Community workshops development, Wester Hailes

Category

Library Item

Item no

19893

Title

Community workshops development, Wester Hailes

Description

Four workmen stand around a skip on a construction site. The skip rests on a base with large wheels and one of the men uses a spade to shovel debris into it. Two of the men are not wearing anything above the waist. Behind them are piles of bricks stacked on pallets at the boundary of the fenced site.

Artist / maker

Bartie, Pat

Date

1983

Size

19.8 x 14.5 cm

Type

Photograph

Wester Hailes, located on the western periphery of Edinburgh, is a post-war housing estate constructed between 1969 and 1975. On completion, the housing stock comprised a mixture of tenements and high rise. Wester Hailes possessed a declining population with a high proportion of single parent and low income households, high unemployment and a high turnover of tenancies. It was one of four peripheral housing estates chosen to take part in the New Life for Urban Scotland Initiative in 1988. The initiative and the partnerships that they generated were expected to provide valuable lessons on how to tackle the social, economic and environmental problems of large urban distressed areas. The area was extensively redeveloped during the 1990s and 2000s with a number of initiatives outlined by the Wester Hailes Partnership. These initiatives covered housing and environmental improvement, the improvement of social facilities, the provision of training opportunities and the promotion of community activities and involvement. Housing and environmental improvements have had a visible impact with a large number of properties being renovated and others being demolished and replaced with newer 'low-rise' housing.

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Related subjects

Manufacturing Industry > Manufacturing facilities > Construction sites

People > Industry > Labourers

Places > Edinburgh areas > Wester Hailes

Transport > Land > Trucks