Last month, residents of the Wyndford estate in Glasgow barricaded themselves in their flats in a last-ditch attempt to save their homes from demolition. The 600 socially rented dwellings, designed by Ernest Buteux and sitting next to the River Kelvin, were denied listed building status in January, and will now make way for a development of half as many homes – and triple the rental value.
Wheatley, formerly called Glasgow Housing Association, has been demolishing social homes in Scotland for decades. In 2014, Wheatley even planned to “wow the world” by dynamiting 1,326 social homes during the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony. Footage of the dwellings being reduced to rubble was to be beamed on to a giant screen in Celtic Park Stadium and broadcast live on TV. The idea was dropped , having provoked international ridicule, but the estate was razed to the ground shortly after the games, and a decade later remains a fenced-off heap of rubble.
