Bryson & Son's grocery and Italian warehouse on the corner of Kenmure Street in Pollokshields, photographed by Duncan Brown in the 1880s or 1890s.
In this photograph the shop staff pose in the doorway while various groups of passers-by watch the proceedings with interest. To the right of the shop front are two boys with bare feet, and to the left are well-dressed middle class girls and boys.
The eastern part of Pollokshields was developed between 1855 and 1910 as an area of upmarket tenement flats. Building restrictions limited the height of the buildings to three storeys. The flats were large, varying in size from three to seven rooms. Shared or outside toilets were forbidden by the feu conditions and so the flats all contained water closets. Ground floor flats in Nithsdale Road and Kenmure Street were redesigned as shops in 1883 to meet local demand.
Duncan Brown (1819-1897) was a talented amateur photographer whose work documented aspects of Glasgow life from the 1850s until the 1890s.
Reference: 46
Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow School of Art Archive
Keywords:
A Bryson & Son, bare feet, boys, children, girls, grocers' shops, grocery shops, Italian warehouses, newsagents, post boxes, shop windows, shop workers, shops, tenements, toilets, water closets, women