The Tenement House

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The Tenement House in Glasgow

The Tenement House is a museum in Glasgow operated by the National Trust for Scotland (NTS).

description

The Tenement House is a museum run by the National Trust for Scotland which was visited by over 23,000 people in 2019. It is located in Glasgow at 145 Buccleuch Street in the Garnethill area. The four storey building was constructed in 1892 and was listed as the second highest category B in 2015 by Historic Environment Scotland in the Scottish Register of Monuments . Part of the museum is Agnes Toward's apartment on the first floor, which consists of four rooms and a small entrance hall. At the front are the living room and the bedroom, kitchen and bathroom at the back. The furnishings and the sanitary facilities are largely in their original condition.

story

From 1911 to 1975, the apartment belonged to Agnes Toward, who she first lived in with her widowed mother, who was also called Agnes, and later lived alone. Agnes Toward worked as a shorthand typist , her mother was a woman in her own right who worked as a seamstress and owned shops in Allison Street and Sauchiehall Street. This seems to have inspired Agnes Toward to pursue an independent life as well. The mother died in 1939, and since then the daughter has lived alone in the apartment. In 1965, suffering from dementia , she had to move to a care facility, where she died in 1975.

The apartment remained unrented during the ten years of her hospital stay. Toward had no direct descendants, and her inheritance was managed by a lawyer and her niece, Anna. They left the apartment untouched and Anna contacted several museums to see if they would be interested in taking over this window into the past until she sold the apartment to the NTS in 1982.

  • Interior of the Tenement House

  • kitchen stove

  • Fireplace in the living room

  • Dressing table in bedroom

  • bedroom

  • kitchen

AgnesToward

Agnes Toward was born in 1886; her father, William Toward, was a successful metal merchant and the family prospered. When Agnes Toward was three years old, her father died and the family lost their home. A widow's pension was only available from 1925, so that the mother had to provide for the family herself. She worked as a seamstress and had two shops in Allison Street and Sauchiehall Street, but also worked from home for private clients. To support the family, Agnes Toward trained as a shorthand typist at the Glasgow Athenaeum Commercial College after leaving school , probably because the training was affordable for her. After completing her training, she took a job with the forwarding company Miller & Richards in 1907. In 1914 she joined Prentice, Service & Henderson, where she remained until she retired at 73.

Agnes Toward collected and preserved everyday things such as receipts , old soap and handwritten recipes for chocolate cake. She did this consciously with the intention of preserving these things for posterity. Through her experience of scarcity in two world wars, she became accustomed to living frugally and stocking up. For example, there is a sizable collection of jam jars on one shelf, the oldest containing a 1929 plum jam that she made herself.

The museum today

Today the entire building is used as a museum , not just the apartment where Agnes Toward lived. Everyday things are exhibited on the ground floor to give an impression of how ordinary citizens lived a hundred years ago and what things they surrounded themselves with. On the next floor, an apartment is recreated as Agnes Toward lived in. Here, too, many everyday objects can be seen, but also private things from Agnes Toward such as photos and letters. Most of the furniture, such as a piano , kitchen equipment and bed, was actually used by her. In another apartment, more of Agnes Toward's personal belongings are on display; private photos of their ancestors and their parents, from their childhood and youth and later in life. Also in the collection are many of her letters and letters from her family and friends, as well as a collection of photographs of actresses known and loved at the time, put together by Agnes Toward. All the furnishings in the house, including the electricity , water and gas installations , have been left as they were in the mid-20th century.

The museum carries out actions for its popularization. Agnes Toward's apartment also contained a number of wally dugs, porcelain figurines depicting dogs. In 2018, the NTS asked children living near the Tenement House to make drawings or sculptures of the Wally dugs there. 23 children handed in their work, which was exhibited in the Tenement House.

