Daily life in Riyadh during the 1970s

A grounded look at a Najdi capital becoming an oil-era metropolis, where adobe courtyards, planned neighborhoods, ministries, schools, cars, markets, construction sites, and migrant labor shaped ordinary routines.

Riyadh in the 1970s was no longer the compact walled town remembered by older residents, but it had not yet become the vast metropolitan landscape of later decades. The 1972 Doxiadis master plan, new ministries, expanding roads, water and electricity networks, industrial districts, schools, hospitals, and housing projects pushed the city outward from older districts around al-Dirah, al-Batha, al-Murabba, al-Malaz, and the Old Airport Road.[1][2] Daily life was marked by heat, dust, prayer times, family obligations, government paperwork, construction noise, school routines, market shopping, and the arrival of workers and professionals from other parts of Saudi Arabia, the Arab world, South Asia, and Western technical firms.[3]

Housing and Living Spaces

Housing in 1970s Riyadh ranged from old Najdi mud-brick courtyard houses to government villas, concrete block homes, rented rooms, apartment buildings, and labor compounds. In older districts, houses were built for privacy and climate control. Thick earthen walls, few outward-facing windows, roof sleeping areas, courtyards, shaded entrances, storage rooms, and separate spaces for guests helped families manage heat, dust, and social expectations. Rooms were flexible. A sitting area could become a sleeping space after bedding was unrolled, and courtyards served for washing, food preparation, children's play, and evening conversation. Nearby mosques, small shops, and souqs extended the household into a walkable neighborhood.

Newer areas changed the scale and texture of domestic life. Al-Malaz, al-Wizarat, al-Sulaimaniyah, and similar districts used wider streets, plots with setbacks, detached houses, car access, and more regular street grids. Government employees and middle-class families increasingly expected electric lights, piped water, tiled bathrooms, metal doors, ceiling fans, refrigerators, window air conditioners, and enclosed kitchens, though access varied by income, district, and housing. Some wealthier households occupied larger villas with reception rooms, family rooms, gardens, servants' quarters, and garages, while some lower-income residents crowded into older houses or subdivided rented spaces. Building materials shifted toward cement, steel reinforcement, glass, aluminum, ceramic tile, plywood, and painted concrete, though mud brick, palm mats, woven rugs, and wooden doors remained visible in older quarters.

Not all residents shared the same domestic security. Employer-provided rooms, shared houses, workshops, and camps near projects and industrial areas were among the accommodation arrangements used by migrant construction workers, drivers, mechanics, shop assistants, guards, and domestic workers. Conditions varied by job, employer, income, and household circumstances; shared washing and cooking facilities, crowded sleeping spaces, and limited privacy or family life characterized some arrangements. For Saudi families moving from old courtyard houses to planned neighborhoods, daily habits could change: some errands became more dependent on cars, children could travel farther to school, and women in households with larger homes could have more indoor space to manage. The extent of these changes, including reliance on roads and telephones for family visiting, depended on neighborhood, housing, income, and household circumstances. Housing showed the city's uneven transition from compact oasis town to dispersed capital.

Food and Daily Meals

Meals in 1970s Riyadh combined Najdi staples with imported foods made easier by oil-era roads, shops, and refrigeration. Rice, wheat bread, dates, and laban were among household foods, while dishes such as kabsa, jareesh, and marqooq belonged to ordinary or festive cooking depending on income and occasion. Coffee with cardamom, tea, and dates remained central to receiving guests. Feeding relatives, visitors, and neighbors was an important part of hospitality.

Shopping took place in souqs, small groceries, and fresh-food stalls, with later supermarkets serving better-off districts. Al-Batha and older market areas supplied staples such as rice and spices alongside household goods. Refrigerators and freezers allowed families who could afford them to store meat, milk, and imported foods, though many households still bought bread and vegetables frequently. Cooking equipment varied by income: charcoal and kerosene stoves remained in use as gas cylinders and pressure cookers became more common. Uneven water supply made storage important, while covered jars and cabinets helped protect food from dust.

