Old College Bar

My subject today is the oldest licensed premises in Glasgow - the Old College Bar on High Street. It's just round the corner from the University of Strathclyde, where an £89 million investment in a Technology and Innovation Centre is currently taking shape. I had taken a range of shots of the building site which is at an interesting stage. One building is up but there was lots of activity by men, machines and cranes in the base of the huge pit that has been carved out at the site. (See 1st and 2nd photos in my Blipfolio Built Environment album.) However rounding the corner from the connecting lane, I was struck by the contrast between the hi-tec future and the grimy past, in the shape of the Old College Bar.

I've passed the pub thousands of times as it lies between the train station and the University, but I realised I'd never photographed it. As I raised my camera to take a picture I noticed a chap in the doorway having a drag at his cigarette. How perfect is that! Sadly, Glasgow's reputation for hard drinking, smoking and general ill health is not a myth and is a legacy from the days when heavy industry powered the engine of wealth in the city, bringing with it working masses living in appalling overcrowded tenements. An escape for the men was to go to the pub.

Glasgow had hundreds of pubs but hundreds were pulled down following the City Council's extensive city centre redevelopment programme in the 1950s. The Old College Bar certainly is historic because the original College used to be in High Street but moved to the West End in 1451 to become the University of Glasgow. The pub remains a most basic working man's pub with nothing classy about it at all, and whether this crumbling joint will survive in its current form in the 'brave new world' environment all around is a moot point. But I'm glad I've got a picture in the bag!