A Celebration of Scottish Pub Heritage
|
Regional Guide Index, Introduction, Pub Guide, Map Guide, Guides to print | ||||||||||||||||||
|
Scotland’s Real Heritage Pubs is a guide to a splendidly varied collection of pubs with the best and most interesting interiors in the whole of Scotland. It is CAMRA’s pioneering initiative to bring greater appreciation of the most valuable historic pub interiors in the country to both local people and tourists. Although Scotland has over 4,000 public houses, this guide lists just 115. There are so few because of the enormous amount of opening out, theming and general modernisation that has taken place in recent decades. Safeguarding what is now left of the country’s pub heritage has become a serious conservation challenge. By publishing this guide, we aim to encourage owners and local authorities to take steps to ensure these establishments remain genuine historic pubs for years to come
This guide develops work started by CAMRA in the early 1990s to identify those pubs in the United Kingdom that still retained their historic interiors more or less intact. The work resulted in the National Inventory of Pub Interiors of Outstanding Historic Interest, an up-to-date edition of which is printed in the annual Good Beer Guide. Out of a total of 254 pubs listed in the current inventory, 32 are in Scotland (identified in this guide by {solid star symbol}. The pubs included here are very largely as they were before the mid-1960s (when the orgy of pub refitting and opening out began) or, if they have been expanded, this has been done sensitively and without destroying the historic heart. The survival of multiple rooms and old furnishings and fittings has been crucial to the selection. Features of Scottish PubsTenements: One of the most distinctive exterior features of thousands of Scottish pubs and also the most noticeable difference between them and pubs in other parts of the UK is that they occupy the ground floors of tenement blocks of flats alongside a variety of shops. Tenements are Scotland’s dominant style of urban house building in the European tradition, compared to England, Wales and Ireland where the main style is the terraced house. This means that many Scottish pubs are often little different from adjacent shop-fronts, while pubs in other parts of the UK tend to be the only building on the plot, whether freestanding or part of a terrace. In Scotland, most pubs in do not have living accommodation for licensees, due to early 20th-century legislation that made Sunday opening illegal. As a result, pubs were known as ‘lock-ups’.
Island Serving Counters: Up until the 1880s, pubs in Scottish towns and cities had small bar rooms and a number of other sitting rooms, similar to pubs in other parts of the UK. In their classic book People’s Palaces about the pubs of Scotland in the Victorian and Edwardian era, Rudolph Kenna and Anthony Mooney state that these old-time pubs were proving unacceptable to the licensing magistrates of Glasgow and other Scottish towns and cities, who claimed the publican and his assistants were unable to exercise overall supervision over their customers. From 1885 to the early 1900s, many of these pubs were consequently remodelled to create a spacious and often lofty room with a large island serving counter, usually oval in shape but sometimes circular, elongated oval, square or even octagonal, and an ornately carved central fitment holding mainly casks of whisky and occasionally other spirits. Most pubs were designed for stand-up drinking, but some sitting rooms, as they are known, were provided, usually at the front of the pub, and well lit to meet the approval of the authorities. The first two plans below show the layout of the Blane Valley (Change House) in Glasgow before (left) and after (right) alterations in 1887. Here, a U-shaped bar counter has been chosen.
More common was the island bar situated in the centre of the room as the plan three of MacSorley’s, Glasgow shows.
Note there is a separate luncheon bar (one still exists at the Abbotsford, Edinburgh), but no sitting rooms and a limited amount of seating - stand-up drinking was the norm.