Food preparation and shopping often followed gendered divisions in Saudi households, though responsibilities varied with household circumstances. Women and older girls, sometimes assisted by domestic workers, prepared meals, served guests, and cleaned dishes; men and boys often handled market purchases. Cafeterias and small restaurants offered meals such as rice plates, beans, and curries for workers and students, including people living away from their families. Ramadan, Eid, weddings, Friday gatherings, and visits from rural relatives shaped special food routines. Ordinary shopping and cooking fitted around work schedules, school hours, prayer, heat, and household budgets.

Work and Labor

Work in 1970s Riyadh was shaped by the city's role as administrative capital and by national development plans that poured money into roads, utilities, schools, hospitals, ministries, industrial sites, and housing.[4] Government offices employed clerks, typists, translators, accountants, drivers, guards, messengers, engineers, teachers, health workers, police, and maintenance crews. Ministries and public agencies generated routines of forms, stamps, queues, personnel files, payrolls, permits, and official correspondence. Education expanded, so teachers, school administrators, textbook suppliers, bus drivers, and cleaners became part of daily urban labor. Hospitals and clinics drew doctors, nurses, pharmacists, technicians, reception clerks, and orderlies into a growing public-service economy.

Construction was highly visible. Workers built villas, apartment blocks, ministry buildings, roads, drainage works, power lines, water systems, schools, mosques, workshops, warehouses, and industrial facilities. Sites depended on engineers, foremen, masons, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, welders, painters, surveyors, crane operators, truck drivers, cooks, guards, and laborers. Many were migrants under sponsorship arrangements, with work and residence tied to employers. Depending on their work and accommodation, their routines could include early starts, transport by truck or bus, heat exposure, shared meals, remittances, and crowded housing. Saudi skilled tradespeople, shopkeepers, contractors, and landowners also benefited from the building economy, while some households used new income to hire drivers, cooks, cleaners, and domestic servants.

Older forms of work remained important. Souq merchants, gold sellers, carpet dealers, grocers, tailors, barbers, mechanics, watch repairers, carpenters, butchers, bakers, and taxi drivers served neighborhoods that were changing but still locally organized. Families with links to nearby farms, date groves, livestock, or smaller towns continued to move food, people, and obligations between city and countryside. Women's paid employment was limited by gender segregation and family expectations, but teaching, health care, clerical work in female spaces, and school administration expanded as girls' education grew.[5] Household management itself remained a major form of labor, involving food, children, guests, clothing, water, servants, and kinship obligations. The workday was therefore both modern and domestic: typewriters, concrete mixers, and trucks existed beside market bargaining, family errands, and home-based care.

Social Structure

Riyadh's social structure in the 1970s was layered by citizenship, family, tribe, region, religion, wealth, education, gender, occupation, and closeness to state institutions. Established Najdi families, religious scholars, merchants, senior officials, landowners, professionals, soldiers, teachers, artisans, and recent migrants all occupied different positions in the city. Family reputation mattered, and households maintained ties through visiting, marriage arrangements, funerals, Eid calls, business partnerships, and assistance to relatives. The majlis remained central for male sociability, dispute handling, job seeking, and news, while women's visiting networks connected households through hospitality, childcare, marriage, clothing, food, and education.

The oil boom made differences more visible. Some families moved into villas, bought cars, installed air conditioners, sent children to better schools, hired domestic help, and invested in land or contracting. Others lived in older quarters, rented rooms, or depended on irregular wages. Education became a path to mobility, especially for families seeking government employment. Boys' schooling was already established, and girls' education expanded sharply through the decade, though it remained separated and closely supervised.[5] A girl's school attendance could change household routines by adding uniforms, books, transport, homework, and new expectations for teaching or health work, even when marriage and domestic responsibility remained central.

