GCC Polmadie Complex

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GCC Polmadie Complex

Postby peasy23 » Sun Aug 04, 2013 6:31 pm

It's a place that many people will be unaware of unless they have used the civic amenity facilities over the years. The council in their wisdom have sold most of the site off to Viridor, who will demolish the current transfer station and vehicle workshops to build a new all singing and dancing facility of their own. http://www.viridor.co.uk/our-developments/glasgow-rrec.

As a result the transfer station and workshops have closed, with the workshop shutting up shop on Friday there, I've spent 26 years working in there and it's been an emotional week, not for the loss of the building, but more for the memories of the people I've worked with in there over the years, many no longer with us. I took a few pics on Friday, I'll try and get some of the transfer station too but fear it may be too late as it will probably be fenced off by Monday night when I go back to work.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/99906229@N08/sets/72157634925682915/
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Re: GCC Polmadie Complex

Postby BTJustice » Sun Aug 04, 2013 8:18 pm

When I went down I used to get sent up the ramp as I would either be in my camper or in the beetle with the trailer on the back.
I remember feeling sorry for the guy who had to sit up there with the smell and the rats but there was a bit of a thrill when there was no rubbish in the drop and you got to throw breakables onto the concrete floor below and see it smash into a million bits.
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Re: GCC Polmadie Complex

Postby Lawman » Mon Aug 05, 2013 8:48 am

Great pictures! I've always wondered what it looked like inside there!

It's a shame that it is going, it has a lot of character, always reminds me of the garages you can get for toy cars ::):
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Re: GCC Polmadie Complex

Postby robertpool » Tue Aug 06, 2013 12:16 am

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Re: GCC Polmadie Complex

Postby RDR » Sat Aug 10, 2013 8:11 pm

peasy23 wrote:It's a place that many people will be unaware of unless they have used the civic amenity facilities over the years. The council in their wisdom have sold most of the site off to Viridor, who will demolish the current transfer station and vehicle workshops to build a new all singing and dancing facility of their own. http://www.viridor.co.uk/our-developments/glasgow-rrec.

As a result the transfer station and workshops have closed, with the workshop shutting up shop on Friday there, I've spent 26 years working in there and it's been an emotional week, not for the loss of the building, but more for the memories of the people I've worked with in there over the years, many no longer with us. I took a few pics on Friday, I'll try and get some of the transfer station too but fear it may be too late as it will probably be fenced off by Monday night when I go back to work.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/99906229@N08/sets/72157634925682915/


Got a mate that works there on the weighbridge, is that going as well?
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Re: GCC Polmadie Complex

Postby RapidAssistant » Mon Aug 12, 2013 11:23 am

BTJustice wrote:When I went down I used to get sent up the ramp as I would either be in my camper or in the beetle with the trailer on the back.
I remember feeling sorry for the guy who had to sit up there with the smell and the rats but there was a bit of a thrill when there was no rubbish in the drop and you got to throw breakables onto the concrete floor below and see it smash into a million bits.


although phoning for bulk refuse collection to see your old three piece suite get chewed up by the dustcart was just as entertaining ::):
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Re: GCC Polmadie Complex

Postby shelvoke80 » Tue Oct 15, 2013 8:20 am

Hi,thanks for posting the photos of the general workshops.I too remember working there years ago when I was an apprentice.My memories are of some of the characters who were employed at the time,lots of laughs and some work done.We used to clock in under the foreman's offices which were upstairs at 07:45 but you then did not start until 07:55 as this was allowed to enable you to cross over to the amenity block to change into your overalls and cross back over the road.In reality very few people did as they preferred to have a seat and us apprentices would gather round someone's newspaper to get a read whilst the old timers would set about picking horses for the day's racing.I can well remember the lunchtime rush by guys who liked a drink to get over the fence onto Polmadie Road and into the Spur Bar for their daily beer and whisky.To help them get back into work,someone had forced the spars on the railing apart so the older ones could squeeze through.Like everyone else who has worked in these places we are left with good memories of our time and the people we worked with.
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Re: GCC Polmadie Complex

Postby RapidAssistant » Tue Oct 15, 2013 11:36 am

shelvoke80 wrote:Hi,thanks for posting the photos of the general workshops.I too remember working there years ago when I was an apprentice.My memories are of some of the characters who were employed at the time,lots of laughs and some work done.We used to clock in under the foreman's offices which were upstairs at 07:45 but you then did not start until 07:55 as this was allowed to enable you to cross over to the amenity block to change into your overalls and cross back over the road.In reality very few people did as they preferred to have a seat and us apprentices would gather round someone's newspaper to get a read whilst the old timers would set about picking horses for the day's racing.I can well remember the lunchtime rush by guys who liked a drink to get over the fence onto Polmadie Road and into the Spur Bar for their daily beer and whisky.To help them get back into work,someone had forced the spars on the railing apart so the older ones could squeeze through.Like everyone else who has worked in these places we are left with good memories of our time and the people we worked with.


