McFadden, Yvonne (2016) Creating a modern home: homeowners in post- war suburban Glasgow, 1945-1975. PhD thesis. https://theses.gla.ac.uk/7410/ Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Creating a Modern Home: Homeownership in Post-War Suburban Glasgow 1945-1975 Yvonne McFadden MA (hons), MSc Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of PhD Department of History College of Art School of Humanities University of Glasgow June 2016 © Yvonne McFadden 2016 Abstract This thesis examines how married couples bought and created a modern home for their families in suburban Glasgow between 1945-1975. New homeowners were on the cusp of the middle-classes, buying in a climate of renters. As they progressed through the family lifecycle women’s return to work meant they became more comfortably ensconced within the middle-classes. Engaged with a process of homemaking through consumption and labour, couples transformed their houses into homes that reflected themselves and their social status. The interior of the home was focused on as a site of social relations. Marriage in the suburbs was one of collaboration as each partner performed distinct gender roles. The idea of a shared home was investigated and the story of ‘we’ rather than ‘I’ emerged from both testimony and contemporary literature. This thesis considers decision-making, labour and leisure to show the ways in which experiences of home were gendered. What emerged was that women’s work as everyday and mundane was overlooked and undervalued while husband’s extraordinary contributions in the form of DIY came to the fore. The impact of wider culture intruded upon the ‘private’ home as we see they ways in which the position of women in society influences their relationship to the home and their family. In the suburbs of post-war Glasgow women largely left the workforce to stay at home with their children. Mothers popped in and out of each other houses for tea and a blether, creating a homosocial network that was sociable and supportive unique to this time in their lives and to this historical context. Daily life was negotiated within the walls of the modern home. The inter-war suburbs of Glasgow needed modernising to post-war standards of modern living. ‘Modern’ was both an aesthetic and an engagement with new technologies within the house. Both middle and working-class practices for room use were found through the keeping of a ‘good’ or best room and the determination of couples to eat in their small kitchenettes. As couples updated their kitchen, the fitted kitchen revealed contemporary notions of modern décor, as kitchens became bright yellow with blue Formica worktops. The modern home was the evolution of existing ideas of modern combined with new standards of living. As Glasgow homeowners constructed their modern home what became evident was that this was a shared process and as a couple they placed their children central to all aspects of their lives to create not only a modern home, but that this was first and foremost a family home. Table of Contents List of Tables i List of Figures ii Acknowledgments iii Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Chapter 2: Finding A House in Post-War Suburban Glasgow 45 Chapter 3: Creating a Home Together 95 Chapter 4: Privacy and Space in Family Homes 151 Chapter 5: The Kitchen: A Workroom 199 Chapter 6: From Modern Home to Family Home 241 Appendix 1: Interview Biographies 253 Appendix 2: Information Sheet 257 Appendix 3: Consent Form 259 Appendix 4: Interview Guide 261 Bibliography 263 List of Tables Table 2.1 Marital Condition as a proportion per 1,000 in Scotland Table 2.2 Tenure and Dwelling Size, 1961 Table 2.3 Areas houses were located from the sample group Table 2.4 Preferred type of house of working-class men and women wishing to relocate in 1943 Table 2.5 Building Society Figures for the Types of houses being purchased in 1969 Table 3.1 Economic Activity of Married Women i List of Figures Figure 2.1 Main Stages of the extension of Glasgow City Boundaries Figure 2.2 Arisaig Drive Mosspark, n.d. Figure 2.3 Map of Glasgow showing residential areas with study suburbs highlighted Figure 2.4 ‘Give your baby a place in the sun’, Sunday Mail, 13 March 1938, p.15 Figure 2.5 Layout of a two room and kitchen tenement Figure 2.6 General View of Stamperland, Clarkson, c. 1940 Figure 2.7 Mactaggart and Mickel Semi-detached bungalow, Merrylee Park, Giffnock, built c. 1930s Figure 2.8 Edwardian suburban semi-detached villa, dressed in red sandstone, Lamington Road, Cardonald Figure 2.9 Post-war semi-detached villa, Braehead Estate, Cathcart built c.1952-1956, dressed in concrete brick Figure 2:10 Western Heritable Company cottage flat, Cardonald, Glasgow, built c. 1920s Figure 3.1 Woman's Own, 11th March 1954, p.32 Figure 3.2 Woman’s Own, 22nd March 1956, p.19 Figure 3.3 Wylie & Lochhead Department store, Furniture Catalogue c.a. 1960 Figure 4.1 ‘This man once paid rent…just as you do!’ Sunday Mail, 13 February 1938 Figure 4.2 Layout of a Western Heritable Ground Floor Cottage Flat Figure 4.3 Illustration from Mark Abram’s ‘Home-centred Society’ Figure 4.4 Downstairs Plan of Three-Apartment terrace house in Braehead, Glasgow Figure 4.5 Colour Advertisement for Orchard Park, Thornliebank Figure 4.6 Plans Upper Level of a Three bedroom, Five Apartment Semi-detached house built by Mactaggart and Mickel at Braehead, Glasgow Figure 5.1 Extract from the ‘Three Wishes’ advert for Mactaggart and Mickel’s housing in Clarkston. Figure 5.2 Ground floor of a five apartment house in Braehead Estate, c.1954 Figure 5.3 ‘Kitchen Planning’, Horlicks Home Book, 1964, pp. 160-161 Figure 5.4 Wylie and Lochhead photograph, c.a. 1960 Figure 5.5 The original scullery for the Blue kitchen in ‘Kitchens Transformed’, Woman’s Own, 9 January 1960 Figure 5.6 The Blue Kitchen, ‘Kitchen’s Transformed’, Woman’s Own, 9 January 1960 Figure 5.7 The Yellow Kitchen, ‘Warm and Glowing’, Woman’s Own, 12th January 1956 Figure 5.8 Image showing the housewife using a single tub with a manual wringer, Good Housekeeping’s Laundry Book, 1955 ii Acknowledgements This thesis has been a long journey with many bumps on the road. The support and understanding of many people helped to me to reach the end. First and foremost, this thesis would not exist without the men and women who graciously shared their stories with me. I would like to thank my supervisors, Lynn Abrams and Marina Moskowitz, for their patience and encouragement over these long years. I am grateful to the Economic and Social Research Council for funding this work. Without my family this thesis would never have been finished, their support has been immeasurable. Time and time they rallied to my aid offering whatever I needed – childcare, tea, a listening ear. My husband through all these long years believed in me and I thank him for all his love and support. Finally, I would like to thank my two ‘PhD babies’, Andrew and Isobel, who increased my understanding of the demands of work and family experienced by so many women throughout history. iii Chapter 1: Introduction But the house was just a house. I could have gone anywhere else. I didn’t feel a great attachment to the house. It was just where we stayed: our home.1 When Mrs Roberts was asked what she liked about her suburban house in the 1960s, she gave the above reply. The house for Mrs Roberts was the empty shell where she lived, worked and more significantly, created a family. It was the occupants of the house who made the home; ‘It was just where we stayed: our home.’ I will show that, through a process of homemaking, couples bought houses and then reconstructed them both materially and imaginatively into a home for their family. The ways in which sexual divisions of labour operated within the home environment will be examined through this process. During the immediate post-war period, the term the ‘companionate marriage’ was used to describe a marriage of partners, in which husbands and wives took on different but equally important roles in their relationship.2 Taking this concept of marriage as a starting point, it will be demonstrated that in both interviews and contemporary literature, couples presented a united front in the story of setting up home. The male ‘breadwinner’ and female ‘homemaker’ were central to the companionate marriage. However, this model often overlooks male contributions to homemaking. Therefore, I shall to explore the relationship of both men and women in the process of homemaking. In doing so, homemaking will emerge as a concept not only associated with women’s daily housework but will be redefined to include men’s contributions. This thesis will be framed around the gendered experience of home. It will look at the ways in which a couple transform a house into a modern home; how changes in women’s position in society impacted upon the home; the sexual divisions of labour in the process of homemaking, and finally, how private and social life was formed with the suburban home.