Drury Street

19 Drury Street, Glasgow. G2 5AE. Tel: 01412295711.

The Horse Shoe Bar. 1991.

One of Glasgow’s hidden treasures, it also has the longest bar in UK.

The next time your your in town and nothing to do, go into the Horse Shoe for a drink and see how many horse shoe’s you can find in the bar alone. I don’t think anyone as stayed sober long enough to count them.

One of the most famous owners of the Horse Shoe Bar was John Scouler.

To read the full history of the Horse Shoe check out our book here.

The Horse Shoe Bar. 2007.

Swinging sign.

This etched stained glass panel was taken from the Union Bar on Union Street when John Y Whyte was proprietor.

In 1971 the latest in the Tennent Caledonian Breweries chain of public houses to be brought up-to-date was the famous Horse Shoe Bar, Drury Street, Glasgow, where, however, the remodelling had been concentrated on the dinning room upstairs. The Bar downstairs was also redecorated, but its existing characteristics were to be retained. The manager of the Horse Shoe Bar was Mr James Rowan.

Mr James Rowan. 1971.

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In the NEWS 1979…

42 lucky years for Jimmy and Horse Shoe Bar…

Horse shoes are lucky for Jimmy. 1979.

When Jimmy Rowan started in the Horse Shoe bar in Glasgow’s Drury Street all of 42 years ago, a half of whisky cost eight (old) pence and a pint 6d.

Rowan has been manager for 22 years and the pub draws in half a million pounds every year. The little manage claims that pound for pound, his shop in the narrow street slap-bang in the city centre is the best in the business.

It has much in its favour, it looks like a hostelry from another age, a indeed it is, having opened 20 years ago.

The horseshoe motif is everywhere on mirrors, the toilets, the fireplaces. In fact it has become such a famous meeting place that the owners have been offered a “London Bridge” deal.

An American firm are so impressed that they have offered to buy it lock stock and all those big shiny old barrals and transport the lot to New York, where thatold-fashioned look would be a wow.

The unflapable manager hopes at least to have another four years as top man. Catch the names of some of the characters who have partaken of food and drink in the pub.

Roy Rogers turned up one busy lunch hour, complete with Tigger. Needless to say room was made for both. Then there was the near riot up and down the counter.

Sir John Mills and daughter Hayley came in for a quiet tipple. The Horse Shoe doesn’t crave publicity, with its drawings and the fact that it turned down that fabulous offer from New York.

There can be few more experienced or longer serving bar manager in Glasgow than Rowan. He says that only twice in 42 years he has had to call in the police to avert trouble.