Tenement Close

Oor hoose was on the top landing of the four storey high tenement. My faither preferred this as we didn't have anyone stamping on the floor above us and we benefited from the heat rising from the other floors. My mother however, had to drag a pram, several small children and all the shopping up four flights of stairs. The close mooth was dark and gloomy during the day but was lit by gas light at dusk by the leerie, giving a soft, warm glow and very distinctive smell. The stairs were extremely uneven, worn down by the comings and goings of hundreds of tenants over the previous century. Our close didn't have fancy tiles on the walls as others had, but was simply painted with dark shades of browns and greens. The upper floors were brighter as light could enter easily through the ster heed windies which faced out onto the back coorts. We always referred to the small flat as oor hoose, even though it was no more than two rooms and a kitchen.

The Cairney family struggle up the stairs as the 'leerie' lights the gas lamp.
Picture

The flat was T-shaped with a long loby which had a front room and kitchen at the end and another bedroom off the loby. Our expectations didn't aspire to having a front door of our own and a garden was unheard of. We were fortunate to have our own toilet, with a flushing cistern, which was no more than the size of a small cupboard with no windows but it afforded us privacy and most importantly, cleanliness.

Each neighbour took turns to clean the close which was kept immaculately clean. Weans weren't allowed to play in oor close for fear of making a mess or too much noise. If my Da had a little spare money, he would pay gypsy women to clean the close, so my ma didn't have to work too hard. Rather than having dirty weans running up the clean close for their dinner, mothers would fling pieces wrapped in waxed bread paper, out of the window. The demise of this everyday practice was immortalised in the song 'Skyscraper Wean' which highlighted the fact that "yea cannae fling pieces oot a twenty storey flat".

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