greater pollok heritage

BLACKSTONE CRESCENT, POLLOK

"I came to Pollok in 1946 from Tradeston and moved into Blackstone Crescent. I've lived there ever since. We called them the White Houses as children, not because we thought they were presidential palaces but because they were painted white! Our family were allocated a house originally in Levemside Road but my mother swapped with another family as she felt that Levemside, being on a main road, was not best for a young family. These were and still are, great houses for big families. We were delighted to find a big garden and there were several primary schools nearby, including Drumcross and

Langton Road. There were plenty of green fields to play in then and although there has been some development since, there is still plenty of green space. In the winter, I can remember sliding down the fields on sleds.

Blackstone was a nice place to live in then and many have bought their houses now. Very little traffic in the beginning and as kids we played all day and night in the summer on the streets at peever, rounders and chalked on the pavements, much to the dismay of our neighbours who would come out with buckets of water to remove the offending chalk! There used to be plenty of characters who came around selling things then, like gypsies and 'Onion Johnnies' on bikes. Whatever happened to all the characters..?"

NETHERPLACE ROAD, POLLOK

"We came to Pollok in 1965 from Kinning Park and moved into a flat in Netherplace Road, close to the police station. Netherplace Road  is one of the few tenement streets still standing in the area. The school clinic was built later, opposite our close and we played football in there for years. It is now the Mohsen nursing home.  When we came to Pollok we were amazed at the bathroom with a real bath and own inside toilet. It was coal fires then and a coal bunker in the porch. The kitchen had no fridge or washing machine. There was no frozen food then. Milk and margarine were kept in the pantry and replaced on a daily basis. The coal fire had to be made every morning and you froze until it was lit. The old ashes were taken down to the 'midden' on a daily basis. The coal fire heated a boiler so no hot water in the mornings, except what you could get from the kettle. Washing clothes and bed linen was done in the two deep porcelain sinks in the kitchen. Sitting between them was a big ACME wringer and you needed some strength to get wet bed sheets through that. Washing was hung in the back courts on good days (rare) and on a pulley in the kitchen when the weather was wet (often). I can still remember trying to cook in that kitchen with the damp washing hanging down around you! It was a three bedroom house but the two smaller bedrooms had no heating. The biggest room had a tiny gas fire which was popular with everybody on cold winter mornings. The nearest shops were at Peat Road (now gone) and Leithland Road (still there). Nothing open at night so the ice cream vans like Pacinis did a roaring trade. Despite this, we thought it was great - and a marked improvement from single ends and back close toilets which you had to share. The biggest difference we noticed however was the grass - it was rare in Kinning Park but in Pollok we were surrounded by it. As fanatical footballers, that was just heaven to wee boys like us....."