Rottenrow

Rottenrow (Scots: Rattonraw) is a famous street in the city of Glasgow in Scotland. It is located at Townhead, in the northern periphery of the city centre, and is located entirely within the John Anderson Campus of the University of Strathclyde.

Rottenrow dates back to the city's medieval beginnings, and once connected the historic High Street to the northern reaches of what is now the Cowcaddens area. The origin of the street's name is subject to debate. Some believe that it is derived from the Gaelic phrase Rat-an-righ, which translates as "Road Of The Kings" - presumably in relation to its close proximity to Glasgow Cathedral. However "Rotten Row" is a common street name in towns and villages throughout England and Scotland. It describes a place where there was once a row of tumbledown cottages infested with rats (raton) and goes back to the 14th century or earlier.

The street became dissected and realigned by the exponential growth of Glasgow's city centre during the Industrial Revolution, and originally was home to a large amount of tenement housing, much of which had deteriorated into a slum by the middle of the 20th century. Following the Bruce Report in 1945, Townhead was made one of many Comprehensive Development Areas (CDAs), which saw all of the slums cleared and the area rezoned for educational use in preparation for the former Royal College of Science and Technology’s growth into a university.

Rottenrow is best known however as the address of the Glasgow Royal Maternity Hospital (usually nicknamed by locals simply as "The Rottenrow"), founded in 1834, and became a world-renowned centre of excellence in gynecology for over 100 years.

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