The Secret History of Our Streets – Duke Street will be airing on BBC Two at 9pm on Friday 1st August 2014.
Series one of the multi-award-winning Secret History of Our Streets told the story of six London streets, from Victorian times to the present day.
Now, as its people stand at a crossroads in their history, the series travels to Scotland to tell the stories of three archetypal streets in Scotland’s three great cities: Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. Endlessly surprising and not at all what you would expect, the stories of these streets are the story of a nation.
Duke Street is Britain’s longest street, running from Glasgow city centre through the heart of Glasgow’s East End. Elegant Victorian tenement blocks line the road to the south of Duke Street. Yet just 40 years ago, those tenements were under threat. This is the story of how a group of pioneering residents took on the Glasgow Corporation in a battle to save their homes.
We’ll see the story of the street’s community spirit, with a focus on telling the story of the group of residents living on the South side of Duke Street and how they fought to save their tenements from the bulldozers. This is then expanded into how our the Dennistoun community to the North of Duke Street is improving its neighbourhood, in contrast to the often stereotypical portrayal of Glasgow and the East End.
