Here’s a fantastic new photo of Shuttle Row, seen here for the first time online. The photo is one amongst a collection I have, taken by photographer David Ritchie, kindly shared with Blantyre Project by Alex Bowie.
Though there is no date on it, it’s certainly after 1897, (as I can see the little Jubilee plaque on the gable wall which was put up that year). It’s almost certainly the first decade of the 20th Century, sometime before 1910, a time when these homes had been condemned. It’s not the worst photo I’ve seen of Shuttle Row, despite the plaster render missing in many places on the outside. The windows, stairs and chimney pots largely intact, whereas in a later decade had deteriorated further.
Four boys stand at the steps, perhaps playing a game of pennies against the wall? A group of young women and girls stand at the door. Everything looks grimy, a reminder how hard women in the family must have worked in laundry rooms and drying greens to keep clothes clean and white.
