239 North Street, Charing Cross, Glasgow. G3.
Halcyon. 2003.
Over the last few years this pub has tried to attract customers from the very busy Ritz Bar next door and has failed. It has now closed down, it was formerly known as the Jed Bar a Star Wars themed bar, the pub was flooded a few times before it closed it’s door.
239 North Street, Charing Cross, Glasgow. G3 7DL. Tel: 0141 221 0061.
In 2000 this was known as the Jedi Bar.
The Jedi Bar.2000.
The Jedi Bar was shaped like Darth Vader’s helmet. The pub was well known for it’s Star Wars decor and attracted many fans of the films. Outside you had one door entrance with two massive rocket engines on each side. The pub had three large projector screens and customers could play console games. In the summer you could enjoy a glass of cold beer and wine if that is your tipple, in the beer garden.
Update…2002 Jedi Bar has closed.
The Halcyon Bar. 2004.
The Halcyon Bar opened shortly after the Jedi Bar closed in 2002. Unfortunately, it only lasted for a short while and closed in March 2004.
Update December 2005…
Passing North Street today and noticed that this pub is now called Chinaski’s.
Chinaski’s. 2018. Tel: 0141 221 0061.
The bar is named after Henry Chinaski, the biographical protagonist of several works by the American writer Charles Bukowski.
Henry Charles “Hank” Chinaski is the literary alter ego of the American writer Charles Bukowski, appearing in five of Bukowski’s novels, a number of his short stories and poems, and in the films Barfly and Factotum. Although much of Chinaski’s biography is based on Bukowski’s own life story, the Chinaski character is still a literary creation that is constructed with the veneer of what the writer Adam Kirsch calls “a pulp fiction hero.” Works of fiction that feature the character include Confessions of a Man Insane Enough to Live With the Beasts (1965), Post Office (1971), South of no North (1973), Factotum (1975), Women (1978), Ham on Rye (1982), Hot Water Music (1983), Hollywood (1989), and Septuagenarian Stew (1990). He is also mentioned briefly in the beginning of Bukowski’s last novel, Pulp.
Chinaski is a writer who worked for years as a mail carrier. An alcoholic, womanising misanthrope, he serves as both the protagonist and antihero of the novels in which he appears, which span from his poverty-stricken childhood to his middle age, in which he finds some small success as a screenwriter.
Open every day from noon ’til midnight, food is served every day until 9pm. http://www.chinaskis.com
Do you have any memories of this bar? If so please leave a comment.
239 North Street, Glasgow. G3 7DL.
Charlie’s Bar. 1991.
Update…2019.
This is now Chinaski restaurant bar.
Do you have any memories of this place? If so please leave a comment.
END.
157 North Street, Glasgow. G3 7DA. Tel: 0141 221 3926.
Brookes Bar. 1980s.
This well run public house is now Mitchell’s.
Mitchell’s 1991.
In 2007 this was known as the Ivy.
Update…2011
Now called The Junjabi Charing Cross.
Update…2019
Now an India restaurant called the Pedlar and Spice.
Do you remember this old pub? If so please leave a comment.
END.
153 North Street, Glasgow. G3 7DA.
Bon Accord.1991.
This is one of the best pubs in the area for Real Ale. This well run local is worth a visit after a days research at the Mitchell Library.
Licensee Peter Gallagher served the punters here in 1971.
Interior view of the Bon Accord. c 1980s.
Peter Gallagher pulling a pint at the opening of the Bon Accord in 1971.
Peter Gallagher was 43 years of age when he opened the Bon Accord in 1971, his first public house he acquired was in 86 Abbotsford Place, (the Rising Sun), Gorbals in 1951, he was then one of the youngest licensees in Glasgow.
Peter also owned a pub at 350 St Vincent Street, (The North Star Bar), he said “I think we’ve managed to combine the modern look with real comfort, something that seems to be missing in a lot of places these days. Also, what we are offering is so varied that we must appeal to a really wide selection of public, who will not be disappointed at the decor or the service that I can promise.”
Interior view of the Bon Accord 1971.
The first thing you’ll probably notice about the Bon-Accord is that it looks plush and very comfortably designed. And so it is. Enter 153 North Street and you’re straight into the lounge bar, with its white, rough – cast walls, attractive coach-lamp lighting and soft black leather seats.
The carpeting is greenish in colour and merges very well with the seating and polished wood of the tables, bar and gantry. Look out, too, for the attractive antiques displayed in the lounge bar. They may never make TV’s “Going for a song,” but some of them are quite valuable.
So far as I’m concerned, it is an ideal place to enjoy a quiet drink, and I’m sure a lot of people are going to visit it and form the same opinion. But, of course there is much more to the Bon-Accord, which customers will find when they walk through the corridor from the lounge bar into the cocktail bar or is it the restaurant? or the function suite? It’s all three actually, combined into a beautifully furnished room that will be in big demand.
As in the lounge bar, the walls are white, rough – cast, but the seats instead of being black leather are a combination of yellow leather coach seats and orange coloured individual seats. The carpeting is green/blue, and the function suite naturally has a dance floor and raised bandstand.
Peter Gallagher plans to put this part of the Bon-Accord to very good use. During the day, it will be a restaurant, serving business lunches ranging from a three-course (37p) meal to the five-course (75p) variety. And diners can enjoy a bottle of table wine with their meal, or a drink from the well-stocked cocktail bar.
Then at night, it can become either a function suite, or if there’s no function booked, a cocktail bar, seating 120 comfortably with music and room for a dance. Peter Gallagher hopes in the future to set aside maybe one night a week for supper-dances, but that depends on function bookings, which – if I’m any judge – will soon start pouring in.
You see, Peter Gallagher is going all out to attract wedding receptions and other types of occasions, like office parties. There will be no charge for the hire of the hall and no charge for the cloakroom, bride’s changing room or the late licence. When that’s all added up, it means a big saving.
And remember that both function goers and those visiting the Bon-Accord for a business lunch will be enjoying food cooked in a brand new kitchen with facilities to cater quickly and efficiently for the biggest party the function suite can accommodate.
One last point about the Bon-Accord of special interest to all who go there. It is a Free House, not tied to any brewery and therefore able to offer the widest possible selection of bottled and draught beers and not just none particular trade name.
One thing the Bon Accord won’t lack is whisky. By that I mean a wide selection of whiskies. Peter Gallagher plans to have around 100 brands of the stuff permanently on display, which customers are very welcome to try.
As well as stocking every type of Scotch imaginable, the Bon Accord will also have some American bourbons and Irish Whiskey. So don’t be surprised if you visit the Bon Accord and one of the regulars asks for a half of “old Grandad” that’s a bourbon, or a large “Paddy” an Irish whiskey.
Another pub Peter Gallagher owned was the Havana Bar, 192 Cumberland Street, Gorbals.
Bon Accord. 2007.
Bon Accord interior views. 2007.
A wee corner in the Bon Accord.
Mauro and pals from Italy. When Scotland are playing these lads from Italy come to Glasgow for the game and a good drink in the Bon Accord. 2007.
Do you have memories of the Bon Accord? If so please leave a comment.
END.
