John Gorevan

The Strathmore Bar

March 22, 2017 by John Gorevan 3 Comments

795 Maryhill Road, Maryhill, Glasgow. G20 7TL. Tel: 01419456402.

The Strathmore Bar. 1991.

The Strathmore was originally called the Castle Vaults and owned by George & John MacLachlan, wholesale and retail wine & spirit merchants and brewers.

The Strathmore can be traced back to 1877 when John MacLachlan obtained a licence to sell wines, spirits and beers. The address of the premises then was Gairbraid Street, in 1899 the rent for the pub was only £95.00 per annum. John MacLachlan died in 1903 shortly afterwards many of the firms pubs both in Glasgow and the West of Scotland including hotels were sold off.

George Maclachlan

George MacLachlan.

George Haxton took over the licence in 1918, George also owned the Balmore Bar, Saracen Street, Possilpark, Glasgow. George ran a successful business for many years, the family succeeded in the licensed trade in both these premises through two world wars.

In 1967 Tennent Caledonian Breweries took control of this popular Maryhill local, John MacAdam acted as licensee for the Strathmore, he was also licensee for pubs in Littlehill Street, Springburn Road and two pubs in Saracen Street.

The Strathmore. 2005.

What a transformation, the bar now look very much better.

Mr John MacLachlan.

Strathie’s

March 22, 2017 by John Gorevan Leave a Comment

659 Pollokshaws Road, Glasgow. G41 2AB. Tel: 01414245071.

Strathie’s. 1991.

To read the full history of this old south side favourite, check back soon for our second book.

Strathies. 2008.

This popular southside local was once called “The Kindmans.”

The Kind Man advert 1977.

The Kind Man’s advert 1970.

Strathduie

March 22, 2017 by John Gorevan Leave a Comment

3a-5 Blackfriars Street, Glasgow, G1 1PG. Tel: 01415523894.

Strathduie. 1991.

The Strathduie was built in 1893 for publicans J & J McWilliam, wine and spirit merchants, however there has been a tavern on this site since 1840. The old tavern was then occupied by John McNeil who only stayed here for a couple of years. Christopher Wishart then occupied the premises until 1845.

In 1851 James McWilliam of J & J McWilliam took over the old howff. Blackfriar Street was then called Stirling Street which had a total of six public houses.

James McWilliam was a prominent figure in the Scottish Licensed Trade he also owned another pub in West Street at the corner of 64 Clyde Place, and a licensed grocers business in Queen Street. Mr McWilliam was a member of the Parliamentary and Managing Committee of the Scottish Licensed Trade Defence Committee.

In 1899 the McWilliam family which included Alexander, Andrew, and James between them were in charge of 10 public houses., Alexander McWilliam was in charge of Samuel Dow’s public houses at 54-58 Mitchell Street, 1157-59 Pollokshaws Road at Kilmarnock Road and 226 Great Western Road.

Andrew McWilliam was licensee at 570 Rutherglen Road, 4 Clyde Place, 12 Bridge Street, 16-18 Maxwell Street and 64 East Howard Street.

James and John McWilliam had pubs at 1 West Street 64 Clyde Place and 3a-5 Stirling Street. James and John traded under the title of J & J McWilliam.

In 1892 the old pub was demolished and a new tenement with a pub on the ground floor was erected for Mr McWilliam, he died in 1901 at his home in Montgomerie Drive, Kelvinside, leaving vast’s amounts of money in his will. He also left in his estate £500 each to the Royal Western and the Victoria Infirmaries, £50 each to Lenzie Convalescent Home, Dunoon Homes, Glasgow Eye Infirmary, Asylum for the blind, Ophthalmic Institution, £210 to the Wine & Spirit and Beer Trade Benevolent Institution and £105 to the Session of St. John’s Parish Church for the benefit of the poor.

The Strathduie Bar looking up Blackfriar Street in the 1960s.

