Abbotsford Place, east side, north of Cumberland St. April 1973
Abbotsford Place, east side, south of Bedford St. July 1973
Abbotsford Place, east side. July 1973 Abbotsford Place, more than anywhere else in the Gorbals, anywhere else in the city, had an air of faded grandeur. It was a ruined, down-and-out aristocrat of a street. Built, without uniformity but harmoniously enough, between 1820 and 1830, it was to be a douce New Town for professional people, just a step across the river from the city. The width of the street was generous, and each flat had an interior wc, which was an exceptional luxury in these days, and generally five spacious apartments, the dining room around 22ft by 16ft. For 30 or 40 years it was a ’good’ address, but the coming of the railway gave the middle classes the freedom to move further afield, to leafy suburbs far from the city slums, and the decline of Abbotsford Place (and Cumberland St and Nicholson St and others) was rapid. The size of the flats meant they were highly suitable for multiple occupancy, and successive waves of immigrants, Irish, eastern European Jews, Italians, and more recently Asians found in them a foothold on the property ladder. These tenements were soundly built, and could have been refurbished. The lack of imagination which led to their removal was shameful.
