John Gorevan

5 Greendyke Street, Glasgow. Tel: 01415523909.

Moray Arms. 1991.

This popular bar dated from the late 1920s.

The Whistlin Kirk 2005.

The Whistlin Kirk, August 2005.

Licence Holders.

1991 Gerald Kelly.

1978-1961 John Speirs.

1960-1950 Joseph Anderson.

1940-1937 Joseph L Jones.

1930 Mr E Kellie.

Sites of Interest near the Whistlin Kirk…

1. St Andrew’s by the Green, Episcopal Church, the Whistlin Kirk (1750). Names so because of its Kist (Chest) of whistles which was the church organ. The first of its kind in Glasgow.

2. Jocelyn Square, named after a Bishop of the same name and the founder of the Glasgow Fair, in 1190. It later became Jail Square and public hangings took place here where the bodies of those executed were buried on the site of the present Mortuary. A Dr Prichard, the last man to be hanged in public is buried there.

3. Clyde Street, on the side wall of the High Court is a plaque which shows the height The Great Flood of 1795 rose to. It was originally called Horse Brae.

4. 132-5 Trongate is the site of the bookshop owned by Daniel McMillan a forebear of past Prime Minister Harold McMillan.

5. The Saltmarket, originally called Waulkergate, clothes workers or waulkers as they were called lived here. It adopted its present name when a market was established to sell salt for curing salmon. In 1718 James Duncan had a print shop here and he introduced the art of typemaking to the city and then in 1896 a Celtic Football Club, footballer named Willie Maley had a “Football and athletic clothes outfitters.”

6. Turnbull Street, names after another Bishop of 1450 and contained the famous Tent Hall at the corner of Steel Street, an Evangelical meeting place and site of free breakfasts for the poor. The graveyard at the corner of Greendyke Street contains many old stones, look out for one of a Mr & Mrs W Sutherland who drowned when a steamboat was run down.

7. St Andrew’s Street, The Tontine Hotel who’s building is still standing was really a model lodging house for men only, named after an earlier one, this down market lodge had cubicles to sleep in and a communal hot plate for cooking.

8. Greendyke Street, the very first model was built here at no 49 in 1849. It was rebuilt in 1876 and the prices were one shilling and sixpence (13p) per night for a lower bunk or a weekly rate of ten shillings and sixpence (53p). A small Penny Geggle, fit up theatre, stood in this street and later became a clothes market controlled towards the end by the Glasgow Corporation.

9. Bridgegate, the road or gait to the bridge at Stockwell Street was at one time considered a very posh address but became run down by the influx of squatters and families from Ireland. Robert Carrick established the Ship Bank here in 1750. Glasgow’s very first bank.

10. St Andrew’s Square. In 1785 this was the site of a balloon launching by Italian balloonist Lunardi, it passed over the Glasgow Green watched by an amazed crowd of thousands and landed over 70 odd miles away. The present church was completed in 1756 and it was based on the design of St Martin in the fields church in London. The block of flats at no2 was originally the quarters night shelter for homeless children. In Sir Walter Scott’s novel Rob Roy, the ficticious Glasgow Magistrate Baillie Nicol Jarvie describes, “Aw the comforts of the Sautmarket,” and many comforts it certainly had going by the class of people who have stayed there such as Oliver Cromwell, King James VII and Glasgow’s first Lord Provost Ales with the passing of time it became a home for the Fairs and many drinking dens.

From A Smart Alex Publication.