Greenock back in time: 12 old photos showing Greenock in the 1960s

Like much of the former industrial powerhouses of Scotland, Greenock has seen better days - but in the 1960s it was really a golden age for the Inverclyde town.

Greenock has been around for hundreds of years - all the way back to the 13th century by some accounts - but the Greenock we know today really came about in the early 17th century, when the first pier was built.

Although by the turn of the 17th century, shipbuilding on the firth of clyde was already well established, the pier was the first of many ports and harbours that were to come in the coming centuries.

The likes of Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company would soon rise on the docks, securing massive contracts with the Royal Navy - before the ports would begin to welcome Cunard Liners and other hulking cruise ships. Over hundreds of years, hundreds of thousands of people were born, lived, worked, and died on the docks.

The 1960s were the last period of prosperous industry in the town - with the reduction of shipbuilding steadily increasing in the 70s into the 80s - meeting its death with Thatcherism.

In the 1960s Inverclyde was host to one photographer, Eugene Jean Méhat, who catalogued a social history of Greenock in over 600 pictures throughout the decade.

The town was under a period of huge redevelopment in the 60s, with long-standing streets and buildings being razed to the ground.

The images below were published by the McLean Museum and Art Gallery - a long standing service in Inverclyde that has been collecting and displaying local items of note since 1876.

You can see the entire Méhat archive, and much more from Greenock’s history, by clicking here for the McLean Museum and Art Gallery online collection.