An Accurate Description of What Is Happening in the Wyndford
daishin and greum maol stevenson in Wyndford. Photo: Chris Leslie
“All that is solid melts into air.”—Marx
“All conditioned things are impermanent.”—the Buddha
Since formally announcing that the demolition of the Wyndford high flats would go ahead, Glasgow Housing Association seems to have wasted no time in clearing out the tenants. In the evenings, I look from my window at the block that faces the one I have lived in for five years, and there are very few lights on. I assume my block looks the same.
daishin and I are in the process of moving to another flat, still in the Wyndford, only a few minutes walking distance from the condemned one in which I type these words as I sit in a living room that will soon not exist. Other tenants are not so fortunate, and are being relocated to Drumchapel and Knightswood, with the promise of flats twice the size and far less rent than the ones here. Some people were happy to move, and others — some of whom have lived in their flats for decades — were heartbroken.
We like our new flat, and we love the Wyndford and Maryhill, and it will be nice to live in a building that is being cleaned. So we have no personal complaint.
But the correct name for this is not “regeneration,” or “a bright new dawn,” which are the words GHA is using.
It is a shame. So much history is being destroyed, so many lives lived here are being disregarded, and the North Glasgow skyline is being vandalised.
For some, it might be “regeneration.”
For some, it might be a “bright new dawn.”
But, for this community, it is just a damn shame.
#WyndfordHighFlats #maryhill #GlasgowHousingAssocation #gentrification #landlordism #SocialHousing #SocialCleansing #classism
