55 Glasgow Road, Rutherglen, Glasgow. G73 1LJ. Tel: 0141 583 1888.
The Black Bull. 1991.
Mr Robert Gibson proprietor of the Olde Black Bull. 1970.
This image was taken for an advert for Carlsberg, Special Brew, ‘The Strong one from Denmark’.
The Harvey Candlelight Dinner in the St Enoch Hotel, Glasgow, for members of the United Kingdom Bartenders’ Guild, was the subject of this photograph in 1972. Left to right.. J Davidson, Black Bull, Rutherglen; B Dishington, George Hotel, Edinburgh; W S Hoggard, John Harvey & Sons; and G Barr, Exchange Restaurant, Glasgow.
Left to right John Boyle; Mrs and Mr R Gibson, Black Bull, Rutherglen; Mrs and Mr D A Maclean, the Phoenix. 1970.
Update 2011…
O’Leary’s Bar was set on fire and destroyed the pub.
15/10/2014…
I received an email from Evelyn Bain to see if anyone remembers her friend Robert Burns who worked in the Black Bull in Rutherglen during the 1960s and 70s. If anyone knows him please get in touch.
O’Leary’s Bar. 2017.
Thanks to Norrie McNamee.
Do you have anything to say about this pub? If so please leave a comment.
END.
Throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and in to the early 1970s, The Black Bull, along with The Plaza Bar in Dalmarnock Road, was one of the only two exclusively “Clyde” pubs on the go. The Rutherglen Branch of the Clyde Supporters Club was run from the Bull, until they acquired their own premises in East Main Street. The Bull was also the regular haunt of Ru’glen men who worked at Polmadie Railway Sheds. When they finished their shift, they walked along the tracks to Kildale Street, climbed up the embankment, and through the doors of the pub (walking on the tracks was absolutely forbidden by railway management!). In the 60’s, when licensing laws were being made less restrictive and lounge bars more recreational, the then charge hand (I think his name was Archie) went to the Costa Brava on holiday with his wife. When he returned, he had the whizz of an idea to rename the lounge “The El Toro”, and hang up fake matador swords, cloaks, and cameos of bulls and picadors. It went down fairly well with the regulars.