A photograph entitled 'Main Street, Gorbals, Looking South', taken by Thomas Annan in 1868. On the left of the photograph, on the most run-down looking buildings, are shop signs for a vegetable market and a 'General Rag & Metal Store'. On the right is a timber merchants.

A photograph entitled 'Main Street, Gorbals, Looking South', taken by Thomas Annan in 1868.

The photograph shows the Main Street in the Gorbals, Glasgow. On the left of the photograph, on the most run-down looking buildings, are shop signs for a vegetable market and a 'General Rag & Metal Store'. On the right is a timber merchants. The Gorbals was an notorious for its slum housing and overcrowding.

In 1868 the City of Glasgow Improvement Trust approached Thomas Annan to take photographs of some of the slum areas of the city prior to demolition. The resulting images are some of the earliest examples of documentary photography.