Whether it was for the greater good or not, the motorway changed areas of Glasgow beyond recognition. Buildings were demolished and long-established communities were displaced forcing friends, neighbours and relatives to spread out far and wide.
Glasgow city engineer Robert Bruce delivered his First Planning Report to The Highways and Planning Committee in March 1945. His radical proposals would transform Glasgow - how people would live, where they would work, how the city centre could be developed, and how people could travel across the city. In June 1965, Scott, Wilson, Kirkpatrick and Partners produced A Highway Plan for Glasgow - a definitive outline for the city’s road network for decades to come. The Glasgow inner city section of the M8 was constructed between 1968 and 1972 The once heavily-populated areas of Townhead, Cowcaddens, Charing Cross, Anderston and Kinning Park would never be the same again.
Here we take a look at those areas and how the M8 changed them forever.
13. Cowcaddens
Tenements in Cowcaddens were cleared to make way for the new motorway. | Jim Campbell