{"id":146,"date":"2008-07-13T14:35:44","date_gmt":"2008-07-13T14:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elementalfilms.eu\/devilsplantation\/blog\/?p=146"},"modified":"2025-11-07T06:02:30","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T06:02:30","slug":"dreadful-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elementalfilms.eu\/devilsplantation\/dreadful-night","title":{"rendered":"trip fifteen: dreadful night"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the early hours of Sunday morning, I make the journey to Sighthill to witness the demolition of two Fountainwell towerblocks. The decision to raze these flats met with opposition and controversy \u2013 glasgowresidents<\/a> \u2013 and while Glasgow Housing Association\u2019s motives for these recent mass demolitions remain suspect, the local media speaks of \u2018killing off\u2019 whole communities. Feelings run high. As someone who grew up in a place where entire streets vanished in the space of days and weeks, I\u2019m moved by their stories, their forlorn pleas to preserve these buildings, repositories of their fondest memories. Or as one former resident put it, the monument of my youth<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Arriving at the corner of Keppochhill Road and Carlisle Street, there\u2019s an almost carnival atmosphere. It\u2019s just before 2am and the streets throng with onlookers, a couple of hundred at least \u2013 kids, mums and dads, old men, gangs of young girls, dogwalkers, neds on bikes. Most of them hold up mobile phones, poised to take pictures. Tony\u2019s ice cream van is making the most of it. On a grassy bank I join the serious snappers, the trainspotters, the demolition demi-monde, the Flickr<\/em> and Skyscraper City<\/em> fans who swap info on forum noticeboards about what they call the blowdown. If you hurry, says one, you can catch Sighthill and make it to Paisley in time. By coincidence another demolition is scheduled there this morning, three blocks in Millarston.<\/p>\n

In front of me stand the two floodlit towerblocks. Behind them stand the remaining high-rises, still inhabited, a few with lights on. I\u2019m reminded of George Thomson\u2019s mighty poem, The City of Dreadful Night<\/em> \u2013<\/p>\n

The city is not ruinous, although
\nGreat ruins of an unremembered past,
\nWith others of a few short years ago
\nMore sad, are found within its precincts vast.
\nThe street-lamps always burn; but scarce a casement
\nIn house or palace front from roof to basement
\nDoth glow or gleam athwart the mirk air cast.<\/div>\n

There\u2019s an expectant, electric mood. A warning siren sounds to heighten the tension as white, unmarked vans circle the exclusion zone, hazards on, moving slowly. While we wait, shouts go up from the crowd , false countdowns \u2013 five, four, three, two, one \u2013 then silence.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At the allotted time \u2013 2.30am \u2013 comes a third, final mournful warning. Then a series of sickening explosions followed by the sound of cracking and a dense rumble. It takes all of five seconds for the two towers to collapse, swathed in massive dust clouds that spread eastward, lit by bursts of camera flash. The entire sight strikes me as unreal. I feel strangely emotional, particularly when the crowd applaud, perhaps forgetting those who\u2019ve been moved out of their homes, uprooted, exiled from friends and neighbours.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As the dust settles, revealing two giant mounds of rubble, the crowds disperse. I overhear a woman calling out \u2013 Look! You can see the community centre now! The irony isn\u2019t lost on me. As people jump into their cars or walk off into the night the place is deserted save for a few fluorescent-jacketed workers. As I leave I notice a tent marked \u2018press area\u2019. It\u2019s empty. What else can I conclude but that the wholesale loss of our city\u2019s landmarks is no longer newsworthy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the early hours of Sunday morning, I make the journey to Sighthill to witness the demolition of two Fountainwell towerblocks. The decision to raze these flats met with opposition and controversy \u2013 glasgowresidents<\/a> \u2013 and while Glasgow Housing Association\u2019s motives for these recent mass demolitions remain suspect, the local media speaks of \u2018killing off\u2019 whole communities. Feelings run high. As someone who grew up in a place where entire streets vanished in the space of days and weeks, I\u2019m moved by their stories, their forlorn pleas to preserve these buildings, repositories of their fondest memories. Or as one former resident put it, the monument of my youth<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[58,91,107,143,159,201],"class_list":["post-146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-demolition","tag-george-thomson","tag-high-rises","tag-neds","tag-poetry","tag-sighthill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elementalfilms.eu\/devilsplantation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elementalfilms.eu\/devilsplantation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elementalfilms.eu\/devilsplantation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elementalfilms.eu\/devilsplantation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elementalfilms.eu\/devilsplantation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.elementalfilms.eu\/devilsplantation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5157,"href":"https:\/\/www.elementalfilms.eu\/devilsplantation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions\/5157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elementalfilms.eu\/devilsplantation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elementalfilms.eu\/devilsplantation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elementalfilms.eu\/devilsplantation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elementalfilms.eu\/devilsplantation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}