Welcome to Hidden Glasgow! I have a couple of old mates that also worked in the "clennie" so have heard a few great anecdotes, would be great to hear more from you on said subject!
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Re: GCC Polmadie Complex

Postby BTJustice » Tue Oct 15, 2013 6:42 pm

I went down and took some pictures of the machine thats bringing the chimneys down;

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The Polmadie chimney eater. by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

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The Polmadie chimney eater. by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

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The Polmadie chimney eater. by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

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The Polmadie chimney eater. by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

More on flickr,
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Re: GCC Polmadie Complex

Postby Sharon » Tue Oct 15, 2013 8:15 pm

Its like a giant feeding insect! Cracking photos.
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Re: GCC Polmadie Complex

Postby Lawman » Tue Oct 15, 2013 11:22 pm

Om nom nom! ::):
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Re: GCC Polmadie Complex

Postby RapidAssistant » Wed Oct 16, 2013 9:31 am

Fred Dibnah would have been the man for that job - if he was still with us of course :cry: RIP
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Re: GCC Polmadie Complex

Postby TA_Ealing » Wed Oct 16, 2013 7:10 pm

I work at that end of Calder Street. The first chimney is half down already. It's some machine taking it down!
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Re: GCC Polmadie Complex

Postby Vinegar Tom » Fri Jan 31, 2014 9:24 pm

All gone now and pile driving to annoy the southside :D

This photo is of one of the last days of the last old Clennie chimney:

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Old Timer, Assault & Transmission by vinegartom40, on Flickr
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Re: GCC Polmadie Complex

Postby Toryglen Boy » Mon Sep 14, 2015 7:08 pm

Just discovered this section on the Polmadie Clenny.

I worked there as a schoolboy for two summers during the school holidays in 1964 and 1965, when it was a real Clenny - taking in all the City's refuse, recycling some of it, and incinerating the rest. I lived just over the way in Ardnahoe Ave, Toryglen.

I had several jobs there;

1) picking non-ferrous metals, glass, woolens etc off the conveyor belt by hand on the middle floor which contained all the household rubbish and sending them down the appropriate chute to separate piles on the floor below to be recycled and sold off in bulk to dealers.

2) a rotating magnetic belt, across the main rubbish conveyor belt would pick up all ferrous metals (iron bars, tin cans, swords, knives etc) and drop them onto another rising conveyor belt, which would drop them onto a conical pile on the ground floor. It was my job to shovel up this metal, place it into a hydraulic press and crush the metal till we had got a 'bale' of about 50lb. This would be lifted out the crusher and stored until we had enough for a lorry to come and take them away to the steelworks to be melted down again.

3) dropping clean paper from city offices onto a smooth clean floor, and successively brushing this into a large press where it would be turned into 6'x6'x6' solid, compacted bales of paper. This would then be pushed out from the bottom of the press onto a trolley to be taken to the storage area for onward disposal to dealers.

One amusing thing used to happen every time a Midgey Lorry came in with an old comfy chair or settee on the rack on top.

As soon as the lorry got to the top of the ramp from ground level and onto the top floor of the main building where the four refuse hoppers were, one for each of the main processing lines, there would be a mad rush from the younger members of the permanent staff towards this old upholstered furniture to claim it for themselves. Each would draw out a knife and set about the piece of furniture in a very precise and structured way; first, the canvass base would be carefully ripped off, then the sides where the arms were would suffer the same fate. The sole intention was to find any object of value which had been 'lost' by the previous owners, perhaps for years. In this way, coins would be found, cutlery, wallets, pens and pencils, and even yer auld granny's lost teeth would be recovered.

When I was there, the work's foreman was Bill/Willie Lamont.

I seem to remember that the Clenny also seemed to serve as a 'Sheltered Workplace' for some of the workforce, as it appeared to me that a small number of these people would never have found employment anywhere else, but for a deliberate, well-intentioned directive from those in charge of the works to take them on, and look after them.

Happy Days indeed.
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