A new film celebrates 70 years of life on Perth’s legendary Muirton council estate.
Once Upon A Time In The Muirton tells the story of the scheme through the memories of the people who lived there prior to its demolition in the early 2000s.
It’s fronted by Perth podcasters Steven Duncan and Barney Black.
The pair launched their popular Once Upon A Time In The Muirton podcast in 2021.
They have since interviewed dozens of former neighbours. And the podcast has grown from a pet project into a fond and funny social history of the estate where they grew up.
The film expands on its success, providing an honest and uplifting look back at a lost way of life.
Barney, who grew up in Malvina Place, said: “There is a richness and depth to the stories that we’ve heard over the years.
“And these shared memories mean so much to people who lived in Muirton – including me and Dunks.
“We were determined to do it real justice and to ensure the voices of the people shone through the politics and decisions of the time.”
Film depicts Muirton ‘community and companionship’
Built in the 1930s, the old Muirton was a thriving community for decades.
And Barney and Steven spoke to some of the first families to move onto the estate.
Back then, its big, roomy homes and wide, tree-lined avenues were things to be prized.
But by the mid-1980s, it had been officially classified as a “scheme of deprivation”.
The film doesn’t shy away from the poverty that was present in many people’s lives.
This was a place of rag-and-bone men, frozen pipes, and borrowing from the neighbour across the close when the housekeeping money ran dry.
But it also presents the Muirton as a lively, multicultural community which was as close-knit as they come.
The death knell sounded for the estate in the 1990s when the decision was taken to demolish the tenements and replace them with a new style of homes.
The £52.5 million Muirton regeneration project took 12 years to complete.
But by 2020, the new estate was already languishing among the 10% most deprived areas in Scotland.
Steven, who grew up in Ainslie Gardens, questions whether the policy-makers’ new mantra of “back and front doors, double glazing and some trees” is any better than the model it replaced.
“It’s not about the houses, the bricks, the mortar – it’s about the people in them,” he says in the film.
“It’s about the lives they live and the way that they connect.
“Our experience is that the people in Muirton had a sense of community spirit and a companionship that still holds relationships together today.”
Auld Muirton bairns enjoy film premier
Culture Perth and Kinross helped Steven and Barney put on an 2022 exhibition at North Inch Community Library in 2022.
It also awarded a £3000 grant fund to produce a short documentary, with the assistance of local film maker, David Gillan.
And the film had its world premier at Perth Art Gallery in front of an audience of more than 80 “auld Muirton bairns”.
Steven and Barney say they’re particularly grateful to Robin Patel, formerly of Culture Perth and Kinross, who encouraged them to turn the podcast into the film.
You can watch it for yourself here.
Conversation