THEY dominated the Gracemount skyline for 47 years, but within just seconds, the towerblocks of Fala, Soutra and Garvald were reduced to rubble.
Residents gathered to watch the imposing blocks of flats razed to the ground yesterday to make way for new homes in the area.
Around 500 people living within the "exclusion zone" were evacuated at 8am to allow explosion experts to prepare.
Th
ey gathered in the nearby Gracemount High School, where a special viewing area was set up for those living beside the towerblocks, as well as former residents, to watch the demolition.
Originally scheduled for 11:30am, the explosion was delayed by two hours after it emerged some residents had not yet evacuated their properties bordering the towerblocks.
Razing the flats to the ground were council leader Jenny Dawe, former resident Margaret Jeffrey and local schoolboy Rob Millar, 11, who jointly pressed the button which set off the explosives.
Within seconds, all three of the buildings were reduced to rubble, sparking cheers and applause from onlookers.
However, the demolition was also met with a lot of sadness among those who had spent many happy years living in one of the three blocks.
Margaret Jeffrey, 61, who had lived in the same flat in the Fala block for 37 years, said: "It's a sad day, like it was when I had to move out last year. If you had any problems, all you had to do was contact the concierge and they'd come and help you straight away.
"I've put my name down for one of the new houses because I want to move back."
Sheila Phillips, chair of the Gracemount Action Residents' Association, who lives in the bungalows beside the towerblocks, agreed it was a sad day.
She said: "It's the end of an era. When the flats were first built, it was all families and it was great.
"It was a good community at that time and I used to think the people that lived in those flats were lucky. It was only in later years that they deteriorated."
Former Fala resident Sean McMillan, 38, added: "Everybody round here has stayed in those flats at some point in their lives – or at least been to a few parties there.
"When I first moved in, it was great, but I left ten years ago and they'd started to go downhill."
Not everyone was sad to see the flats go, however – especially the lucky schoolboy who got to press the button to demolish them.
Kaimes Primary pupil Rob Millar said: "This is the biggest thing that I have ever broken and not got into trouble for."
Local residents started taking bets on which of the three towerblocks would be razed to the ground first.
The 246 flats were originally built in 1962 , but were no longer fit for habitation. They are being replaced by 220 new homes – the first new council housing in a generation.
