The Inns & Taverns of Old Glasgow

From Glasgow Cross, the streets of old Glasgow spread out like the strands of a spider's web; heading east along the Gallowgate towards the East Port; south down Saltmarket to the River Clyde; east along Trongate and Argyle Street in the direction the city was spreading; and north up the High Street towards the Bishop's Castle and the cathedral. This was the old Glasgow, its streets lined with quaint medieval buildings whose architecture was at one time compared favourably with the more fashionable towns and cities of England. And in those streets, closes, wynds and back courts sat any number of inns and taverns, some frequented by famous travellers of the day, like Robert Burns and James Boswell. Inns like the Saracen's Head Inn, the Black Bull, the Buck's Head and The Star, along with taverns with quaint olde worlde names like The Sun, The Goose, The Anchor and the Black Boy. But then the Industrial Revolution arrived and Glasgow's population grew. The backlands that sat behind the main thoroughfares become overcrowed. The resultant increase in insanitary conditions and criminal activity meant that the city's fathers had to take action. Those slums had to go. But it wasn't just the slums. The city improvements that sought to tackle these issues in the 1870s and 1890s saw vast areas of Glasgow, in the streets in and around The Cross, more or less raised to the ground. And with this blanket demolition the character of old Glasgow had gone. No more would these streets rival the streets in places like Edinburgh's old town. The city's medieval character was obliterated, along with all the inns and taverns that were part and parcel of Glasgow. In this video we explore the streets and wynds of Glasgow, and examine how things were in the old days, before the upheaval of city improvements. And in doing so we discover a few pockets of the old city that have managed to survive.