Another themed exhibition deals with the eating habits and foods of a middle-class family in the early and mid-20th century. Agnes Toward was a member of St George's Co-operative Society at St George's Cross , which offered discounted groceries and essentials from local producers. Since electricity was a luxury at the beginning of the 20th century and only a few households had a refrigerator, fresh or perishable food had to be bought regularly, sometimes daily, especially fresh milk . In addition, the cooperative gave special metal cans that were distributed daily by delivery boys with fresh milk, who took the empty cans back with them. Agnes Toward made many of the supplies herself, including a variety of jams , but also bought ready made ones. During the Second World War, the Ministry of Food subsidized foodstuffs, such as orange marmalade with a high fruit content, to ensure the supply of the population.

Another themed exhibition shows a collection of household tips that Agnes Toward collected from various newspapers. Showing how, in the early 20th century, without modern detergents, white shirts were kept white, teacups cleaned of debris, coal dust and tar removed from floors and carpets, wooden chopping boards were deodorized, and more.

With The Tenement House museum also affected by the COVID-19 pandemic , a staff member wondered about Agnes Toward's experience of the 1919 Spanish flu and dug through the museum's archives to find out. As Agnes Toward worked for a mail order company, among other things, she and her colleagues had many contacts with international customers and Glasgow was also hit hard by this pandemic. Agnes Toward has also compiled documents on this subject, including various instructions on how to behave in the pandemic and how to fight it, such as bizarre advice such as a diet of porridge , jam and sugar or an urgent advice to drink more whiskey .

See also

web links

Commons : The Tenement House (Glasgow)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

itemizations

  1. ↑ The Tenement House on the National Trust for Scotland website accessed 28 November 2021
  2. ↑ Association of Leading Visitor Attractions statistics retrieved 28 November 2021
  3. ↑ a b The Tenement House at Historic Environment Scotland page accessed 28 November 2021
  4. ↑ Revealed: The story of the Garnethill woman who lived in Glasgow's Tenement House Glasgow times report of 31 July 2018, accessed 28 November 2021
  5. ↑ Alison Blunt, Robyn Dowling: Home (Key Ideas in Geography series) . Routledge, Milton Park, Abingdon 2006, ISBN 0-415-33274-5 , pp. 39 . PDF of book in partial access accessed 28 November 2021
  6. ↑ Predicting the future at the Tenement House in Glasgow Report by Rachel Campbell, Visitor Services Assistant (Collections), The Tenement House, accessed 29 November 2021
  7. ↑ She was aye workin' Report by Demi Boyd, NTS Inventory Officer Team West February 21, 2018, accessed November 29, 2021
  8. ↑ What's up at the Tenement House? Written by Real Reviews, accessed December 19, 2021
  9. ↑ Why we love the Tenement House Video by Ana Sanchez, Tenement House Visitor Services Supervisor, accessed December 19, 2021
  10. ↑ Everyday photographs reveal history at the Tenement House: Part 1 accessed 19 December 2021
  11. ↑ Everyday photographs reveal history at the Tenement House: Part 2 accessed 19 December 2021
  12. ↑ Everyday photographs reveal history at the Tenement House: Part 3 The three collections brought together and annotated by Antonia Laurence-Allen, Curator Edinburgh & East, accessed 19 December 2021
  13. ↑ The past in the post collection compiled by Ana Sanchez-De la Vega, Visitor Services Supervisor, The Tenement House, accessed 19 December 2021
  14. ↑ Photos of actresses (and their amazing lives) from the Tenement House Collection compiled by Ana Sanchez-De la Vega, Visitor Services Supervisor, The Tenement House, accessed 19 December 2021
  15. ↑ Lighting up the Tenement House , accessed December 19, 2021
  16. ↑ Where's Wally? At the Tenement House! accessed December 19, 2021
  17. ↑ 'Waste not, want not': exploring food and cooking in a 20th-century Glasgow tenement Report by Silvia Scopa, accessed 19 December 2021
  18. ↑ Vintage cleaning hacks from the Tenement House , accessed December 19, 2021
  19. ↑ The 'Spanish flu' and the Tenement House compiled by Ana Sanchez-De la Vega, Visitor Services Supervisor, The Tenement House, accessed 19 December 2021

Coordinates: 55° 52′ 5.9″  N , 4° 16′ 6.1″  W