There are a number of pubs with island serving counters featured in this guide, the finest being the Horseshoe Bar, Glasgow, where the counter is an elongated horseshoe shape some 32 metres (104 feet) in circumference. According to the Guinness Book of Records, it is the longest pub bar counter in the whole of the UK. The Railway Tavern, Shettleston, on the east side of Glasgow, is the most intact of the island bar style of pub: it has retained two sitting rooms and, even more remarkably, an intact family department (off-sales). Other pubs with central counters of significance from late Victorian and Edwardian times are Pittodrie Bar, Aberdeen; Kenilworth, Edinburgh; and Phoenix, Inverness. A popular variation of the island style is the U-shaped serving counter protruding from a wall, as seen at Market Inn, Ayr and Central Bar, Renton. Later examples of note can be seen at Prestoungrange Gothenburg, Prestonpans; examples from the 1930s are at Lang’s Bar, Paisley; and Portland Arms, Shettleston. At the Railway, West Calder, and the Woodside, Falkirk, the area for the staff is about the same size as the U-shaped area around the bar for drinkers. The huge island serving counters in Fanny by Gaslight, Kilmarnock; Town Arms, Selkirk; and Prince of Wales, Port Glasgow, have been shortened in recent times to increase the drinking space. Ornate Gantry with Spirit Casks: From the 1890s, a number of pubs were refitted with a straight bar counter and an ornate carved fitting behind, holding polished spirit casks, and decorated with mirrored centre-pieces, often advertising brewery or distillery products. This fitting is known as a ‘gantry’, derived from ‘gantress’ or ‘gauntress’, old Scots words to describe a wooden stand for casks, which you will find mounted both vertically and on their sides. A number of examples of gantries can also be found in Ireland, which, like Scotland, has a long history of spirit drinking.
The finest example of this style of pub is the Old Toll Bar, Glasgow, which has ornate mirrors extolling the virtues of spirits. Other ornate gantries complete with spirit casks can be found at Bennet’s Bar, Tollcross, Edinburgh and the Volunteer Arms (Staggs), Musselburgh. There is also one from the 1920s at Auldhouse Arms, Auldhouse, South Lanarkshire. Ornate gantries which have lost their spirit casks can be found at the Camphill Vaults, Bothwell and the Douglas Arms Hotel, Banchory. Other pubs with ornate gantries include the Tay Bridge Bar, Dundee, incorporating a fine mirror; the Rowan Tree, Uddingston with two glazed cigar cabinets; and another from 1926 at the Grill, Aberdeen.
In the past, whisky was brought from the distillery in bulk and blended on the premises, with the finished blend transferred from pub cellars using a water engine to the barrels on the gantry ready to be served. Whilst in most pubs this practice generally ceased in the interwar period, there is just one pub in Scotland where you can still get a ‘Dram from the cask’. At the Old Wine Store, Shotts, the blender William Morton supplied its blend in bulk until recently and the no. 3 barrel is still used for serving whisky but now it is topped-up once a fortnight by the landlord.
|
Pub room namesSitting Room: Not all Scottish pubs are single spaces. There are many that retain separate rooms termed ‘sitting rooms’; where they are very small, we refer to them as ‘snugs’. These rooms point up the contrast between respectable seated drinking that would take place therein, as opposed to the ‘stand-up drinking’ to be expected in the rest of the premises. Good examples are at the Steps, Glasgow; Clep, Dundee; and the Portland Arms, Shettleston, where there are no fewer than four of them. Occasionally, these rooms can be called ‘private’ as can be seen in the door glass at Athletic Arms (‘Diggers’), Edinburgh, but, sadly, the room division here was removed recently. In the Crown, Arbroath, one room has ‘Private Parlour’ on the door.
Ladies’ Room / Ladies’ Snug: Pubs in Scottish cities and towns were overwhelmingly male-dominated and, indeed, a handful of them, most notably the Grill and the Bridge Bar in Aberdeen, remained ‘men-only’ until the Sex Discrimination Act became law on 1st January 1976. Up to recently, the Imperial Bar, Wishaw, still continued the practice of allowing only men into the bar, while women used the ‘ladies’ snug’ on the right of the entrance porch. It is predominately women that still use the snug in the Ritz, Cambuslang, south of Glasgow.
Family Department: There still exist a number of the tiny rooms, or booths, where drink was bought for consumption off the premises: the purchasers were often women, even children, who were sent down to the pub to collect the family supplies. One of the best examples is at Bennet’s Bar, Edinburgh, where it is called ‘Jug and Bottle’, so named, of course, after the vessels used to take home the chosen liquids. Other intact examples can be found at the Prestoungrange Gothenburg, Prestonpans, where it is called Jug Bar; Portland Arms, Shettleston, where it is called family department; and the Harbour Bar, Kirkcaldy. There is a very late one dating from the 1960s at the Laurieston Bar, Glasgow, the decade when people began to stop using the pub for take-home supplies.
