IT certainly looks spick and span on this day in 1910 when they allowed our photographer into the largest poorhouse in Scotland. This was Barnhill Poorhouse in the north of Glasgow near Springburn where the homeless were fed, washed and their belongings de-loused. There had been criticisms of harsh conditions and poor food, so we suspect this was an attempt to show things had improved.
Originally discipline at Barnhill was strict with able-bodied men required to make up 350 bundles of firewood a day, or break five hundredweight of stone in order to earn their keep.Those who failed to make the target were put on a bread and water diet instead. In the picture the rather dapper gentleman is the then governor, Mr A. Henderson.
By the end of World War Two, poorhouses were being closed down, and Barnhill metamorphosed into Foresthall Hospital which catered mainly for geriatric patients. It might have looked a bit like a prison camp, but the hospital had extensive grounds with fine gardens and lawns maintained by Glasgow Corporation's parks department.
However by the eighties even Foresthall was not needed, and was demolished, thus depriving Springburn of some of its finest greenery. Funny thing, progress.
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