The West End of Glasgow is often presented as a masterpiece in Victorian upmarket housing. This is far from the truth. Much of it was jerry built and many of those involved in its development were no better than scoundrels. Many of the mansions failed to find buyers and were let and very quickly split up into multiple occupancy. The root of the problem was that Glasgow was over-built. There were too many houses chasing too few occupants chasing too many houses.