Office: A less frequently seen room is the owner’s or manager’s office, as shown on the plan of MacSorley’s (see above). There are surviving examples still in use by staff at the Old Toll Bar, Glasgow, which retains its original colourful glass panel, and the Links Tavern, Edinburgh. The office at the Red Lion, Kelso, is accessed through the fifth bay of the gantry, and there is a modernised one within the counter of the Horseshoe Bar, Glasgow. At Lang’s, Paisley, the office was situated between the two front doors but, in recent years, it has been converted into a snug. The tiny office at the Portland Arms is now used as a cleaners cupboard. Other Scottish Pubs FeaturesBrewery and Whisky Mirrors: Many Scottish (and Irish) bars are embellished with old mirrors, usually advertising long-vanished spirits and breweries/beers, as well as soft drinks and occasionally tobacco products. Some, like those at the Pittodrie Bar, Aberdeen; Barony Bar, Edinburgh; and Old Toll Bar, Glasgow, are of truly epic size.
Another way of advertising brewery and other products in Scottish pubs is with screens set at eye level in the front windows. Good examples can be seen at the Dalhousie, Brechin; Woodside, Falkirk; and Queens Head, Hawick. At the Town Arms, Selkirk, there are two metal screens advertising Drybrough Ales.
Bell-pushes: You will quite frequently spot bell-pushes on the walls of Scottish pubs, especially in sitting rooms. They are a reminder of the once-common practice of table service. When the bell was rung it triggered an indicator in a bell-box that was visible to bar staff. This tradition now operates in only a small number of pubs in Scotland.
In the Grapes, Stranraer, table service is still available in two rooms, with the bell-box indicator on a column in the middle of the public bar. Thanks to the working bells, you can also still get table service in the Steps Bar, Glasgow (sitting room); the Clep, Dundee (lounge); and Railway Tavern, Kincardine (right-hand room). On a Saturday evening only, customers in the smoke room at the Viceroy, Paisley Road West, Glasgow, can take advantage of it. At the Village Tavern, Larkhall, some customers still receive table service on a shout of ‘Hoy’! Water Taps on the Bar: Scotland is famous for whisky. Since whisky is the only spirit that can benefit from a little added water, a large number of counter tops had, and some still have, water taps. A few are still in working order, such as those at Bennet’s Bar and Ryrie’s Bar, Edinburgh; Buck Hotel, Langholm, Dumfries & Galloway; and Rowan Tree, Uddingston. Ceramic jugs bearing whisky advertising are to be found on most Scottish bars for customers to add their own water. Some Scots say ‘beer is used to wash the whisky down’, and this is still true in certain areas such as the Highlands and Islands. In Glasgow ‘hauf an’ a hauf pint’ - a half glass of whisky and a half pint of beer, the beer being the chaser – is popular.
Further readingGeoff Brandwood, Andrew Davison & Michael Slaughter, Licensed to Sell: The History and Heritage of the Public House (London, 2004). A modern, well-illustrated and comprehensive survey of pub history, architecture and fittings. Mark Girouard, Victorian Pubs (New Haven and London, 1984). A classic book dealing with pubs in the Victorian era and is of general interest despite dealing mainly with London. Rudolph Kenna & Anthony Mooney, People’s Palaces: Victorian and Edwardian Pubs of Scotland (Edinburgh 1983). A classic book dealing with the pubs of Scotland in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Rudolph Kenna, The Glasgow Pub Companion (Glasgow, 2001). A well-researched guide including the pubs in the city with character. Do you know of other pubs to include?The entries for these guides draw on the accumulated knowledge of CAMRA members and we hope to have identified all the interiors worthy of inclusion. However, with so many pubs across such a vast area, there may be historic examples that have escaped our notice – if you find one, do please let us know. Scotland’s Real Heritage Pubs, like the National Inventory, is an organic document to be kept under constant review and updated in the light of feedback and further research. If you have any updates, comments or suggestions for pubs to include in future editions, please contact us at info.pubheritage@camra.org.uk. |
|||||||||||||||||
