PARKHEAD LIBRARY & BATHS - by "Boaby" Irvine

That good picture of the Parkhead Baths takes me back.
I remember well the baths and the steamie.

Monday morning would see all the wives and Mothers in the area with prams loaded up with the biggest bundles of washing you ever saw.

And of course there were the other bundles, smaller in size usually, with a suit or a coat.

These were destined for one of the two pawn shops up the street at Parkhead Cross where they would remain until the following Friday - in time for the man of the house's Friday or Saturday night oot at the pub.

I don't know if my Mam ever pawned any thing - but I am open to the concept that she may have had to.
My Dad was a coal miner and over the years he was on strike more times than I care to remember.

Good old Parkhead steamie!
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(Posted by Robert (Boaby) Irvine)
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aka Bobbythescot@yahoo.com
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*Editor's Note:
Our Wee Bobby Irvine from Glamis Road, Parkhead, and former inmate of Newlands School, nowadays lives in eastern Canada, in the city of Oshawa, Ontario. He also maintains a summer residence in the beautiful Lake Country of Ontario, where he can spend time engaging in one of his favourite pastimes - fishing - and at the same time escape from the worst of the sweltering summer heat of the big city - not unlike the sweltering heat of the old Steamie!

The Black Cat Cinema, by Boaby Irvine

I remember the Black Cat well!

Ma aunty Ina took us tae see Calamity Jane in there. Ina was a rather young aunt, not much more than a teenager - aboot 18 or so.

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We settled into watch the picture and then along comes this big fat wummin who sat right doon in front of my aunty Ina, blocking oot the whole screen. And to make matters worse she was wearing a hat with big feathers in it.

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Ina was beside herself as the big wummin settled doon tae watch the glamorous Doris Day.

Ina fidgited about and then finally seemed to settle doon. At the end of the picture we all trooped oot in a single file, when Ina, calm as a mill pond, tapped the big wummin oan the shooder and haunded her the feathers or what ever the decoration wis oan her hat.

The big wummin's face turned awe shades of red and we took aff running like the boaggy man wis efter us.

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It seems what Ina was looking for in her Bag was her nail scissors, and unseen by us and all around, she cropped the big wummins hat as if she were cuttin floowers fur the hoose.
Ma wee aunty Ina was, and still is to this day, a riot - and a force to be reckoned with.
Awe ra best,
Boaby (Robert) Irvine
a.k.a. Bobbythescot@yahoo.com

Free Glasgow East End Photo's

I am going to try a wee experiment here... I am offering to try and take pictures of specific buildings or places in and around Parkhead and the East End of Glasgow.

All you have to do is e-mail me the specific location of the photograph that you would like me to take, and say a wee bit about why you would like that photo. I will then do my best to take the requested photo as soon as I can. I will then e-mail the photo directly to you, and if I think it will be of general interest, I will also post it on this Blog page. I am thinking that it will be appreciated by ex pats and former citizens of the East End of Glasgow who want to know what a specific place looks like now ! You can link to my e-mail via my profile on the right hand side (Brian Charlton) Admin Team.

Newlands Wall Plaque

We have been asked to display this picture in the hope that someone out there may recognise some of the names on it. It was mounted in the hall in Newlands School and the dates run from 1942 to 1954. Does anybody know anything about it ? What are the "James & Flora Powell Medalists" ?

(I have lost the original e-mail about this, if you sent this to me, let me know your name and I will add it to the posting. Brian Charlton)

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(Photo by kind permission of Charlie McDonald

at the "Glesca Keelies" Website.)

Calton Church Parkhead

Just for you Boaby (and anybody else who is interested) since you have mentioned it a few times. Here are a couple of photos of Calton Church in Helenvale St Parkhead as it is today. My brother Eddie and me both went to the Life Boys then the B.B. in this church when we were young.

The Black Cat Cinema

The Black Cat Cinema was at the corner of Springfield road and Dechmont street. Some time in the 1950s it was bought over by the BBC and made into a recording studio. There was an outdoor kids show that the BBC had touring around Scotland, I think it was called "Caravan" and it was a bit like the later "Crackerjack". Anyway I remember one time they were supposed to be puting on a show in Tollcross Park but it poured from the heavens all day, so they abondoned the park and decided to have it in the Black Cat Studios. But of course they did not have a live audience to hand, so they came over to Newlands school to see if they could borrow all of the children to make up an audience. We were all trooped over to the studio to see the live show which was great. Imagine my mothers surprise when she came home from work that afternoon and sat down for a cuppa in front of the telly only to see me and my brother jumping up and down live on T.V. in the front row.

Parkhead Library & Baths 1963 -1966

Thanks to Brian Charlton

for making special trips into Glasgow
to capture for us these photos of the places we spent our childhood years in and around.

It's terrific to see the colours these buildings were originally - and not the shade of Dark Black (!) they appeared to be made of back in the 1950's and 1960's.

I was a member of this Library my whole school life and went once a week for new adventure stories to read in bed at night. Later on, in my early teens, my pals and I would use the Baths.

We would typically go up to the Baths on Saturday morning and, while soaking in the hot tubs, would sing our hearts out, rendering our best efforts with the latest releases: "She Loves Me," the Beatles, "I Can't Get No Satisfaction," Rolling Stones, and most of the songs in the Top Twenty that week. Some of the younger married women, unseen in their own private bath cubicles around us, would join in singing the chorus with us, as almost everyone knew the Lyrics, or at least the chorus, from listening to the pirate radio stations - Radio Luxembourg & Radio Caroline, and television's best show, Top of the Pops, on each Saturday evening at 6:00pm.

That program on Saturday night gave us the lyrics, and we had all week then to practice them by heart, in time for our next Expedition & Concert at the Parkhead Baths. We had to put up with the occasional shout from some crabbit auld wummin who'd snarl loudly, "Here youse! Ahm tellin youse tae KEEP IT DOON HEN!"

Undaunted, we would call back, "Sorry missus, we'll try tae sing quieter." Then after a wee interval, we'd go back to expressing ourselves lustily. Those ancient Romans in their famous Baths had nothing on us up at Parkheid!

See the Newlands team rehearse for Saturdays at the steamie......

Beach Ponies at Prestwick 1953

Mr. McFarlane, Stew Merrilees, Grace McFarlane and my Mum, Sadie Merrilees. The families had met outside the City Bakeries and obviously got on well with each other.
Imagine riding the ponies along the beach (sheer terror) although they were probably hand led.
Years later I remember leaving the 3Ps after watching The Lone Ranger and all I wanted to be was a cowboy with a white horse, I think I gallopped all the way home to Malcolm Street.

What a great photo and memory Stew.....you seem to have been consistently photographed with young ladies from your earliest years on earth........and I do believe this trend continues to this day. ~ (Scotbandit)