfield estate) on which the old village of Calton was built, and in 1817 a charter was granted, erecting Calton into a Burgh. During the areas time as an independent burgh, there were four Provosts of Calton: Robert Struthers (1817-1818), Nathaniel Stevenson (1818-1839), Robert Bartholomew (1839-1843) and Robert Bankier (1843-1846).
The comedienne Janey Godley, in her 2005 autobiography "Handstands in the Dark", wrote about the 14 years she spent running a Calton pub, the Weavers Inn (formerly the Nationalist Bar). Her book details life there in the 1980s and 1990s, a time when the area became notorious for heroin abuse and when urban renewal began. It is a district of multiple deprivation, with the lowest male life expectancy in Scotland - 53.9 years against a city average of 69 years - and was in January 2006 the subject of a newspaper report into poverty [1]. The area is also notorious for street prostitution, being one of Glasgow's red light districts.
Most of the affordable housing is owned by Housing Associations with a high percentage of tenants on housing benefit (For example Thenew Housing Association has approximately 75% of tenants on housing benefit). Due to the revival of Glasgow City centre as desirable place to live, leading to rising demand for land and consequent overspill into surrounding areas, the Glasgow Green area has once again become a place for new luxury building development -- as once it was in the 19th century.
The area has experienced sectarian tensions for generations; the Orange Order have a particular foothold in this area and there are also Irish Republican organisations present. This is reflected, albeit much declined in modern times, in gang and sectarian related graffiti.
Calton is an area of considerable poverty and deprivation. [2] A BBC Scotland news report on 13 February 2006 pointed out that partially due to poor diet, crime, alcohol and drug abuse, life expectancy in Calton is lower than in some areas of Iraq or the Gaza Strip. A news report in the 27th October 2006 edition of the Metro newspaper gave the average lifespan of person living in the Calton area as 53 compared with the Scottish average of 78.
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