Foreign residents formed another layer of urban life. Arab residents included professionals, teachers, engineers, doctors, and clerks in skilled posts, while South Asian and other migrant workers were prominent in construction, workshops, driving, cleaning, and domestic service. These were broad employment patterns, not occupations shared by everyone of a particular nationality.[3] Some Western consultants and technicians lived in more protected compounds or company housing; accommodation and security varied with employer, job, income, and household circumstances. Daily cooperation across nationality occurred in offices, shops, hospitals, schools, and building sites, but legal status, sponsorship, housing, wages, and long-term security were unequal. Social life was also shaped by religious norms, gender segregation, prayer schedules, mosque neighborhoods, and public modesty. The city was becoming more diverse, but belonging was still measured through family, citizenship, language, occupation, and access to institutions.

Tools and Technology

Everyday technology in 1970s Riyadh ranged from simple household tools to imported appliances, with access varying by income and district. Water tanks supported storage, refrigerators helped preserve food, and fans or window air conditioners helped households manage heat. Sewing machines and irons served clothing care, while brooms, buckets, and needles remained useful for cleaning and repair. The mix of equipment depended on the home and its resources.

Typewriters, files, and rubber stamps supported office paperwork, while chalkboards and exercise books structured schoolwork. Concrete mixers and trucks were familiar at building sites. Cars, taxis, and buses connected journeys to work and school with petrol stations, workshops, and spare-parts shops. Mechanics and air-conditioning technicians helped keep imported equipment working, and some families kept small stocks of fuses, bulbs, and tape for repairs. Electricity, roads, telecommunications, and water pipelines offered convenience, but breakdowns, heat, dust, and uneven access kept maintenance part of everyday life.

Clothing and Materials

Clothing in 1970s Riyadh reflected climate, modesty, gender rules, occupation, income, and the spread of imported fabrics. Saudi men commonly wore the thobe with ghutra or shemagh, with bishts for formal occasions. Boys wore school uniforms or thobes depending on age and setting. Abayas and head coverings were customary public dress for Saudi women, while dresses and embroidered garments featured in family spaces and celebrations. Textile shopping, tailoring, and household sewing supported the fitting, alteration, repair, and reuse of garments.

Trade expanded access to fabrics such as cotton, wool, and polyester, as well as ready-made garments. Clothing choices varied with income and daily demands: pressed clothes for office work, shirts and trousers or coveralls for construction and repair work, and uniforms in some jobs and schools. Laundry dried on roofs, in courtyards, and on balconies; ironing, mending, airing, and protecting fabric from dust were recurring tasks. Dress signaled respectability and community belonging while adapting to work, school, and household routines.

Daily life in Riyadh during the 1970s was defined by transition rather than by a clean break with the past. Courtyard habits, hospitality, prayer, kinship, and market routines remained strong, while roads, ministries, schools, electricity, migrant labor, and concrete neighborhoods changed the rhythm and geography of the city. Its everyday history lies in the practical work of keeping a household cool, feeding guests, reaching an office or school, repairing machines, finding affordable housing, and maintaining family obligations in a capital expanding faster than older routines could disappear.

References

Source scope: This bibliography combines works about Riyadh with broader Saudi Arabian and Gulf studies. Facey's study ends in the 1950s and provides background on the earlier city, rather than direct evidence for the 1970s. The national and Gulf studies offer wider context; their inclusion does not establish that every pattern described applied to Riyadh in that decade. The source texts are not supplied here, so the retained citation links do not indicate fresh verification of individual claims, including those linked to Riyadh-focused works.

Al-Hathloul, Saleh. Riyadh Architecture in One Hundred Years. Center for the Study of the Built Environment, 2002.
Menoret, Pascal. Joyriding in Riyadh: Oil, Urbanism, and Road Revolt. Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Kapiszewski, Andrzej. Nationals and Expatriates: Population and Labour Dilemmas of the Gulf Cooperation Council States. Ithaca Press, 2001.
Metz, Helen Chapin, ed. Saudi Arabia: A Country Study. Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, 1993. https://www.loc.gov/item/93028506/
Al Rawaf, Haya Saad, and Cyril Simmons. "The Education of Women in Saudi Arabia." Comparative Education, vol. 27, no. 3, 1991, pp. 287-295.
Facey, William. Riyadh: The Old City from Its Origins until the 1950s. Immel Publishing, 1992.