Our regular I Grew Up in Glasgow column is a way for readers to share their memories of childhoods in the city.

Here, Townhead-born man Andrew Wilson recalls his favourite playgrounds – the tenement ‘cowp’ and the Necropolis.....

Where did you live?

I was born in Glasgow Royal Infirmary in August 1948 and I grew up in a one-bedroom, top floor flat at 128 Alexandra Parade, with my mother, father and sister. It had a cowp out the back that we played in. There were two old air raid shelters and a place where the rag and bone man housed his big old horse. That entire area was pulled down and is now part of the new wing of the Royal Infirmary.

Earliest memory of Glasgow?

Playing in the cowp. It was dirt ground, lots of glass and stones, but it was our playground. We were known for having the biggest bonfires in the area on Guy Fawkes Night. The only place with actual, green grass was in the Cathedral graveyard, the Necropolis. We would stand atop the gravestones and ''shoot'' each other and fall into the huge pile of fresh cut grass and to this day when I smell that lovely smell of cut grass that image comes to my mind. The parkie would often chase us away but he never caught me as I was at one time the fastest runner in school.

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Which school did you go to?

I went to Golfhill School on Circus Drive and then Onslow Drive Secondary. We moved out the tenement around 1959, to 507 Alexandra Parade. I didn’t like it as there was no cowp to play in and no kids in the back courts, which were very clean, and empty, except for the washing hanging on the lines. From Townhead to Dennistoun, it was like moving to a different country.

Glasgow Times:

Happiest childhood memory?

The Glesga of today is not the Glesga of my upbringing. I was surrounded by gangs but never wanted to be in one. I thought they were all crazy. In London I found lots of people who agreed with me. At the time, in the 60s and 70s, 'make love not war' was the chant of the times.

Do you still live in Glasgow?

I left Glesga in 1966, aged 17. I ran away with a ten bob note (50p), the clothes on my back and a packet of fags and hitch-hiked to London. I left the UK forever in 1970, and I have seen and lived in many parts of the world. I settled in south east Asia, eventually and have been here for 20 years. I’m 74 now.