The Pourhouse is another coup for Glasgow’s Finnieston area, a neighbourhood with a definite buzz about it. Graham Sutherland’s Urban pub Company are the people behind the new bar opening, employing the design knowhow of Glasgow-based Mast Architecture and Design.
David Stable is the Design Director at Mast. Commenting on what they hoped to achieve with the design, he said, “We went through a series of different design concepts, but in the end we went for something that wasn’t too serious. We have been told that the design is quite feminine which, in hindsight, I suppose is true, although this wasn’t intentional. What I will say is that the bar and servery are a nod to a French patisserie table, and we were also keen to add some graffiti somewhere, which we did with the chairs, and a touch of the unusual, which I think that we achieved with the scaffold planks on the table tops, for example.”
From the outside the pale pastel bluish/grey colour scheme could perhaps be described as feminine. It could also pass for quirky. There is a squirrel statue attached to the front of the building drinking from a beer tap and above the door it says ‘Come Inn’.
Inside, this corner bar on the ground floor benefits from lots of natural light, and the oblong space, as you enter, incorporates a bar right in front of you,and, to the right are three leather banquettes. In front of the bar, and under the wall of windows, right into the corner, are a series of tables and chairs.
Let’s start with the banquettes. They are made from a reddish snakeskin material, which is mottled to the touch. Like the exterior, the interior is made up from various shades of blue and the walls above the banquettes are populated with lots of different types of original and arresting artworks , mirrors and some interesting wall lights. Like the pendant lighting that hangs from the ceiling, the wall lights have black shades with copper insides, which are clustered in sets of three, and come in various shapes and sizes.
And the animal tone, set by the squirrel climbing up the outside of The Pourhouse, is continued inside in both the artwork, with Mere cats, bird boxes fixed to the wall and, of course, the snakeskin banquettes.
The floor has been sanded throughout, matched with off white floor tiles around the foot of the bar, and they compliment the bar very well. It has been made from white wood with a corrugated front at the top, below which is blue panelling, all topped off with a white marble bar top. The back bar continues along similar lines with a white wood back bar unit, complete with a corrugated effect along the top, and spaces below for the optics and the fridges, which are fairly tall units.
The rest of the furniture also provides an interesting talking point. The scaffold plank table tops have been paired with white legs and white chairs. The reclaimed chairs have a classic design, but this has been made to look a little bit funkier with a splash of black paint in a kind of graffiti style. There are also low tables at the opposite end of the bar to the banquettes that have been made using wood and a couple of old suitcases. Next to these are some regency style chairs, which have also been upholstered in snakeskin.
I also have to say that the design has been extremely sympathetic to the buildings original features, like wooden panelling on the walls, and old school cast iron radiators. The colour scheme and its quirkiness certainly give the Pourhouse standout, along a strip where new and refurbished bars are becoming more and more commonplace.
Jason Caddy