Thousands of people turned out yesterday to see a 28-storey tower block demolished and the Glasgow skyline changed forever.

The first of the Red Road blocks to go, 153-213 Petershill Drive set a UK record for tallest building demolished at 292ft.

The successful blast was overseen by Safedem, 2009's World Demolition Contractor of the Year, with an exclusion zone a kilometre wide in places.

It took about 275 kilos of explosives to pull the building down.

William Sinclair of Safedem told Demolition News website the demolition had gone "better than expected".


Mr Sinclair said called the acoustic baffle wall made of tyres a "real positive".

He said: "These acted as protection but also reduced the air overpressure readings to the east of the building, recording an average 20% reduction from readings taken at the same distance from the west side of the structure."

A mini website Safedem had created to stream footage of the demolition - www.redroaddemolition.co.uk - crashed on Sunday morning with 8,000 visits.

The Red Road flats were built in the 1960s as a solution to Glasgow’s housing problem.

Owned by Glasgow Housing Association, they hosted 5,000 people but became run-down and lost their attractive reputation.

Now just 300 people live there and the flats are all due to be demolished by 2017, making way for new developments.

Alex McGuire of Glasgow Housing Association said: "The Red Road flats were popular in their day and are known around the world, but their time has come to an end."

(NE/GK)