“NOT a scene from Quatermass,” said the photographer in his caption to his picture of 1977, “but the space age bin shelters in Sauchiehall Street back courts…”

Bin stories – collections, lack of collections, to recycle or not to recycle – still dominate the headlines more than 40 years later and the thorny question of how to keep bin areas clean and green prevails.

Back in ’77, the council had the clever idea of installing these sci-fi domes – wonder how that turned out? Any Times Past readers recall this innovation in back court waste disposal?

Children playing in the back court middens, 1965. Pic: Herald and Times

Children playing in the back court middens, 1965. Pic: Herald and Times

It was unlikely to impress these children, however clever it was, as they seem very happy mucking around in the back courts middens of Glasgow tenements in 1965.

The Quatermass reference by our photographer, incidentally, recalls a seminal sci-fi series of the time, written by Nigel Kneale.

Professor Bernard Quatermass was the central character, and it was set in a near future in which large numbers of young people are joining a cult, the Planet People, and gathering at prehistoric sites believing they will be transported to a better life on another planet.

The Quatermass Experiment (1953)

The Quatermass Experiment (1953)

The Professor was played by assorted actors including John Mills, Reginald Tate (pictured here in a scene from The Quatermass Experiment in 1953) and John Robinson, as well as by Lanarkshire actor Andrew Keir in the film Quatermass and the Pit.

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Keir’s early career included a stint at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, with Phyllida Law and Fulton McKay, and he went on to appear in countless, stage and screen productions including Roby Roy, Cleopatra (alongside Burton and Taylor) and Doctor Who.