After more than 40 years piercing Glasgow's skyline, the city's remaining Red Road flats are about to be brought down.;xNLx;;xNLx;When they were first built, the blocks housed more than 5,000 people and were an important part of the city’s plan to improve housing after the Second World War.;xNLx;;xNLx;The move was meant to grant families a better life from what were then the worst slum conditions in Europe. In later years, however, the reputation of the high rises would loom darkly over the city beneath them.;xNLx;;xNLx;Heroin dealers, thieves and blood on the stairwells would earn the buildings the black label "Towers of Terror".;xNLx;;xNLx;But for the people who lived in the towers, the good memories are rooted just as deep as the unhappy ones.;xNLx;;xNLx;As the final six of Red Road's towers prepare to fall, we take a look back at the historic moments that have marked the short lifetime of Glasgow's most notorious estate.
The Bruce Report on Glasgow's housing crisis highlights the city's tenement slums and calls for their replacement with modern housing schemes. Following the report, Barlornock is identified as a development area for the newly planned 'Red Road Estate'.
Glasgow Corporation architect Sam Bunton proposes a scheme to build "Manhattan-style skyscrapers" in Glasgow to house a population of 4,700 people in 28- and 31-storey tower blocks. At the time, they would be the highest in Europe.
The first three towers were formally opened on October 28, 1966, by the Secretary of State for Scotland William Ross.
In 1969, construction on the final buildings was completed and by 1971, more than 4,700 people lived in the tower blocks.
Initially heralded as a place of safety for Glasgow residents, the major turning point for Red Road came in August 1977, when a fire started by vandals ripped through an empty flat on the 23rd floor of 10 Red Road Court.
The Red Road buildings used asbestos throughout their construction, to the extent that even drilling holes into the walls to hang pictures was banned due to the risk of releasing asbestos fibers into the air.
As the Red Road flats entered a new decade, the authorities declared two of the blocks, 10 Red Road Court and 33 Petershill Drive, unfit as family accommodation.
While incidents of crime may have continued, life still went on for families in the towers.
By the start of the 1990s, the demographic of Red Road became more international, as refugees arrived from Kosovo.
The future of the towers changed dramatically in 2003 when the flats were transferred, after a ballot, to the Glasgow Housing Association. Over the next two years, the group attempted to repair and maintain the damaged buildings.
Despite the best efforts of the Glasgow Housing Association, repair costs to Red Road soon rose above that of the rental income.
While the reputation of the imposing towers continued to degrade, not everyone felt they deserved the black labels they were being given.
Artists continued to be drawn to the stories of the towers over their final years, with French high wire artist Didier Pasquette using them as a backdrop for a stunt in July 2007 for the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art.
On March 7, 2010 the towers hit the headlines again after a family of three asylum seekers jumped to their death from one of the towers.
The first of the towers to fall was the triple tower block on 153–213 Petershill Drive. On June 10, 2012, they were demolished before a watching crowd of former residents.
The 30-storey building at Birnie Court was brought down in a controlled explosion at 11.47am.
In April 2014, it was announced that five of the remaining towers would be given a dramatic Las Vegas-style explosive demolition as part of the 2014 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony.
In August 2015, Glasgow Housing Association announced that all six remaining high-rise blocks will be brought down in a one-off demolition later in 2015.
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