The tenement building upon which the practice occurs is of the three-storey variety. A section of roof bounded on both sides by a row of chimney stacks is favored. No reason is known as to why this particular section should be preferred to another. Certain members of the group participating are thought to reside outwith this actual building though none is a stranger to the district. Roofsliding, as it is termed, can take place more than once per week and will always do so during a weekday midmorning. As to the season of the year, this is unimportant; dry days, however, being much sought after.
The men arise in single file from out of the rectangular skylight. They walk along the peak of the roof ensuring that one foot is settling on either side of the jointure which is beveled in design, the angle at the peak representing some 80 degrees. During the walk slates have been known to break loose from their fixtures and if bypassing the gutter will topple over the edge of the building to land on the pavement far below. To offset any danger to the public a boy can always be seen on the opposite pavement, from where he will give warning to the pedestrians.
When the men, sometime designated roofsliders, have assembled along the peak they will lower themselves to a sitting posture on the jointure, the legs being outstretched flatly upon the sloped roof. They face to the front of the building. Roofsliding will now commence. The feet push forward until the posterior moves off from the jointure onto the roof itself, the process continuing until the body as a whole lies prone on the gradient at which point momentum is effected.
Whether a man “slides” with arms firmly aligned to the trunk, or akimbo, or indeed lying loosely to the sides, would appear to be a function of the number of individual’s engaged in the activity at any given period (as many as 32 are said to have participated on occasion). Legs are, however, kept tightly shut. When the feet come to rest on the gutter roofs-liding halts at once and the order in which members finish plays no part in the practice.
A due pause will now occur. Afterwards the men maneuver themselves inch by inch along the edge of the roof while yet seeming to maintain the prone position. Their goal, the line of chimney stacks that stand up right to the northside of the section. From here the men make their way up to the jointure on hands and knees. It is worth noting that they do so by way of the outside, unwilling, it would appear, to hazard even the slightest damage to the “sliding” section that is bounded between here and the line of chimney stacks to the southside. When all have gathered on the jointure once again they will be seated to face the rear of the building. Now and now only shall conversation be entered upon. For up until this period not a man amongst them shall have spoken (since arrival by way of the skylight).
At present a ruddy-complexioned chap in his 44th year is the “elder statesman” of the roofsliders. Although the ages do vary within the group no youth shall be admitted who has yet to attain his 14th birthday. On the question of alcohol members are rightly severe, for not only would the “wrong doer” be at mortal risk, so too would the lives of each individual.
As a phenomenon there can be no doubt as to the curious nature of the practice of roofsliding. Further observation might well yield fruits.
*This account has been taken more or less verbatim from a pamphlet entitled Within Our City Slums; it belongs to the chapter headed “Curious Practices of the Glaswegian.” The pamphlet was published in 1932 but is still available in a few 2nd hand bookshops in the south of England.