Historic Glasgow Pubs

This walking tour leads you from the heart of the City Centre into the historic Merchant City, exploring Glasgow's legendary traditional pubs, Victorian architecture, and working-class social history.

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1. The Pot Still

The Pot Still features a floor-to-ceiling back bar packed with over seven hundred distinct whiskies. It began as a grocer shop in eighteen sixty-seven, owned by a man named Alexander Galbraith. He sold tea, coffee, and spirits to the…

2. Horseshoe Bar Glasgow

The Horseshoe Bar is defined by a continuous, oval-shaped mahogany bar counter that dominates the ground floor. It stretches around the room, claiming the title of the longest bar in Europe at one hundred and four feet. James Gardner…

3. Sloans

Sloans occupies a narrow, three story building tucked into an alleyway just off Argyle Street, identifiable by the blue-tiled exterior and the ornate, curved entrance arch. Established in seventeen ninety-seven, it operates as the oldest…

4. The Steps Bar

The Steps Bar sits behind a distinctive, curved glass frontage on the corner of Glassford Street. It remains one of the last traditional, working-class pubs in Merchant City, a neighborhood now filled with modern apartments and upscale…

5. Scotia Bar

The Scotia Bar sits on Stockwell Street with a dark green facade and a simple, weathered sign that stands out against the surrounding stone. Established in seventeen ninety-two, it holds the title of the oldest pub in Glasgow. Back in the…

6. Clutha & Victoria Bar

The Clutha Bar is distinguished by a sprawling, brightly painted mural of portraits covering its entire exterior wall. This riverside pub became a focal point for the city following a tragic helicopter crash in twenty thirteen that struck…

7. Babbity Bowster Bar/Restaurant/Hôtel

The stone facade of Babbity Bowster features a carved stone head peering out from above the doorway, a remnant salvaged from an earlier building on this site. This structure dates to seventeen ninety, built as a grand townhouse for a…

8. The Saracen Head

The Saracen Head sits on the Gallowgate, marked by a faded facade that keeps the name alive long after the original coaching inn vanished. In seventeen fifty-five, Robert Foulis opened the first fine art academy in Scotland right here. He…

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Historic Glasgow Pubs | Mira audio tours