Talk about a transformation. When Groucho St Judes opened on Bath Street in 1999 it was the epitome of cool. The trio that was Paul Wingate, Bobby Paterson and Mary Wan put the Glasgow version of the London club firmly on the map. Over the years it had a few incarnations first as St Judes/Mamasan and most lately as the Liquor Store. But now another trio Paul Hislop, Brendan Hegarty and Richard Cook are aiming to put Saint Judes firmly back on the map. They have given the building, that housed the former bar and club, a complete make-over and created an upbeat funky looking bar and restaurant, two function rooms and Lola’s, an uber cool nightclub.
Paul and Brendan already own Sugar Cube in Glasgow’s Queen Street, and Richard has come on board as a partner with the new venue, having worked for the duo at Sugar Cube. Their first venture into the nightclub business thou’ was at Boho in Glasgow’s west end, which they sold a few years ago.
Says Brendan, “We had been looking for a new place for a while. We met with Brad Stevens who had the lease, and he told us he wanted to concentrate on Soba. We had always loved Bath Street. It had a crowd we wanted to tap into, which is different from our Sugar Cube crowd. When we moved from Boho to Sugar Cube our punters came with us, but we didn’t want that to happen here. There’s also a lot of good operators on Bath Street who we have a good relationship with, and we feel we are bringing something new to the party.”
Brendan continues, “We don’t really do subtle – it’s not really in our remit. It was important that we did something different here, and that’s why we brought a designer from Edinburgh in N8. However we have always been quite strong with our own ideas, for instance Sugar Cube we did ourselves. Luckily the deisgner was open to our suggestions too. The key thing was that the building was very disjointed and we wanted it to have a flow, and the areas had to work together as a multi-purpose venue.”
Paul says, “We went to London a few times and saw a definite trend towards reclaimed wood, coppers, back to brick and stone, but lots of modern touches too.”
The very first thing that strikes you when you come up the stairs to the building is the pink upholstered rickshaw that graces the entrance hallway. Says General Manager Richard Cook, “We saw it on ebay, and had to send someone down to London to get it. Then we re-upholstered it.” Explains Brendan, “We’ve always had a feature in our venues that allows people take photographs and put them on social media – people know where they are.” Paul adds, “It’s subliminal marketing for us. For instance in Boho we had the cage, in Sugar Cube the bed and now here we have a rickshaw.”
That’s not all they have. The bar, which is on the ground floor, is very bright and funky, and unlike Sugar Cube it opens throughout the day and does food. Paul comments, “The food side of things is something I was interested in getting back into. Both Richard and I have worked for Donald MacLeod and I used to run one of his restaurants. We realised how massive food now is and all three of us were keen to get in to it, and add another string to our bow. We have a great chef who is doing some innovative dishes, small plates and sharing plates.”
The most striking feature of the main bar are the colours – think purple, bright yellow, bright pink, orange… and of course the round booths which are fixed to the wall – they look like giant ends of a wooden barrell, with a brightly coloured upholstered back and matching seat which is within the round frame. Another great photo opportunity for customers. They were specially made by a cabinet maker who also did the bespoke wooden tables and the other cabinet work. The cabinet work is all made of reclaimed woods, the walls are also panelled with reclaimed wood, and there is an eye height mirror which runs above the banquette, which not only reflects the light, but the giant lampshades especially created by Wired. Says Brendan, “We took our ideas to Maureen at Wired and she came back with these fabulous lights. The bar is in the same place, but we cut the size down. It too has a copper top but the gantry was already here. We liked it so decided to keep it.”
The design is more more subtle upstairs in the private function rooms. But some of the key elements such as the barrel-like booths have been incorporated this time with a bright yellow centre. The bar itself is made of concrete which has been brushed down with steel wool. Says Paul, “We took the business over in January and ran it for a while to see what the business was like. We were amazed by the amount of functions that were booked in.”
However as Brendan points out, the toilet facilities were appalling. In fact he tells me that the toilets throughout the building were a disaster. Now that issue has been addressed. He says, “We have created toilets on each floor – now if you book a function in one of our rooms you have your own toilet and your own bar area. The only reason you have to go outside is to smoke. I think we have done them all to a good standard and both rooms have Karoake facilities. We can also serve food upstairs too.”
Says Richard, “We underestimated how much business there was out there. We are already fully booked for Halloween weekend, and every weekend in September was booked out too. The great thing is that the whole place now flows. For instance if you want to have a private function you can. We are licensed till 1am in the bar and in the functions suites, and after that if you want to go down to the club you can.”
And that brings us nicely to the club which is in the basement (which was formerly the Groucho St Judes bar). You enter from Bath Street, and there is outside seating here which creates a mini smoking area. Inside the club, the walls, which were all plastered, have now been exposed and the stonework repointed. The bar is situated to the left as you enter and there is a very striking picture of ‘Lola’ behind the bar, with the most amazing piercing eyes. Explains Brendan, “We bought the image and got our designers to bring the eyes out, while Wired have backlit the image so that it really stands out.”
There are booths along the right hand side of the club, but booths not as perhaps we know it. They have used octaganol cubes which can be fitted together to create smaller or larger areas. Says Paul, “We wanted to do something different with the seating. We wanted to be able to create smaller booths or bigger booths and with this arrangement they can be any size.”
Brendan continues, “This is very much a party venue. And we have used clever lighting, lots of LEDs and a good sound system. We didn’t want sparkly wallpaper, but we do bring in a bit of smokiness throughout the night to create atmosphere. This is not too serious a club. It has been created to appeal to 20 year olds and 50 year olds, it’s not pretentious. It is more about encouraging our customers to have a good laugh. We have also put a large booth which can seat more than 15 people, behind the DJ box, which allows the folk in the booth to be part of the DJ experience.”
There is no doubt about it, Saint Judes certainly brightens up Bath Street. They said they wanted a venue that was both energetic and funky – it is certainly that.
SAINT JUDES
190 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 4HG