By ANN FOTHERINGHAM

DID YOU grow up in the Gorbals?

You might have visited the local parks or cinemas, or went shopping along Cumberland and Crown Streets, or attended a local school.

We want to know your fond memories of the Gorbals and tomorrow our reporting team will be on hand at Gorbals Library to hear your tales.

Tell us your stories, bring along your old pictures and memorabilia from days gone by. We are looking to feature stories of Gorbals life as part of our new section Thanks for the Memories. It is part of a special nostalgia series which runs in the Evening Times every Tuesday.

Following on from the overwhelming success of our Bridgeton launch event at Glasgow Women’s Library last month, we are heading from the east end to the south side and setting up at Gorbals Library tomorrow.

Come and join us for the drop-in event, from 10am until 12 noon, is open to anyone with favourite memories of the neighbourhood and we’d love to see any old photographs, cinema tickets, newspapers or other artefacts you may have kept from the ‘old days’.

Local historian Peter Mortimer was born in the Gorbals and he says people will undoubtedly remember the area with great fondness.

“I lived up a close, surrounded by my neighbours and friends and I wouldn’t swap my childhood in the Gorbals for a million pounds,” smiles Peter.

“It was a smashing place to be. I went to Hayfield Primary and I remember going to the pictures at the George Cinema nearby, and attending the local Boys Brigade.”

He adds: “We moved to the East End when I was nine, when they were starting to pull down all the Gorbals tenements and put up the high-rises.

“There was no shortage of timber lying about in those days, because of all the building work being done, so on Bonfire Night, we’d get a pile together and light our own bonfire.”

Peter says he believes people will remember not only the sights and sounds of the old Gorbals, but the smells, too.

“There were two very distinct smells – the strong distillery smell from Strathclyde’s, where they made the whisky, and the fantastic smell of bread baking at the Co-op bakery,” he smiles.