Memories of the old Glasgow steamies

Five lucky winners have been awarded tickets to see Tony Roper’s The Steamie at the Hydro this month - but there were so many fantastic entries, we are going to share some of the others in Thanks for the Memories in the run up to Hogmanay.

Over the next few weeks, we will bring you our readers’ funny and moving tales from the city’s wash-house days.

Bernadette McQuade, of Rutherglen, said: “In 1969, my gran and I would go to the Ruby Street steamie on a Thursday. Once the washing was done and on the clothes horses, my gran would take a bath. I’d look after the washing and she’d come back, smelling of carbolic soap.

“All the people there were very friendly, and would help you fold your clothes into the basket, so you could then wheel it all back up the road to Bridgeton Cross.”

She added: “I always looked forward to Thursday, because that was steamie day.”

Bernadette has a DVD copy of The Steamie, Tony Roper’s legendary play set in a Glasgow wash-house on Hogmanay.

“I watch it every year and it is so like the real steamie,” she explained. “The young ones don’t know how easy they have it today...”

Karen Kennedy, of Lenzie, recalls going to the Parkhead steamie with her mum.

“My dad would drop us off at the door and we would spend the afternoon doing the washing, and then we would be picked up again,” she said. “Afterwards, my mum would take me round to the wee fruit shop. All the fruit was outside, and I got to pick something to eat.”

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Jill Hinnrichs, who now lives in Dundee, says she is a “youngster in her sixties” but she still remembers the steamies.

“The strongest memory I have is that nobody chucked away their old prams,” she said. “They were needed to transport the piles of washing through the streets!”

Louise Bryan, of Pollokshields, got in touch to tell us she knows The Steamie “almost word for word” having watched it every Hogmanay with her late granny Euphemia Carberry.

“My granny was born and raised in the Gorbals and she lived until she was 85, still commanding the respect of everyone around her,” she said.

“I still make sure I watch it every Hogmanay just to think of my granny.”

And Maria Walsh, from the Gorbals, sent us her memories accompanied by a lovely drawing.

“Saturday morning, the beds would get stripped and my ma would take all four kids and one on the way to the Steamie on Old Rutherglen Road in the Gorbals, across the road from the Rose Garden,” she says.

“I was the oldest, so i had to stay outside and watch the younger ones as Dad had to work. Ma would pop out at different times when the washing was on. Then it had to go in to the big long drying rods.”

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Elizabeth McGinley emailed us to tell us: “There were 13 children in our family - so always lots of washing!

“My mum had to use two big Silver Cross prams and a couple of my older siblings had to push one of them. My mum wore one of those long cross-over pinnies, too.

I saw the Steamie on television and it brought back so many memories. It was a well-written piece of social history.”

The Steamie is at the SSE Hydro from December 27 to 31.