The Club Restaurant, 22 Paisley Road West, Glasgow. G51 1LB. Tel: 0141429 0665.
Thomas Vallance was born 27 May 1856 on Succoth Farm, Renton. He won six international caps between 1877 and 1881, representing Scotland against England and Wales. In 1882 Vallance retired from football and travelled to Assam in India to work as an engineer on a tea estate. Due to ill health he returned to Glasgow and straight back to Rangers Football Club.
In 1883 he was elected President of the club and continued in the post for six years. After his return from Assam, Vallance turned his back on engineering. He worked for a few years as a travelling salesman for a wine and spirit merchant and then for a brewer. During the early 1890s he opened a licensed restaurant, The Club, at Paisley Road Toll. Its success encouraged him to acquire other licensed premises in Glasgow’s city centre, and he became a leading figure in the trade, serving as President of the Restaurateurs and Hotel-keepers association in 1906.
He was a fine athlete, and a Scottish record holder in the long jump. He was also an artist of note, and the Royal Scottish Academy accepted two of his paintings.
In the News…1906
In 1906 Thomas Vallance presided over the Restaurateurs and Hotel-Keepers’ Ball held in the Windsor Hotel. Young Thomas came to Glasgow in the early 1870s and at once plunged into the vortex of athletics in which he was so many years a household name wherever at least football was played. During the whole of his career he captained the famous Rangers Football Club, and was one of the representatives of Scotland against England in the Internationals of 1877. 78, 79 and 1881.
Civil engineering and architecture first claimed Mr Vallance’s attention as a profession when he came to Glasgow. Then for eight years he found instruction in mechanical engineering in the best yards of the Clyde, going out to India in 1882 to construct machinery on an Assam tea estate. The Malarious climate proved too much even for his robust construction, and on his return to Scotland he threw in his lot with the spirit trade, starting as a representative with Captain James Menzies. A couple of years afterwards he joined the staff of James Aitken & Co., Falkirk Brewers, where he travelled the south of Scotland for five years.
Giving up travelling Mr Vallance and acquired a licence for premises at 22 Paisley Road West, where he renovated and enlarged the premises, improving the business and named it “The Club.”
Acquiring premises at 40 Hutcheson Street, he also added to his small empire another place at 183 Hope Street, which he altered and in his own words “It is a special creation entirely my own.” The walls were adorned with Glasgow artists in various rooms. Mr Vallance himself was a great artist and his works were also used in his premises. For many years his work was regularly exhibited in the Royal Scottish Academy. He named his new premises in Hope Street the “Landsdowne.”
The Club. 1891.Interior view of the Club restaurant. 1891.
From the Club Restaurant, Paisley Road Toll, Menu; the occasion was that of the Amalgamated Carpenters of Govan.
Mr Thomas Vallance sold up in 1899 and concentrated on his other establishment “The Met” at 40 Hutcheson Street, and “The Landsdowne” at 183 Hope Street.
Menu:
Cod and Oyster Sauce
Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding
Roast Mutton and Red Currant Jelly
Beef Steak Pie
Vegetables (assorted)
Cabinet Pudding
Gooseberry Fool
Apple Tart.
Do you remember any of the old Pubs on Paisley Road West? If so please leave a comment.
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