Growing up in Glasgow was so different from growing up in the rest of the UK, the rest of the world even - there really was nothing else like it, that's why today we wanted to celebrate a Glaswegian childhood by going back through 50 old photographs.
It was a very rough and tumble upbringing for most of us - regardless of which generation you came from. Childhood was a lot shorter - for a lot of Glaswegians school was a very brief period in their lives - entering the world of hard work and graft years before kids these days.
Many of us would have grown up in a tenement, others in towers, but wherever we grew up there was always a sense of community - always a new group of weans looking to go out and play.
Whether you were building a den or climbing some kind of structure you shouldn't be - we always found something to do in the city streets.
Take a look below as we explore the social history of a Glaswegian childhood in the 20th century.
![A group of boys spend a lazy afternoon at Bingham's Pond watching the boats drift across the water](https://www.thestar.co.uk/jpim-static/image/2024/03/26/9/30/Boating%20pond.png?crop=3:2&width=600)
1. Down the boating pond (1955)
A group of boys spend a lazy afternoon at Bingham's Pond watching the boats drift across the water | Contributed
![Growing up, an empty cardboard box was a vessel of unlimited potential for play and imagination](https://www.thestar.co.uk/jpim-static/image/2024/03/26/9/11/Boxx.png?crop=3:2&width=800)
2. Playing with boxes (1955)
Growing up, an empty cardboard box was a vessel of unlimited potential for play and imagination | The Mitchell Library
![Down the Gorbals shortly after the turn of the 20th century, a woman swings her children from a Victorian-era swingset](https://www.thestar.co.uk/jpim-static/image/2024/03/26/9/50/Swings%20Gorbals.png?crop=3:2&width=600)
3. On the swings (1911)
Down the Gorbals shortly after the turn of the 20th century, a woman swings her children from a Victorian-era swingset | Contributed
![Children sit in a ward in Ruchill hospital recovering from an illness](https://www.thestar.co.uk/jpim-static/image/2024/03/26/9/43/Ruchill.png?crop=3:2&width=600)
4. No well (1922)
Children sit in a ward in Ruchill hospital recovering from an illness | The Virtual Mitchell