HE was a young boy at the time, but Eric Flack can vividly remember ‘new’ Drumchapel being built in the 1950s.

“It was quite something to watch the houses going up,” he says, with a smile. “The whole place was a building site for so long. It was a treasure trove for us kids who played in it despite being told not to.”

Glasgow Times: Fettercairn Avenue, Drumchapel, early 1950s shortly after the flats were built. Pic courtesy of Eric Flack

He grins: “I remember climbing up on a roof and falling right through it. Luckily, I wasn’t badly injured.”

Recently, Eric unearthed some fantastic old photo albums he had in his loft, and they are full of brilliant images of Drumchapel streets in the 1950s.

Glasgow Times: Monymusk Place, February 1955. Pic courtesy of Eric Flack

The brand spanking new council housing, on Fettercairn Avenue, Carolside Drive, Monymusk Place, Southdeen Avenue, Dunkenny Road and more, stands ready for families to move in; the streets are pristine; the gardens newly dug and ready for planting.

This was part of Glasgow Corporation’s slum clearance plans after the Second World War.

Glasgow Times: Carolside Drive, March 1962..Pic courtesy of Eric Flack

Drumchapel, along with Pollok, Castlemilk and Easterhouse, was created to ease the pressure on the city’s crowded residential area and was originally planned to house 34,000 people in an area annexed to the city in 1938 from Dunbartonshire.

“The houses were fantastic, and it should have worked, but there were no amenities,” says Eric, who still lives in the house in old Drumchapel in which he was born. “No shops, schools – it was not good.”

Glasgow Times: Southdeen Avenue, 1956..Pic courtesy of Eric Flack

Services were slow to materialise and there was only one post office and a telephone box in the early days. The shopping centre was not completed until the early 1960s. Recession hit in the 70s and with widespread factory closures nearby (including Beattie’s Biscuits and Goodyear) Drumchapel was badly affected by high unemployment.

Numerous regeneration programmes have breathed new life into the area, with better housing and more services, but many of the streets in Eric’s photographs are long gone.

He explains that the first houses were built and occupied were in Dunkenny Road around 1954.

Glasgow Times: Dunkenny Road, March 1954..Pic courtesy of Eric Flack

“Dunkenny Road were first to be occupied - and first to be demolished, sadly,” he explains. “Many of these buildings no longer exist now..”

Eric’s photo albums are full of other gems from Drumchapel’s past – the old post office and shop, which still exists; gala days in the 1930s, when the streets came alive with parades and parties; and Garscadden House, long since demolished by fire, which was famous for its ornate entrance - the ‘Girnin’ Gates’ - and the 14th century chapel in its grounds. During the Second World War, after it had been acquired by Glasgow Corporation, it was used to house evacuees.

READ MORE: Rush to build Glasgow houses after war - but where were the amenities?

There are also rare historical images, including one of the ‘miners’ raws’ dressed up for the Coronation of King George VI, the present Queen’s father, in 1937.

Glasgow Times: Times Past feature about Drumchapel. Miners raws (corr sp) in Drumchapel taken in 1937 showing the cottages decorated for the coronation of King George VI..For Glasgow Times, see story by Ann Fotheringham.

“The miners’ raws were houses built for workers at the local colliery,” says Eric. “They were demolished in 1939, so this is a rare photo. The bunting is there for the Coronation.”

The row included a sweet shop and a mission hall and was a thriving community in its own right.

Do any Times Past readers remember Drumchapel being built in the 50s? Maybe your memories stretch further back to the old ‘Raws’? Get in touch with Times Past.