A cartoon from The Bailie of 29 September, 1920, showing Housing Convener George Morton as a magician cultivating new houses in Mosspark like mushrooms. Mosspark had been designated as a site for council house building, and the green fields of the area were indeed transformed by the mushroom-like appearance of new housing in the early 1920s.
The Housing (Scotland) Act 1919 placed a responsibility on local authorities to provide working class housing with the help of Government subsidies. Mosspark was one of the earliest, and most ambitious, of the new post-war housing schemes. It was designed as a garden suburb consisting mostly of cottages, a radical departure from the traditional tenement architecture found in Glasgow until then.
Elected to represent Govanhill in 1907, George Morton was a Bailie of the Burgh from 1912 to 1916. As Convener of the Housing Committee, 1919-1926, he was a major influence during the early years of the house-building programme. In 1929 he was appointed City Treasurer, as post he held until his retirement in 1932 after twenty-five years of service.
Reference: Mitchell Library, GC 052 BAI
Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Libraries Information and Learning
Keywords:
cartoons, cottages, council houses, garden suburbs, Glasgow Corporation, Housing (Scotland) Act 1919, Housing Committee, housing estates, housing schemes, magicians, magistrates, mushrooms, treasurers, wizards
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