It may be interesting to note that Mr McWilliams sister married Samuel Dow another well known Glasgow wine and spirit merchant, when his wife died Mr Dow presented a stained glass window in her memory to Bellahouston Parish Church of which they were members.

After James McWilliam’s death Alexander McWilliam took control of the business which was sold a few years later to Samuel McKinnon. Another prominent Glasgow publican to take control of the licence was James Wilson who served the locals here from 1913, Mr Wilson was one of those unfortunate men who witnessed two world wars.

Today the pub is still going strong, for many years this pub has been known for it’s great sing-a-longs, many a good chanter in this old pub.

Strathduie. 2005.

Date above the tenement building 1893.

Licence Holders.

1991 James Casey.

1973-1965 Allan Peter Hannah.

1937-1913 James Wilson.

1910 Samuel McKinnon.

1902 Alexander McWilliam for J & J McWilliam.

1899-1851 James McWilliam.

1850-1846 Ogilvie Stratton.

1845-1842 Christopher Wishart.

1842-1840 John McNeil.

Stirrup Cup

March 22, 2017 by John Gorevan Leave a Comment

183 Main Street, Rutherglen.

Stirrup Cup. 1991.

In the NEWS 1979…

Lesley Obeys A “Royal Command”.

Gorbals Born singer Lesley Arden has just received a “royal command” to do a show in the Isle of Man, before Princess Anne.

The offer came from her former boss, bandleader Ivy Benson.

And it was one Lesley couldn’t refuse, because with it came two tickets on the plane to Douglas and a guarantee of “X” number of pounds.

Lesley refuses to talk about the amount involved. She wouldn’t divulge that Ivy was giving her £60 for singing two songs before the Royal lady.

Lesley, who was with Ivy Benson (69) for eight years, went solo after leaving the band and is recently back from a six months working tour of the Caribbean on a luxury liner.

Recently she has been working the Scottish Club circuit. Since then Lesley has been “doubling” as part-time barmaid at the Stirrup Cup bar in Rutherglen, where her sister Esther is manager.

She is pictured here celebrating her new showbiz date.

Stirling Castle

March 22, 2017 by John Gorevan Leave a Comment

90 Old Dumbarton Road, Yorkhill, Glasgow. G3 8PZ. Tel: 01413398132.

Stirling Castle. 1991.

This was originally Galbraith’s Store the grocers. It opened as a public house during the 1950s.

William Lyall Henderson was then licensee, he ran a small pub in Guest Street, Anderston before taking this pub on.

Situated at the corner of Old Dumbarton Road and Regent Moray Street this popular bar is handy for visitors going to the Glasgow Art Galleries and Museum.

In 1963 David Main took over this pub, in the 1990s Andrew Main was running this successful family business.

The Stirling Castle. 2007.

Also see the Stirling Castle Darts Team 1965.

In the NEWS 1976…

You can’t make a monkey out of four-year-old Anthony, one of Dash’s Chimps from the Kelvin Hall Circus, Glasgow. Anthony was perfectly willing to man the pumps when he went along to the Stirling Castle Bar where £160 had been raised for Ward 6 at Philipshill Hospital in a raffle. The trained chimp helped make the draw, then became a counter attraction on his own-bar-none!

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In the NEWS 1979…

Here’s to the Special Blend That Makes A Perfect Pub…

At your service…David Main mine host of the Stirling Castle and The Overflow. 1979.

How David Struck GOLD under a tenement…

David Main drives a blue Rolls-Royce, DM 55, with the satisfied air of a man who paid £10,000 for a squalid little drinking den 16 years ago and turned it into a gold-plated tavern.

An instinctive publican, with the shrewd eyes of an accountant, he formed an idea then alien to Glasgow drinkers that pubs should be more than stand drink and fall howfs.

His idea became the Stirling Castle, corner-wedged under tenement at the back of the Kelvin Hall, a potpourri of fine food, rich carpets, warmth, real ale, and groomed staff picked for eagle-eyed attention.

