The majority of the housing is a local authority'scheme' constructed in the late 1960s and early 1970s to alleviate housing shortages in the area. The territory was previously farmland including the Whitlawburn farm, which itself took its name from the Whitlaw Burn stream which runs down from the Cathkin Braes at the western side of the district. A dual carriageway which is part of the A749 road running from East Kilbride to Glasgow carries a local bus route, and also separates Whitlawburn from the neighbouring areas of Springhall and Cathkin to the west which are part of the town of Rutherglen - however most local amenities are shared between the three districts. An underpass runs under the road between Springhall and Whitlawburn. To the east, a sprawling network of housing developments at Greenlees spreads out over fields towards Halfway. There is also an entrance to Cambuslang Public Park. The Whitlawburn area itself is dominated visually by six near-identical 13-storey tower blocks on the south side of the main road through the district, with modern tenements arranged in a grid pattern to either side, along with a local retail area. Built using the Reema method of construction and originally uniformly grey concrete and brutalist in appearance, the area was regenerated from the 1990s onwards with the tenement buildings painted/rendered in brighter colours and given pitched roofs and the tower blocks fitted with cladding, roofs and ambient lighting in a £21m project. The towers have the same design as five others nearby, but they now look quite different from their 'cousins' as a result of the refurbishment. In 1989, West Whitlawburn Housing Co-operative Ltd was established by residents who were unhappy with deteriorating housing conditions and out of a sense of unfairness at the tenements being prioritised. The organisation also put in place an extensive CCTV and concierge system. In 2016, plans which had been in proposed some years earlier were approved to further improve the area by replacing the less popular flats in the eastern part of the scheme with new houses; this followed confirmation that parts of the district were among the most deprived communities in the country according to the 2016 Scottish index of multiple deprivation. When the East Whitlawburn Tenants Management Cooperative handed their managed properties back to council control in 2013, the datazone was in the bottom 0.5% in Scotland for deprivation. By 2019, demolition of some blocks was in progress and local construction firm CCG had drawn up plans for the replacement homes, with a planned completion date of 2021. The localcommunity centre featuring a 5-a-side football pitch is situated to the south of the towers, as are two small 21st century housing zones: a development of large private residences with a separate vehicle entrance off the bypass road, known as Lomond View, and a group of 100 modest houses built by West Whitlawburn Housing Cooperative accessed from the main road. These properties back onto farmland and a golf course which are part of the green belt at the edge of the Glasgow urban area. However, in 2016 a planning application by Persimmon for 240 new houses in a vacant field was approved for construction, despite some concerns regarding possible flooding and school provision. With the development nearing completion in late 2019, residents were surprised to find that their streets were still within the boundaries of the East Kilbride constituency for the 2019 United Kingdom general election, as had been the case before its construction when the land was a field and therefore of little consequence in that context. On the northside of the road is a system of terraced houses and cottage flats with common parking areas, as well as the local public house, the new buildings of Cathkin High School, a further group of small houses built on the school's previous site, and Holmhills Park which leads to the Kirkhill residential area to the north. Coats Park, the ground of Cambuslang Rugby Club, is also nearby.
Amenities
Administratively Whitlawburn lies within the Cambuslang West ward of the South Lanarkshire Council area which is also the extent of the neighbourhood community policing zone. The nearest train stations are and which are both approximately 1 mile from the western end of the district. is situated to the north of Whitlawburn; the original was on the main road within the neighbourhood The closest schools for younger children are Loch Primary and St Anthony’s RC Primary and West Coats Primary. However children living in the new Persimmon development will attend Cairns Primary in Halfway. For older children, nondenominational Cathkin High School is on the doorstep of Whitlawburn, but Catholic students have to make their way to Eastfield to attend Trinity High.
