235 St. Andrews Road, Glasgow. G41 1PD. Tel: 01414296685.
Honours Three. 1991.
In the News 1971…
Drink to them in right surroundings at “The Honours Three”
Auld Glasgow Auld Scotland.
It’s odd but true that three school boys doing a class project inspired the name and decor of Glasgow’s newest pub. It’s called “The Honours Three,” after the Honours of Scotland, and it stands at the corner of Shields Road and St Andrew’s Drive.
Three decorative panels at the corner, under the name of the new howff, show the Honours Three, the Crown, the Sceptre, and the Sword of State, faith, fully copied from the Honours which you can see in Edinburgh Castle.
Patriotic Chorus
How did the three schoolboys get into the act?. The proud, new owner, Colin Brown, told me that he reads a monthly magazine called “The Pollokshields Gazette” and it told the story of how the three boys were studying the streets in the district. They discovered that most of them were named after Scottish patriots.
Mrs. Moira Brown with her husband Colin. 1971.
This inspired Colin to make his pub a patriotic one and he took the name from that well-known ballad, “Scotland Yet,” in which the last couplet of each
Chorus runs-
I’ll drink a cup to Scotland yet Wi’ a’ the Honour Three!
A friend of his, Bob Buchanan of Hepburn and Ross, painted the whole song on a decorative board, surrounded by thistles and with an official-looking seal attached. It now hangs on a wall of the bar and doubtless will inspire many a patriotic chorus. The outside of the Honours Three has a half-timbered effect. The inside is a sort of replica of a Scottish patriot’s castle, with stone walls and iron grilles, behind one of which is the head of Robert the Bruce, an exact copy of the head on the statue of Bruce at the Borestone near Bannockburn.
Colin Brown got the head from the sculptor Charles d’Orville Pilkinton Jackson (1887-1973), and the grille is there to protect it from too enthusiastic patriots. It stands against a royal purple velvet cloth and it should give many a patron a frisson.
There are going to be plenty of talking points in the Honours Three. Around the walls is a rich collection of weapons, claymores, broad swords, pistols, rifles, and targes. The targes and claymores were made by that well-known Scottish Nationalist William Wolfe, at his foundry in Bathgate.
There is a collection of old prints that made my mouth water. However, if it makes anybody else’s mouth water; I can tell you that each picture is fixed so securely to the wall that it can’t be moved. Some of them are by Joseph Swan, famous for his “Views of Glasgow” in early Victorian days. Oh the arguments that will arise!
From Edinburgh
There’s a picture of the Duke’s Lodging in the Drygate, 1846, one of Glasgow from Little Govan, Public Offices, Jail, etc, from foot of Charlotte Street, Port Dundas from Garnet Hill, a French print entitled “Cathedral de Glasgow,” and a wonderful work entitled “Engraved for the Complete English Traveller. Perspective View of the City of Glasgow in the County of Clydesdale, with the date 1771.
Colin Brown and his charming wife, Moira have spent months gathering this collection together. Much of it comes from Edinburgh even though nearly all the pictures are of Glasgow.
Honours Three Advert. 1971.
Remarkable Mixture
Colin himself was born in Glasgow but brought up in Dunoon. He’s been a cardiac technician in Stobhill Hospital and a bookmaker’s clerk, but for the last eight years he has worked for his father, who owns four public houses in the city.
Mr William Brown’s pubs are in Cambridge Street and George Street; at Bridgeton Cross and near Paradise. Colin has worked in them all and feels that by this time he knows something about the business. Certainly, in the Honours Three, he has created a remarkable mixture of a pub, a club, a picture gallery and a museum.
Tartan Rigout
When I met Mr and Mrs. Brown they were dressed for their opening cocktail party, Moira Brown, whose maiden name is Campbell, was wearing a sash of the Campbell tartan over one of those white dresses you see in swanky scenes on the telly.
Colin looked fine in Royal Stewart tartan, although he confessed he should really be wearing the Lamont. They can be proud of their pub, and I’m quite sure a lot of people will go along to drink a cup to Scotland, yet, wi’ a’ the Honours Three.