Surveying his creation, David admitted: “A good pub is summed up in a four-letter word… work, and a little imagination. But I must be honest. Sixteen years ago I never thought it had that much potential.

All we wanted to do was make it a better pub than it was. “We started with pie and peas, but soon we gradually expanded. I just felt that comfort and food were becoming more and more important as drinking habits changed.

“It’s not enough to have a bar any more you’ve got to have something else, an image, carpet on the floor, food, music, something different. The spit and sawdust has gone, the new laws helped all that, and people are travelling more, seeing different ways of drinking.

The hard drinker will never change, he’ll just drink, but the rest are changing, have changed.” David Main, now 55, went into the pub business because he couldn’t stand and carpets to people on hire-purchase.

He had a dream of cash over the counter, instant service for instant cash, a pub was the only business. Eighteen months ago, in a move the trade said was insane, he bought and re-vamped the pub across the road. He wryly christened his new baby “The Overflow,” and reproduced a composite English Pub. A 1970s version of London’s turn of the century ill met by gaslight inns.

DIFFERENT

“Everyone thought we were mad to go into competition with ourselves,” laughed David. “But I’m not that daft. We had to create something entirely different to the Stirling Castle, a different look different food. So we went for the English idea.

Salads, ploughman’s lunches, salamis, open sandwiches, again we went for food, that’s our mark. We get a lot of students in here now, a younger, different clientele to the Stirling Castle and it’s gone through the roof, it’s amazing.”

Across the road, a mixed pin-striped suited bag of lawyers, doctors, architects spill in and out of the lounges and the public bar. Thousands of pounds have been raised for charity in the public bar. Added David: “Just before Christmas we had a quick collection and we gave every old-age pensioner living round here, not customers only, a half-bottle of whisky, a tin of biscuits, and a £5 meat voucher for the butcher’s. That’s what it’s about.

“The customers has to be all-important, whether you feel like it or not you have to say “Yes, sir,’ ‘no, sir,’ three bags full, sir. And after them come a good staff, they make the pub. They back you up all you back them up.

“A good publican needs to mix, make friends with the customers, make them feel welcome. I love that, love doing the mine host bit.”

Grabbing menus listing everything from mussels to T-bone steaks show his food standards. David whirls round: “See you’ve got to give things back to the customers. This business has given us everything we’ve got.

“We’ve worked hard for it, but it’s certainly given me, especially in recent years, a much better standard of living and the chance now not to work as hard as I did.”

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Stirling Castle Darts team 1965, Joe Hitchcock, W Bruce, H Cochrane and David Main.

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The “Semi-Retirement” of Mr. David Main (right), of the Stirling Castle and Overflow bars in Glasgow, was marked by the presentation to him of a pewter Guinness goblet, engraved with David’s own signature under that was Guinness. Presenting the goblet is Mr. Jack Bailie (left), area manager for Guinness in the West of Scotland. In centre is Mr. Andrew Main.

Stewarts

March 22, 2017 by John Gorevan Leave a Comment

486 Cathedral Street, Glasgow.

Stewart’s bar sat on Cathedral Street between Buchanan Street and Dundas Street.

In the 1870s Thomas Brown was licensee, the pub stayed in the family until the beginning of the 1900s.

Margaret Brown acquired the licence in 1901 as one of the trustee’s of John Stewart. The licence was transferred to Charles Stewart in 1907, he was one of the executors of the late John Stewart. Charles occupied the premises until the end of WW1. Matilda Harbinson Stewart then took over as licensee, she was remarried to Mr Allan in the 1940s.

Alexander McEwan was running the pub in the 1960s, he also ran pubs at 218 Paisley Road West, the Grapes Bar, 212-14 Kelvinhaugh Street, The Comet Bar and 67 Castle Street, the Cot Bar.

Stewart’s Bar was closed down in the 1960s and demolished shortly afterwards.