The Star Inn

Ingram Street, Glasgow.

The Star Inn.

Ingram Street was laid out in 1781 and named after Archibald Ingram (1699-1770,) a tobacco lord who became Glasgow’s Provost in 1762. The street was originally known as Back Cow Lane.

The Star Inn, in the centre of this row of buildings stretching east along Ingram Street, was the meeting place of the Reform Association, led by Thomas Muir (1765-1799). Muir was charged with sedition and in 1794 was sentenced to be deported to Botony Bay for fourteen years. To the right, along Ingram Street can be seen the steeple of the North west (or Ramshorn) Church, built in 1720 and rebuilt in 1825.

This Inn looked down Glassford Street, and was occupied, in 1795, by Henry Hemmings, previously landlord of the Glasgow Hotel at the corner of Candleriggs and Trongate. Serious repairs had to be made on the City Chambers at the Cross, and the Glasgow Hotel being vacant, it was used for municipal purpose in this year.

During the exciting times of 1820 the Star was the head quarters of Sir Hussey Vivian, one of the ablest and most handsome of cavalry leaders, the then landlady being Mrs Younghusband, who is described as a nice, pretty, clever little woman.