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Double demolition as Glasgow tower blocks to be blown up

Google The view from the ground to the top of two tower blocks standing side by side on a sunny day, with just a few fluffy clouds in the sky.Google
Numbers 305 and 341 Caledonia Road will disappear from the skyline on Sunday

Two well-known Glasgow tower blocks are to be blown up in a planned demolition on Sunday.

Numbers 305 and 341 Caledonia Road in the Gorbals will be brought down to make way for new housing.

Owners New Gorbals Housing Association (NGHA) will replace the high-rise flats with more than 100 new social rent homes.

It is understood the explosion will take place on Sunday afternoon with a large exclusion zone set up including the nearby Southern Necropolis cemetery and the Gorbals Rose Garden.

Google Waddell Court, a large grey multi-storey block rises into the sky, with a sign showing number 83 and "Waddell Court" on the side on the bottom floor.Google
Waddell Court, next door, will be the only remaining tower block in the Gorbals

The Caledonia Road flats were constructed in the 1960s as an answer to slum housing, overcrowding and disease.

Glasgow struggled after World War Two and the Gorbals area became known as one of Europe's worst slums.

About 40,000 people lived in deteriorating tenement housing.

By the time the 1960s arrived, high rise flats were one solution to clear the accommodation and build new homes.

These concrete blocks were often criticized for being poorly designed, damp, and failing to improve community life, although many local people spent happy lives in these flats before they started being rehoused in 2021.

Getty Images A black and white image of a young Gorbals boy sitting on a wall in front of a tenement in the middle of being demolished, with the bones of a tower block under construction beyond it.Getty Images
A young Gorbals boy in the 1960s watches as tenement buildings are torn down and new high-rise flats are constructed

Many were eventually demolished in controlled explosions as part of ongoing regeneration efforts.

The spectacle of collapsing Gorbals tower blocks has attracted attention over the years.

Towers in Sandiefield Road came down in 2013, with Norfolk Court's flats taken down in 2016.

The Stirlingfauld Place towers were blown down in 2008.

The large Queen Elizabeth Square towers came down in September 1993, ending in tragedy.

Sixty-one-year-old Helen Tinney died after being struck by debris as she watched the demolition.

PA Media A head-on image of a row of high rise flats, mid-explosion. We look on from behind a row of people watching the whole thing. The flats are collapsing in in themselves from the middle out, plumes of dust going into the sky.PA Media
Queen Elizabeth Square's flats were demolished in 1993

The future of the two Caledonia Road had been sealed by the costs involved in bringing dangerous cladding up to acceptable safety standards.

After these two blocks come down, just one tower will remain, the neighbouring Waddell Court.

The controlled blow down will be managed by contractors Dem-Master.

The company has been liaising with other local residents on the arrangements for the demolition. About 850 households will be evacuated from the surrounding area before it can go ahead.

The exclusion zone will allow people to observe from a safe distance and people have been warned to expect a loud and dusty process.

Dem-Master has been preparing the towers for several months - stripping the buildings and making sure viable materials can be reused.

It said that it had worked with the housing association to save tonnes of material from going to landfill.