Old Glasgow Pubs

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Address G

Chimmy Chungas.

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499 Great Western Road, Glasgow. G12 8HN. Tel: 0141 334 0884.

Chimmy Chungas. 1991.

This was once a well known Victorian Grocery business located in the Cooper’s Building. It has changed it’s name since this photograph was taken and is now called Bar Oz.

Update…2008

This old building is now called Cooper’s.

Cooper’s. 2014.

Cooper’s. 2018.

The interior of Cooper & Co’s grocery shop in Great Western Road, c 1890s.

Cooper & Co was founded by Thomas Bishop in 1871 and became one of Scotland’s leading grocery shop chains. The building at 499 Great Western Road, famous for its French Renaissance facade and clock tower, was erected in 1886 and contained beautiful fixtures and fittings. The pillars are decorated with garlands of fruit and female faces at the bottom, with intricate plasterwork leaves and swirls at the ceiling. The floor has the typical multi-coloured tiling of the period. There are a wide variety of goods on display including fresh fruit and vegetables, tinned and bottled foodstuffs, mops and brushes.

The shop closed in the early 1980s and the premises were converted for use as a pub.

Thanks to Peoples Palace the Glasgow Story.

Do you know anything about this pub? If so please leave a comment.

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Traders

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80 Glassford Street, Glasgow. G1 1UR. Tel: 0141 572 0080.

Traders. 1991.

This was once the famous 13th Note opened in 1997. It started out as the Glassford Hotel and once had a popular bar known as the Cellar. To read more click here.

Bacchus. 2007.

Bacchus. 2008.

Update…2019.

Bacchus is still alive and kicking.

Do you have anything to say about Traders or Bacchus? If so please leave a comment.

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Buzby & Co.

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100 George Street, Glasgow. G1 1RF. Closed.

Buzby & Co. 1991.

This is now called Bourbon Street a great place for entertainment, artists do fabulous impersonations of all the great stars including Rod Stewart, Tina Turner, Elton John and Freddy Mercury. A FUN place to be.

Bourbon Street. 2001.

Bourbon Street. 2001.

January 2007, As I passed here I noticed the pub has changed to the Campus, attracting students from the nearby colleges. There is also a Campus on Sauchiehall Street.

This establishment is now closed.

Do you remember this as Bourbon Street or Buzby & Co? If so please leave a comment.

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Brechin’s.

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803 Govan Road, Glasgow. G51 3DJ. Tel: 0141 445 1349.

Brechin’s. 1991.

Also known by some of the locals as the Black Man’s, after the statue of Sir William Pearce which stands outside the pub. To read the history of the Brechin family, please check back soon for our second book.

Brechin’s Bar. 1970s.

Mr John Drake of Messrs William Brechin & Son, Glasgow. 1906.

Brechin’s Bar. c 1900.

Brechin’s bar is the dark building circled blue.

Brechin’s Bar interior. 1958.

The Brechin family 1958.

from left to right is Mr Ronald A Brechin; Mr  W R Mort, Glasgow manager of William Younger & Co Ltd; Mrs R A Brechin; Mrs William Brechin; Mr William Brechin (Licensee); Mrs Donald Brechin; and Mr Donald Brechin. 1958 at the opening of the new lounge bar.

In 1888 from the Trade news “THE BLENDING OF WHISKY.”

A marked feature of the past year has been the increased number of Specially Blends that have been added to an already overwhelming list. The popular taste here in Scotland seems to be for matured and bonded whiskies, and as a consequence, inexperienced and ignorant blenders have in many cases rushed in, and numerous so-called “Specials” have been foisted on the public as “best blends,” when in reality they were only miserable concoctions of inferior whiskies assimilated together without regard to their qualities.

But when we are asked to assist as the reporter says at a blending of 12,000 proof gallons, of the best brands of Scotch Whiskies, such as that of the Messrs. Brechin & Son, of Gallowgate, last month, the science of blending assumes quite a different aspect, nay more, while the above firm is putting this enormous quantity into bond at present, we are reminded that there is a similar lot lying in bond already, and which along with the present blend will be allowed to mature in Messrs. Lang’s Clyde Bonding Stores, Cadogan Street, for some years to come. The advantages of this wholesale storing is at once obvious. As a token of Messrs. Brechin’s skill and discernment in Whisky Blending we give the principal Brands included :- Long John, Ardbeg, Cragganmore, Talisker, Lagavulin, Bunnahabbain, Campbeltown, Highland Park, and Glen Urie. The bungs of the first casks were knocked in, before a small party of gentlemen, and the liquor allowed to flow into the vat.

Brechin’s Bar. 2018.

Facts…
Also see Brechin’s other pubs,
Gallowgate
Candleriggs
Florence Street
Aikenhead Road.
Employee Mr William Fleckhart left Brechin’s to manage Wilson’s Bar, Stobcross Street.

Do you have any memories of Brechin’s Bars? If so please leave a comment.

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The Bower Bar

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209 Main Street, Rutherglen, Glasgow. G73 2HH. Closed.

The Bower Bar. 1991.

Bower Bar. 2005.

This is an image from the back of the premises.

Mr J Motion, Bower Bar, Rutherglen. 1963.

The above image was taken at the Benevolent function at Sloan’s restaurant in 1963. from left to right J Motion, R Purdie of Archibald Campbell Hope and King Ltd; H Campbell, Grosvenor Restaurant and C Russell.

Update 2008…

The Bower Bar with a for sale sign. 2008.

The Bower Bar has been closed for some time now.

Update November 2009…

The Bower Bar is now a restaurant called Bombay. Thanks to Norrie McNamee.

In the NEWS 1977…

Angry bar boss had the police in a panic.

Bar manager Joseph Docherty was furious when one of his customers hit him on the mouth with a glass full of beer at closing time. He went to the police station and pleaded to be allowed into the same cell as the man.

Doherty (31) even volunteered to spend a penny worth on the floor so that police could charge him and lock him up beside his assailant.

When that didn’t work he stole a policeman’s pocket radio and for the next three hours put the force in a panic. For Glasgow Sheriff Court was told today Doherty went back to the Bower Bar in Main Street, Rutherglen, and began broadcasting bogus messages.

His calls included two emergency “Code 21” messages which meant a policeman needed help urgently. And for three hours he had the staff in three control rooms working furiously trying to trace where the calls were coming from.

PLEAS

Doherty of 529 Springburn Road, Glasgow, admitted stealing a police radio from the CID room at Rutherglen police office on April 17. He also admitted wasting the time of the police by broadcasting and repeating false messages from the pub in Rutherglen.

Doherty, who had five previous convictions, was fined £60.

Mr Ian Angus, prosecuting, said the police told Doherty to go home after his pleas to be allowed into the cell to fight the man who had attacked him.

About midnight police received a “Code 21” message saying that a policeman needed assistance in East Kilbride Road, Rutherglen.

BOTHER

Seven policemen rushed to the scene from various places to find nothing there at all. Another “Code 21” message also proved to be false, and from then on there was a stream of messages some of them garbled, which put the police to a whole lot of bother.

Eventually the radio was traced to Doherty when police returned to the bar. Doherty told the Sheriff the pub was the roughest in Rutherglen and he couldn’t let his assailant get away with it because “everyone else would be trying it on.”

He had now left the pub business and was a self-employed taxi driver.

Update… 2018.

Another name change, it’s now called Padano, restaurant selling pizza, pasta.

Do you remember the Bower Bar? If so please leave a comment.

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